Women + Compassionate Conservatism = GOP Win?

[cbayer]

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/7535/women___compassionate_conservatism___gop_win/

January 29, 2014 9:25am
Post by SARAH POSNER

The State of the Union rebuttal by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), the chair of the House Republican Conference and the highest ranking woman in the Republican House leadership, is being hailed this morning as a return of Republican compassionate conservatism.

Rodgers is the face of Republican pushback on the Democrats' war on women strategy. Last night wasn't the first time that Rodgers has been tapped to counteract the clueless men of her party:

McMorris Rodgers' planned appearance at the [2012 Republican] convention — a revised schedule is expected to be released Sunday — comes as her party is grappling with reverberations over a Missouri Republican Senate candidate's comment about "legitimate rape" and heightened attention to the GOP's anti-abortion stance.

Republicans are expected to adopt a platform opposing abortion without any explicit exemptions. McMorris Rodgers, for her part, supports legal abortions only when a mother's life is threatened, but not for rape or incest.

She and fellow Republicans also have been at odds over issues backed by many women's advocacy groups in the current Congress.

McMorris Rodgers voted with the House Republican majority to defund Planned Parenthood, objected to a tougher pay-parity law and mandatory insurance coverage for birth control, and opposed expanding domestic-violence protection to include gay and lesbian couples.

Rodgers' speech last night was laden with platitudes about God, country, and ecumenical religion; with reminders of her three children and happy, hardworking childhood; and a recounting of how she was the first person in her family to graduate from college, a potent symbol for her theme of the wonders of American opportunity (without the help of the government).

Here are two things Rodgers didn't talk about, which are actually Republican favorite topics: Christianity and sex. There wasn't even a reference to religious freedom, to the Hobby Lobby owners or Little Sisters of the Poor who are facing down the strong arm of an Uncle Sugar. We know she believes the contraception mandate is an infringement of religious freedom, although she wasn't one of the 107 members of Congress signing on to an amicus brief in the Hobby Lobby case yesterday, arguing that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act requires for-profit companies be granted a full exemption from the mandate. It's been a signature issue for her party, and for its religious conservative supporters, combining their disdain for government and reproductive rights in one concise religious freedom talking point. But Rodgers didn't touch it.

more at link

[lapfog_1]

1. "return of compassionate conservatism"

other than an empty catchphrase... when was there EVER compassionate conservatism?

[cbayer]

2. Always been an oxymoron, imo.

Did you catch this rebuttal though?

It was one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen at this level of leadership.

If that's the best they can do, they are in really big trouble.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. she was unwatchably horrible...but still I watched just to see.

Her mouth opened, her lips moved, and out spouted the same endless lies.

Different puppet, different voice, same words. Jindal, Rubio, Bachmann, Daniels - doesn't matter who does these rebuttals. They are a broken record of broken politics and broken "ideas"

[cbayer]

4. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so I did both.

I don't think they could have designed a worse rebuttal if they had tried.