That Komen story from last week came out of nowhere…and now it seems to be gone. I can’t find much about it on news sites today. One way or another, we’ve got to keep the pressure on. I know not everyone likes it when I talk this way, but heads to need to roll. Karen Handel, and preferably Nancy Brinker as well (though that might be a tall order), have to go. If everyone keeps their job, then no one on the right will be rattled by any of this at all.
I think the Komen story is important for two reasons:
(1) We need scalps. The right scares the fuck out of the press (for example) because they got people at NPR fired recently, ended Dan Rather’s career a few years ago, etc. The left needs to scare people too. Nothing scares comfortable people more than the destructions of careers and organizations.
(2) It’s a way of moving the reproductive rights battle from abortion — where Republicans have the upper hand — to cancer screenings, contraceptives, and other places where Democrats can have the upper hand.
So let’s not forget about KomenGate. Keep up the heat anyway you can think of.
Update. Here’s something (h/t many of you):
[A] Komen insider told HuffPost on Sunday that Karen Handel, Komen’s staunchly anti-abortion vice president for public policy, was the main force behind the decision to defund Planned Parenthood and the attempt to make that decision look nonpolitical.“Karen Handel was the prime instigator of this effort, and she herself personally came up with investigation criteria,” the source, who requested anonymity for professional reasons, told HuffPost. “She said, ‘If we just say it’s about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political.'”
Emails between Komen leadership on the day the Planned Parenthood decision was announced, which were reviewed by HuffPost under the condition they not be published, confirm the source’s description of Handel’s sole “authority” in crafting and implementing the Planned Parenthood policy.
Mouse Tolliver
It’s not completely gone yet. HuffPo has some new information about Karen Handel’s role in de-funding Planned Parenthood. A source from inside Komen says she was behind the push to cut funding, and she deliberately created the policy investigation policy so they could say the decision wasn’t political. This was posted late yesterday afternoon.
schrodinger's cat
There seems to be one exception though, the Daily Dish is discussing it. Actually it is the posh Brit’s minions, while he has gone to the mother country for a visit.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
Try this and this for current commentary, as well.
JPL
Nancy Brinker said that Karen Handel wasn’t involved in the decision and now Huffington Post has emails stating she was. Who you gonna believe………….
slag
It’s not going away. There are stories here and very likely scandal. Just keep highlighting those wherever you see them. You know…like ACORN. Only for reals.
Anniecat45
I don’t want Handel and Brinker to leave, only to be replaced by others equally, but less blatantly, noxious. I want them to stay right where they are so that no one can have any possible questions as to what SGK is really about.
As a practical matter Nancy Brinker founded SGK. I can’t imagine she’d allow anyone to be hired for a high level job there whom she did not approve of.
ppcli
Personally, I’d forget the “make someone pay” angle. The organization as a whole was just showing, in a brief moment of honesty prompted by Handel’s pushing too fast, what they are really all about. As we’ve learned as we look closer, it’s an organization that has spent a lot of donor’s money lobbying against meaningful health care reform (“in favor of more of unnamed “private solutions”). It has spent a lot of donors money suing other cancer-fighting organizations. And whether or not one person or another goes, it is not going to stop targeting Planned Parenthood and similar organizations, it’s just going to cover its tracks better, (perhaps slowly strangle rather than cut off all at once).
Just make sure people are clear about the nature of the organization – don’t buy pink ribbon products, don’t run in their races or support them, send your donations directly to PP ( or Sloan-Kettering or any of a number of other organizations) rather than Komen. That is what will hurt.
The main thing we must remember is that the right has shown itself to be relentless, and to never give up the fight, in its campaign against first abortion and birth control methods like the morning after pill that they call abortion, and now birth control. They have long memories, and they will never give up. We have to show equally long memories, and equal stamina in defending what we believe in.
MattF
Komen’s principal assets are their brand and their local organizations– both of these are now badly damaged. The local effects will play out under the radar, but the wealthy suburbanites who are the core Komen constituency know they were lied to and are very unhappy about that. For Komen’s lies, see:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_02/ross_douthat_and_planned_paren035206.php#
Svensker
You’re right, of course, but you distracted me with Richard Thompson and what’s a girl to do?
capt
I’ll never look at a pink ribbon the same way.
It’s like the curtain has been pulled back and exposed a conflicting agenda. The people running (ruining) the foundation are such an odd bunch. As if people with GOP ideology would be really interested in helping the poor? As if.
Cat Lady
Getting them fired isn’t really the goal as far as I care – it’s to stop giving them money and the rest will take care of itself. The strategy should be to let anyone know who asks for donations for The Walk that you won’t be giving them anything. From what I’ve heard, you’re on the hook for what you pledge regardless of what you raise. I really don’t think any amount of PR will convince anyone who’s not a wingnut that they’re going to be a happy PP supporter now. The damage is done.
Teddy's Person
Unfortunately, the MSM has already moved on to the next shiny thing (ohhh nooooo … some British singer flipped off the American public during the Super Bowl). Hopefully, Ari Fleischer’s inevitable fuckups and a steady decline in donations will keep Konan in the news.
ppcli
@ppcli: Just to be clear, when I say “forget the `make someone pay’ angle” I mean – don’t look for individuals to be scapegoats. Recognize that the organization as a whole made this happen, and direct money away from the *organization as a whole*.
And mostly – tell everyone you know about what you’ve learned. I’ve been to a couple of dinner parties just this weekend, where several planned parenthood supporters said something along the lines of “why is Komen still an issue – they backed down, right?” Spread the word energetically about the fact that Komen is as much a Republican political and lobbying organization as it is a cancer charity. Yes, they fund some good research groups. So send money to those research groups! Yes, they contribute to education – so send money to PP that also does that, and doesn’t lobby against health care reform with your money. Make sure everyone you know is aware of this.
lacp
SGK needs to be taken out back and composted. It’s mostly a wingnut scam and won’t be missed.
