If Republicans are truly engaged in a “war on women,” as the Democrats claim, they are fighting it about as well as Gen. Custer did at the Little Bighorn. First they were routed over their objections to contraception. Then they had to defend Rush Limbaugh’s insults of Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke and Ted Nugent’s description of two top Democratic leaders as “varmints.” On top of that, the Republican National Committee chairman is on record drawing a parallel between women and caterpillars, and Democrats have been ambushing Republicans almost daily with topics as varied as mammograms and membership at Augusta.
On Wednesday, the White House staged an event to demand that Republicans stop blocking a renewal of the Violence Against Women Act — and Republicans suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of a title that only a fool or a lunatic would oppose. “The idea that we’re still fighting about this in the Congress, that this is even a debatable issue, is truly sad,” Vice President Biden said in an emotional performance on the White House grounds. It “should just be over in terms of the debate about it. … What are we arguing about?”
Attorney General Eric Holder proclaimed himself equally distraught. “For the life of me, I can’t begin to understand why this is something that is a debate in Congress,” he lamented. “It is inconceivable to me — inconceivable to me — that we are in the process of debate about something that has been so effective.” Their outrage was palpable. Which was particularly impressive because the “debate” over renewing the Violence Against Women Act has been pretty much silent.
The legislation was on the Senate floor Wednesday when Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, rose to speak. “The Postal Reform Act is before us, and it’s my understanding that we have an opportunity here.” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the presiding officer, interrupted. “The Senate is currently considering the motion to proceed on the Violence Against Women Act,” she reminded him. “Oh, sorry,” Durbin said. He then requested permission to talk instead about the postal legislation, which he called “timely.”