President Obama has announced his compromise on the contraception coverage rule (video below). Compromise in this instance is risky by its very nature—you don’t want to anything half-assed when it comes to birth control. Under the compromise, religious employers would not have to offer the free contraceptive coverage to employees... the insurance company would have to. Yes, it’s absurd, but then so is anything that accommodates demands from the conservative fringe. Predictably, conservatives were unhappy. But then conservatives are always unhappy—it’s the only thing that makes them happy. Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski called the compromise “too little, too late.” Too late? This, from an organization that only recently pardoned Galileo for saying the earth revolves around the sun in the year 1600!
The Catholic leaders were looking for a fight. The last time they did that, we got the Crusades. And they were ready for this fight—on the day that the contraceptive decision was announced, Catholic bishops all over the country issued pre-written letters of condemnation. They were ready with their talking points... or preaching points, as the case may be. I wouldn’t be surprised if this all somehow traced back to Frank Luntz. Compromising does give President Obama a chance to look more reasonable than the Republicans. But then the shirtless drunks on the show “Cops” look more reasonable than the Republicans.
It’s CPAC time! If you don’t know what CPAC is, it’s when conservative nutbags gather to reinforce each other’s nutbaggery. CPAC is kind of like a Burning Man festival for people who want to burn witches. The attendees at CPAC don’t like the Republican presidential field. They are very disappointed in their choices. Hello! What do you expect from a gathering where everybody is anti-choice? Mitt Romney is at CPAC trying to prove his conservative credentials to leaders of the far right. But then it’s a daunting task for Mitt Romney to convince human beings in general that he is one of them.
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