A very Blunt amendment-centric episode! How the Blunt amendment brought out the best and worst in American politics. Plus, Monica Potts on anti-feminist “feminists”.

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Jon Stewart vs. the Blunt amendment

Mitt Romney flip-flops

Santorum loses cool

Bernie Sanders stands up for women

Maria Cantwell speaks up for women

Kristen Gillibrand stands up for women

Al Franken stands up for women

Sandra Fluke doesn’t accept Rush Limbaugh’s non-apology

O’Reilly doesn’t think women deserve health care benefits

It’s a very Blunt amendment centric episode of Reality Cast! I’ll be covering the now-dead amendment that was crafted to specifically deny women access to contraception through their insurance, both the way that it really has been an albatross for Republicans and to congratulate those who stood up for women’s rights. Also, Monica Potts will be on to discuss anti-feminist, anti-choice groups that pretend to be feminist.

Jon Stewart dedicated an entire show to the Blunt amendment, and what was really amusing was that he addressed the claims that this has nothing to do with contraception by referencing a letter that a conservative congressman introduced at a piece of evidence.

• daily show *

Of course, before the week was out, the whole “religious liberty” argument had basically withered away as a bunch of right wing pundits started yelling about dirty sluts. They could only keep their true arguments pent up for so long, you know.

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Well, the Blunt amendment died a hasty death in the Senate after Senate Democrats forced the amendment’s authors to try to defend it on the floor of the Senate, which was a fool’s game. The amendment was a foolhardy attempt by conservative forces to make an issue out of the Obama administration requiring insurance companies to cover contraception fully for women. The Blunt amendment would have allowed an employer to block access to any medication or procedure if he disapproved of it, meaning everything from vaccines to blood transfusions to insulin could be imperiled. The amendment died quickly enough, but it was around long enough to become a real thorn in the side of Republican presidential candidates who are beginning to realize they can’t win as long as they’re talking about contraception. If they come out against it, they threaten their standing with most of the public that supports these new regulations. If they come out for it, they threaten their standing with a suddenly radically anti-contraception base that is being fed a constant stream of misogynist blather from Rush Limbaugh. Romney’s behavior reflects this conundrum. He was asked about the Blunt amendment by a journalist in Ohio.

• republican 1 *

This is a sound position that both reflects a rejection of the extremism of the bill and an understanding that one probably won’t get far opposing a service 99% of American women have used and over 60% of Americans believe should be offered to women without a co-pay. A sensible, reality-based position, the sort of thing that would be completely non-controversial in any year but this one. Unfortunately, Romney hung on to this sensible, reality-based position for about an hour before changing course.

• republican 2 *

It’s telling that there’s so much anti-contraception enthusiasm on the right now that Romney changed course that fast. He didn’t even think about it! That’s kind of alarming, especially when you consider that nearly 100% of the people who are clamoring to restrict access to contraception have used contraception themselves. This is probably surprising to outsiders, but those of us who have been doing this work for awhile aren’t surprised. After all, anti-choicers also avail themselves of the right to abortion. There’s a tendency on the right to get so sucked into misogynist blather that they forget it has real-world effects, even on themselves.

Anyway, Romney’s excuse for all this was special.

• republican 3 *

So he’s against state restrictions on contraception, but all for federal ones? Okay. I’m unclear what supposed deep principle that’s attached to, especially since conservatives have always hidden behind “states rights” before. I love how transparent this is, especially since I can safely say that the people who want the federal government to get in between women and their contraception would support states doing the same.

Even Rick Santorum is beginning to feel oppressed by a conundrum, where the anti-contraception beliefs demanded by the base are offensive to anyone outside of the hard right. He just wants the whole thing to go away, and thus lost his temper on a radio host who asked him to talk about it.

• republican 4 *

The phone then cut off, which caused the host to make cracks about how a candidate should, you know, have a phone that doesn’t just dump him during adversarial interviews. The Blunt amendment failed, so it’s possible this controversy will fall away, and spare these two candidates further suffering. But honestly, with Rush Limbaugh and other avid conservative pundits refusing to let go, this issue may not disappear that fast.

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insert interview

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I’ve spent the past few weeks mainly chronicling the increasingly hysterical anti-contraception rhetoric on the right. It’s been a useful exercise; Rush Limbaugh has been dropping sponsors faster than my cat sheds fur. But it’s also a little wearying. So, because I’m taking next week off to attend SXSW, I’m going to leave you on a note of hope and optimism. I’m going to play clips of people who have kicked butt during this entire situation, as a reminder that there area a lot of good people, men and women, who believe in women and believe in women’s rights and are willing to fight for them. So, some shout-outs! Let’s start with the venerable Senator Bernie Sanders.

• good 1 *

While it is true that there are many idiotic women who oppose women’s rights and many great guys like Sen. Sanders who support them, he’s not wrong to think that a full-blown panic over women having basic control over our reproductive systems would not really take off if women had more parity in leadership. Unfortunately, because of the way women are systemically squeezed out of public discourse, I don’t have many clips of female leaders speaking on this, but I do have a couple. Take, Sen. Maria Cantwell, who had some amusement about the fact that the anti-contraception Blunt amendment was attached to a transportation bill.

• good 2 *

I could continue quoting, but literally, the number of attacks on women’s access to basic reproductive health care have been so numerous that it would take too long to quote them all in one clip. So I’ll leave it at that, and ask you instead to check the links on the show notes for this page to watch her entire speech.

Kristen Gillibrand, the senator from New York, also spoke out.

• good 3 *

I just want to take a moment to remind everyone that the debate was over health insurance that belongs to women, because they bought it with their own labor and  money. This is no different than giving your boss control over your checking account.

Senator Al Franken, as usual, was awesome on the subject of the Blunt amendment.

• good 4 *

Rush Limbaugh offered a non-apology to Sandra Fluke and the 99% of American women who use contraception that he called “sluts” and “prostitutes”. Non-apology, because he stuck to his argument that women who use contraception are immoral and irresponsible, but he just said he should have used different words, that is, he should have come up with better euphemisms. To her credit, Fluke didn’t play along and pretend that this non-apology was anything but the nonsense that it is.

• good 5 *

With all the hate and bile towards women pouring out as of late, it can some times be hard to remember there’s a lot of decency and common sense out there. I hope that this segment can give you all some hope. Frankly, we shouldn’t despair. As long as we continue to argue that women are people, that women deserve health care, and that there’s nothing wrong with liking sex, we will win. We just have to keep fighting.

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And now for the Wisdom of Wingnuts, it’s not just Rush Limbaugh edition. Bill O’Reilly was also echoing the claim that pregnancy prevention is not a legitimate use of health care.

• o’reilly *

Yes, I feel entitled to have my health insurance cover my health care. I know, I’m a woman and therefore I’m supposed to give and give and not get anything in return, as far as Bill O’Reilly is concerned. Well, that era is over. Women work hard and give and give of ourselves, and we deserve the right to basic health care. Just like men.