MEMORANDUM
To: Reince Priebus, Chairman, Republican National Committee
re: I beg your pardon, but what?
While it is not quite a Don Young style misfortune, your RedState rant about Planned Parenthood also is not an accidental mistake. The Alaska congressman’s slip of the tongue certainly was unfortunate, but slips happen, everyone chuckles, and it just happens to be really bad timing for the GOP’s effort to improve its standing in minority communities.
Your tantrum, Mr. Priebus, about Planned Parenthood and media conspiracies, however, is no accident; and yet, it is a mistake.
Not once in her testimony did the Planned Parenthood representative say the newborn baby has a right to life. Not once did she say anyone has a duty to care for the child. Whether the living, breathing child survives is up to the adults in the room because, as we now know, Planned Parenthood doesn’t believe the baby has rights.
Planned Parenthood is an organization that receives taxpayer funding, including millions from the federal government. They also enjoy the unwavering support of almost all elected Democrats.
The President, the Senate Majority Leader, the House Democratic Leader, and the Chair of the Democratic National Committee (in whose home state this hearing occurred) made funding Planned Parenthood an issue in the 2012 campaign. They should now all be held to account for that outspoken support. If the media won’t, then voters must ask the pressing questions: Do these Democrats also believe a newborn has no rights? Do they also endorse infanticide?
Certes, ’tis a dramatic presentation. But it is also a bit of a stretch.
Mr. Priebus, your argument depends entirely on inference, and that according to a closed, self-reinforcing worldview that has not served the Republican Party well in recent times. Steve Benen makes the obvious point, which I would hope you take the time to sincerely consider:
And finally, in the larger context, why in the world is Reince Priebus doing this? He and his party took a beating in 2012 over Republican opposition to Planned Parenthood, so in the midst of a rebranding campaign, Priebus wants to focus anew on condemning Planned Parenthood?
This feels a bit like under-the-radar pandering—maybe Priebus wrote this for RedState, as opposed to a mainstream outlet, in the hopes that only the GOP base would see it—but the party chairman is still taking a risk.
When you take a moment to play to the base, to toss some red meat to the lions, that conversation does not necessarily stay quietly within that arena. This is especially true when it is a diary entry at a well-known, closely-scrutinized right-wing talking point factory like RedState. You might as well have published through World Net Daily. That is to say, people are going to notice.
And at a time when the Party is working to recraft its image in order to appear less hostile toward women than its policies really are, it might just be that picking a fight with Planned Parenthood over dubious talking points is not a great idea.
Then again, I could be wrong.
This Is 