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Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) generated a new round of trouble for himself and his party last week, arguing that Todd Akin's infamous "legitimate rape" remarks were "partly right." Gingrey, a physician-turned-politician, proceeded to make an argument about adrenaline and ovulation, prompting the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to issue a statement explaining, "[T]here is no scientific evidence that adrenaline, experienced in an acute stress situation, has an impact on ovulation."
But there's the larger question of how and why this keeps happening to the Republican Party, which is burdened by so many candidates and officials who say awful things about rape.
Rep. Phil Gingrey's attempts to explain Todd Akin's rape remarks are leaving many Republicans beyond frustrated that a few in their party can't help but insert rape into the already contentious abortion debate.
"This is actually pretty simple. If you're about to talk about rape as anything other than a brutal and horrible crime, stop," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden, who was a senior adviser in Mitt Romney's campaign.
That's sensible advice, though it's worth noting that Republicans have a policy problem: much of the party supports a culture-war agenda that really would require, by government mandate, that women impregnated by rapists carry their pregnancy to term. Madden's suggestion is persuasive, but incomplete.
Marina Ein, whose public relations firm does crisis communications, said the party needs some kind of "sensitivity training" for its candidates if it wants to do better in the next elections.
"It all boils down to whether or not the Republican Party thinks this is a problem," she said. "If they want to make inroads with women, then they need to subject every one of their candidates to sensitivity training -- not to mention reality training."
It's that last part that matters most.
A few days after the 2012 election, conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer said calls for GOP moderation are "nonsense." On social issues, he said, "The problem here for Republicans is not policy but delicacy -- speaking about culturally sensitive and philosophically complex issues with reflection and prudence."
Presumably, with "sensitivity training," GOP candidates could learn "delicacy." But the fact remains that this is a party with a "reality problem."
It can't be spun, rebranded, repackaged, or explained better. Republicans believe impregnated rape victims should not have any choices when it comes to reproductive rights, and the American mainstream strongly disagrees.
The Phil Gingreys of the world will keep offending sensible people everywhere until he and his party change course on a substantive level, not a rhetorical one.
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At least we know the women of Georgia are just a bit safer because this lying lunatic is not practicing Ob/Gyn anymore.
The GOP was betting that American women saying No No No really really meant Yes Yes Yes.
Real GOP Men expect that this is what leadership is about, and that the weaker ones really have a secret desire to be taken control of and dominated. They think that progressives, non whites, and women really want to be screwed.
The persistence of their idiotic framing has to do with their uber masculine self image that leaders are necessarily neo rapist predators. The story they tell themselves is that their victims are just asking for it, and find the role playing exciting.
It's pathetic.
I wonder what his disciplinary file with the State of Georgia looks like? (Every licensed MD has one.)
Of course, standards vary by state... what is sexual harassment elsewhere may just be 'Southern Charm' in Georgia.
BTW, when those without peer-reviewed publications present themselves as experts on matters well outside or contrary to mainstream scientific understanding, be afraid.
Unfortunately, this includes most of Congress.
Be very, very afraid.
It's clear that not all physicians, even gynecologists, understand human anatomy and physiology. Some are just like tradesmen. They may be able to perform the necessary functions to deliver a baby, but don't understand much about "where babies come from."
Along with what Don just said, when Ginrey was making a fool of himself, he based his statements on his advice to women who couldn't get pregnant. He was blaming their problem on constant stress so he told them to just take a couple of drinks and then they would get pregnant once they relaxed. Not only does he show himself to be ignorant about the effects of adrenaline per the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, but he also doesn't understand that constant stress causes a build up of cortisol, not adrenaline, and getting blasted doesn't do any good.
So for Mr. SourKrauthammer, it isn't what Republicans are saying - it's how they're saying it that's wrong.
Charles, you're wrong. It IS what they're saying, no matter how they say it.
"Delicacy," Krauthammer? What's so delicate about rape?
^This
Republicans believe that their platform is infallible and it's their sales pitch that fails when voters rebuke them.
Idiots like Gingrey reflect a growing trend within the GOP to attempt to dust off radical positions like no abortions for rape/incest victims and make them seem reasonable.
They've been re-fighting the same lost battles for 50 years and don't seem capable of moving forward.
"But there's the larger question of how and why this keeps happening.'
They have to change the facts and science to conform to their worldview. The ultimate bubble .
For Republicans , ideology trumps science every time
Bobby Jindal and Frank Luntz have said much the same thing that Krauthammer has, too.
I'm guessing that Luntz is in a focus group right now testing alternative, "friendlier" phrases for these idiots to use in place of the word 'rape', because they've proven they can't simply STOP TALKING ABOUT IT.
Forget rape.
I'm glad we're not building the death star because this guy as an "ob/gyn Kenobi" can deliver plans to destroy it.
I'm just going to go with the notion that these guys can't be that stupid, and they are just appealing to their base, which IS that stupid.
Then again, they think sensitivity is a condom commercial, and they are not interested in knowing about that, either.
