Using the word "confusion" when describing Rand Paul seems overly generous to me ~ I have no clue how so many GOP/TPers can walk/talk/dress themselves given their shared basic infantile mentality ~ ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating info in the original ~ Sooz

Paul, the Clintons, and the ‘war on women’
01/27/14 08:45 AM
By Steve Benen


A few too many Republicans have an unfortunate habit when confronted with criticism: they reflexively defect the criticism by attributing the misdeed to Democrats.

When the GOP is criticized for wanting to slash Medicare, for example, they respond, “No, it’s **Democrats** who want to cut Medicare.” They’ve done the same thing on a wide range of other issues, leading Rachel to label this the “I’m rubber, you’re glue” tactic.

But perhaps no issue helps capture the problem with the GOP strategy better than the “war on women. Last year, Republicans began arguing in earnest that they’re not the ones waging a war on women; Democrats are. For proof, Republicans began pointing to specific, individual men embroiled in scandals: Eliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner, and Bob Filner.

Yesterday on “Meet the Press,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) pushed this even further.


Yes, for Rand Paul, Republicans shouldn’t be criticized for waging a war on women because of … the Lewinsky affair.

Note, in the same interview, Paul went on to say that Bill Clinton’s adultery would be relevant if Hillary Clinton runs in 2016 because, as the Kentucky Republican put it, ”This is with regard to the Clintons, and sometimes it’s hard to separate one from the other.”

I wonder if Paul would feel the same way about criticizing him for his father’s activities. One might very well argue, after all, that it’s hard to separate one from the other.

But even putting that aside, what Republicans continue to struggle to understand what the “war on women,” as a political phenomenon, is all about. As we’ve discussed before, when we talk about a “war on women,” we’re talking less about Republican misdeeds towards specific individuals and more about a systemic issue of GOP policymakers pursuing a radical agenda that affects all American women.

Whether Rand Paul understands this or not, at issue here are efforts to restrict reproductive rights, scrap Planned Parenthood, close health clinics that provide important services to women, limiting access to contraception, force medical professionals to lie to women, and force women to undergo medically unnecessary exams for political reasons. In recent years, as Republican politics has become more radicalized, the party has also used inexplicable rhetoric on rape, opposed pay equity laws, and pushed antiquated views on gender roles.

That’s a war on women.

For Rand Paul to see this and effectively respond, “Yeah, but what about that presidential sex scandal from the mid-1990s?” suggests an alarming level of confusion.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/paul-the-clintons-and-the-war-women#break

The GOP/TPers are obviously terrified that Hillary Clinton will run in 2016 ~ and they SHOULD be ~ having said that, while I rarely ever agree with him, Joe Scarborough has always seemed at least marginally rational to me ~ but this idiocy proves me wrong about that ~ ~ Sooz

Joe Scarborough: Lewinski scandal means Hillary can’t fight GOP’s transvaginal probes
By David Edwards
Monday, January 27, 2014 9:33 EST

Conservative MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Monday suggested that possible Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s ability to attack Republicans for anti-women laws — like proposed invasive transvaginal probe abortion laws — had been compromised because her husband had an affair in the 1990s.

Over the weekend, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) had said that former President Bill Clinton was partially responsible for the so-called “war on women” because of his affair with Monica Lewinski. The Kentucky Republican with presidential ambitions asserted that it would be difficult for voters not to blame Hillary Clinton for Bill Clinton’s behavior.

Scarborough, who voted to impeach Bill Clinton, on Monday insisted that he would “never bring that stuff up in a gazillion years.”

“It was such an ugly chapter in our history,” he explained. “It’s just like the Iraq War in 2003. There are just some things, we fought those battles. Let’s let them go.”

“That said,” Scarborough continued. “If Hillary Clinton attacks the Republican Party’s handling of women and treatment of women and disrespect for women and suggests they’re misogynists etc., etc., etc., it does seem to be a fair question to ask right now a few years out, does the media have a responsibility to say, ‘Well, let’s see what happened when you were in the White House and how women were treated when you were in the governor’s mansion and the White House?’ Is that fair?”

“Does this not compromise Hillary Clinton’s ability to bash Republicans as being terrible towards women, misogynists, etc., etc.?”

MSNBC contributor Mark Halperin agreed that the media had a responsibility to question Hillary Clinton’s ability to protect women’s rights.

However, MSNBC host Al Sharpton predicted that the strategy would backfire because Republicans would be “saying women are responsible for the behavior of your husband.”

“I dare the Republicans to take that to her,” Sharpton said. “Because if I’m her, I would dribble, hit the backboard and score a three-pointer from way out. Because she was the wife in this. She was not one I would want to mess with.”

Watch this video from MSNBC’s Morning Joe, broadcast Jan. 27, 2014. [Sooz says video is accessible via the end link]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/27/joe-scarborough-lewinski-scandal-means-hillary-cant-fight-gops-transvaginal-probes/

Joe Scarborough has a role to play as water carrier. He doesn't believe this. He's been married and divorced twice. An aide he was allegedly having an affair with allegedly fainted and died in his congressional office.

Hillary is a sharp cookie. Take this to her and she'd shred them to pieces.

I would think that the last thing Republicans would want to do is raise the ghost of Bill Clinton. His popularity remains immense and steadfast.