Democratic Diva

A reminder that telling them to step it down a notch right now isn’t the same as telling them to moderate their position

19 Mar 2012 10:48 pm
Posted by: Donna

Sen. John McCain is telling the AZ lege to slow their roll on HB2625, the No Slut Pills Unless Your Boss Approves Bill.

The GOP-sponsored bill, which would put some women in the uncomfortable position of having to explain to their boss why they use birth control, already passed in the state House of Representatives and was endorsed by a Senate committee last week. McCain said, however, it has little chance of becoming law.

“I am confident that that legislation will not reach the governor’s desk, and if it did it would be vetoed,” McCain said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It certainly doesn’t reflect, in my view, the majority view of the people of Arizona.”

McCain’s staunch opposition to the contraception measure might be surprising to some, considering that he recently voted for Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt’s similar amendment, calling for employers to deny contraception coverage to women for religious or moral reasons. But when host David Gregory asked McCain whether there is a “war on women” among Republicans, McCain said that Republicans needed to “get off” the issue of birth control and “respect the right of women to make choices.”

“I think we have to fix that,” he said. “There’s a perception out there because of the way that this whole contraception issue played out … We need to get off of that issue. In my view, I think we ought to respect the right of women to make choices in their lives and make that clear and to get back onto what the American people really care about — jobs and the economy.”

John McCain didn’t get to where he is in politics today on the strength of his commitment to women’s rights. He’s basically telling social conservatives to cool the rhetoric down and ixnay the obvious attacks on birth control. His opposition to HB2625 isn’t staunch, it’s strategic. McCain is no stranger to this issue. As the HuffPo piece notes, he voted for the odious Blunt Amendment. In 2008 he was asked about his support for allowing insurers to cover Viagra but not birth control. Then, he feigned masculine reticence toward discussing the ladybusiness:

Wasn’t that adorable? Of course, in his final debate against Barack Obama later that year, McCain was much more forthright in expressing his disdain for women’s “health”, putting it as he did in actual scare quotes.