While your supposition about what these guys really believe may be true, I suspect that they actually may believe what they say since they come from the same society and gene pool as their constituents. If their constituents believe it, they also may believe it.
Heinlein's Razor Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don't rule out malice.
Delicately stated, my dear, you are and will always remain subject to my whims and desires. Get used to it, because I'm not changing any of my thinking.
Mos' likely y'all been askin' for it, what with sashayin' around in them Daisy Duke's and puttin' that lipstick all over your mouth.
And if not, we wuz mistaken, well, like them Englishers say, just lie back and think of Queen Whatshername!
It IS reality training. Screw the sensitivity. What they are saying is WRONG. They are LYING.
Has anyone else noticed that all these morons are southern morons???
The LA Times noted last week that the majority of House Republicans are now from the South, and that they are the ones who take all the crazy positions (outside of idiots like King, Bachmann and Ryan). The non-Southern Republican congresscritters are mostly "reasonable" (amazing one can think of Peter King as reasonable, but when you compare him to any of the unreconstructed Confederates...). That "Southern" and "Crazy" can go together in one sentence like peas in a pod is not a coincidence.
I suppose it's not too surprising that assault deaths with guns are substantially higher in the South (EZra Graph here). This method of thinning the gene pool requires evolutionary scales of time, and frankly most of us lack that kind of patience.
Voters from the South destroyed the Whig party in the 1850s, and they are doing the same to the successor party to the Whigs. The South was willingly exorcised from the Dem party in 1964 and this tar baby of white reactionary backlash has dwelt in the bosom of the GOP since. The habit started out as the rush from the Southern strategy smack delivered the euphoria of GOP victories through the end of the twentieth century. Now the monkey is riding the GOP's back, driving it to squanders all its political capital on their addictive cocktail of hate and frustration to escape the reality of changing gender and race relationships.
Believing the GOP will wise up about the South is as sane as taking the word of a junkie. They are hell bent on hitting bottom, and our only question is how to not allow them to drag the country down with them.
Their fundamental problem is that they're still stuck in the old dichotomy of "sluts" and "good girls." "Good girls" don't need contraceptives or abortions, and "sluts" deserve to be punished by pregnancy etc.
Rape doesn't fit into that picture (neither, for that matter, do all sorts of medical "things go wrong" situations.)
Given a choice between the comfortable dichotomy and reality regarding rape, they settle on the old standbys: "she was asking for it," and other forms of "it wasn't Legitimate Rape (tm)" so if she got pregnant, she was really a "slut" and "deserved it."
Whether they themselves believe it or not (and until a few years ago, it was a good bet that they didn't) their base absolutely does and what's more, sex is what got them into the Republican Party to begin with and sex is what keeps them voting for the far right. So the candidates can't stop talking about it, and they can't tone it down -- because then they lose their most dedicated supporters.
If they don't go on Bryan Fisher's show from time to time and dish out a heaping serving of slut-shaming, they'll also lose the people who write them big checks -- and who are much more interested in seeing the slut-shaming than they are in electing Republicans.
Somehow this is related to the fact that the most lucrative market for internet porn are the red states. They seem to be schizophrenic.
I'm beginning to think that the teapubs can only talk about sex in this way because it's the only way they can get any and enjoy it.
Can we expand that mental evaluation they are talking about for guns owners to include people seeking elected office?
Sensitivity training will not (1) make these guys more sensitive or (2) make them smarter.
I'm thinking there's really only one solution for the Republican party on this: neutering. Those ol' boys need to be fixed.
Ya cain't fix stupid.
They're not truly stupid in the sense they're congenitally unable to learn. Their problems are different than limitations from birth. That's the uncomfortable reality.
Sensitivity training? Doesn't that suggestion beat all. These conservative guys work hard to be as insensitive to women as they can. Their "religion" teaches them that as men and their betters they must punish the daughters of Eve.
I'd suggest any pr agency contemplating a contract with any Republican look for a tobacco industry client instead. Ms. Marina Ein would never get any respect regarding her professional opinions or her presence by these family values cretins unless she flashed a little flesh and enticed them with a lap dance.
And then they wouldn't pay her what they owed her...just like not raising the debt ceiling.
What type of woman would go to bed with this "freak of nature?"
Sensitivity training does not work on Medieval Minds! -Kevo
This has worked for generations, so if folks think the Republicans are going to refrain from treating thier base like idiots they sure are wrong. If they suddenly started to speak and act reasonably it would shock too many donors.
Yes, rape does need to be talked about - but what these repub guys are doing is basically sending a message to rapists and would-be rapists that it really is all right. That the life you give the girl is sanctioned by God and therefore the action itself is sanctioned by God. Don't these guys have mothers or sisters or favorite aunts? Do they really want to tell them - Never mind that you didn't egg the guy on - if you're pregnant then take it to term because that's what God wants!" What if the woman raped had had a hesterectomy and simply can't get pregnant? Is it considered a legitimate rape then? Oii!
sensitivity training will not help idiots who believe that women are less than men and are property. Reality training will only help if these people can put their delusion, and in many cases their version of their religion, behind them.