Nancy
Hit ’em again! Hit ’em again! Harder! Harder! (Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday, wasn’t it?)
I’m sure BJ has readers and commenters in all 50 states (plus that guy in SE Asia and a few Canucks. Let’s keep these issues alive by posting on local blogs. I’ll lead the assault in NW Arkansas. I was going to say “man the barricades, but that implies a defensive position. We have them on the run, even if just a little bit.
slag
@Mouse Tolliver: One of my favorite statements of that article:
Really? How clueless and stupid do you have to be? You made a political decision that was contrary to your initial apolitical decision, and now you’re saying you did it because you didn’t want to be political? Really…the mind boggles. Here’s a suggestion, genius: If you want to be pro-cure, then make decisions that are PRO-CURE, and let the rest of the politics be what they may. Or at the very least, be unapologetically honest about the decisions you make and why. Dumbass.
jibeaux
Genius thinking, right there. You say this woman was in the Bush administration?
Butch
Kos polled the Komen issue and the results really weren’t as strongly negative as I’d like to see. Some of the findings are just bizarre – apparently something around 32 percent of the population claimed to disapprove of breast cancer screening.
Anna Luc
Komen also ended close to $12 million in funding for stem cell research for the cure. if you want to keep this going, look at the entire policy shift. They’ve gone full on right wing. Links:
http://www.care2.com/causes/susan-g-komen-foundation-also-stops-funding-embryonic-stem-cell-research.html
http://open.salon.com/blog/jlroberson/2012/02/03/cut_to_ribbons_komen_foundation_stops_funding_embryonic_stem_cell_research
Gin & Tonic
The fact that internal e-mails are being shown to HuffPo indicates some pretty strong dissension on the board or the very high-level staff. This is good, as it’s the kind of thing that just tends to fester and leak out more and more info.
bodacious
I guess I’m ‘meh’ on the heave-ho idea for Brinker. It’s her club, she gets to decide. What I have always been aghast at is the unfettered access that the organization has had inside multinational corporations, such as the un-named one I work at. Every year, for the past 13, we’ve been shaken down for a few bills. Sometimes, just because we were wearing jeans to work on ‘their’ day. I welcomed the opportunity to fire off a letter to corporate HR requesting we drop the exclusive access SGK has here, and open up to other worthy causes more on a rotating basis. Should have done it A LOT sooner!
scav
@Gin & Tonic: Dissension about past decisions or evidence of real damage below the hull and fightback now in order the save the ship. I’ll take either or both quite happily.
inkadu
Dammit, you all aren’t big enough assholes to be politically effective.
Yes, Komen’s already taken a huge hit to its reputation and fund raising ability. The pink ribbon now stands for every wrongheaded conservative opinion when it comes to women’s health. They are going to lose money and funders and maybe they will limp away and die. And maybe that will be lesson enough.
But let me contrast this event to other conservative witch hunts. In the NPR event, people were fired for saying something to someone that didn’t reflect anything other than their desire to raise money for the organization. In the case of ACORN, they were executed on a pretext — their real crime was registering blacks to vote.
In Komen’s case, the organization has spent at least a DECADE working against women’s and public health behind the scenes. That is at the true core of their organization. If conservatives can make a case against NPR and against Acorn, then I don’t see why we can’t make a case against Komen.
I’d also add there is a significant difference as well, which it makes it less likely any heads will roll: NPR and Acorn cases were supported by the Republican Party. NPR is a cultural enemy of the Right (apparently), and its funding was up for renewal at the time the case broke. NPR was in a fragile state and didn’t need a political shitstorm like this right before a vote. But it was the sound of Republicans sharpening their axes that put the pressure on. Acorn lost its funding not because the Right’s rabble made a noise, but because Republican representatives fucking hate the idea of registered voters and are willing to act on it.
Where are our outraged Democrat representatives? And what are they willing to do? What can they do at all? I think if we want to continue to get rid of Komen, those are questions we should be working on.
SectarianSofa
I’m sick of pink ribbons. I wish other orgs, including PP, could just step up to encourage involvement with and donations to them, both practice and research.
Will the Righties forget so quickly that Komen reversed on them?
@Butch:
Breast cancer screening only makes sense when it makes medical sense, so I’m not sure what the import of a poll on the subject makes? (Not being snarky, I’m literally not sure.)
Jennifer
I’ve seen others suggest that Komen’s 501c3 status should be revoked because they engaged in forwarding a political agenda. This is questionable – there are a lot of groups who support one side or another of issues that have political constituencies and are eligible for 501c3 status. Those who engage in active advocacy for politically-tinged issues generally cannot qualify for c3 status and have to opt for the non-tax-deductible c4 status. The thing that neither c3s or c4s are allowed to do is engage in partisan activity – so groups like Public Citizen, League of Women Voters, etc can do voter registration drives, advocate for campaign finance reform & etc and retain c4 status, because they are not advocating support for any candidate or party. From what we’ve seen so far, Komen stayed within the lines of c3 requirements – they didn’t publicly advocate against abortion, which would push them over the line into c4 status, and they didn’t actively promote any party or candidate which would knock them out of non-profit status altogether. I’m sure all of that was carefully considered before they formulated the “under investigation” smokescreen.
But the mask is off – their associations and sympathies were pretty conclusively shown to be with the right and a lot of ugly information about how much they spend on salaries and how little they spend on their mission was put in the spotlight. I don’t know how much “pressure” needs to be put on them; I think the chickens are all going to come home to roost within the next year as they see corporate sponsorships wither and declines in their Walks and Runs for “the cure”.
Something else I’ve wondered about – once ACA kicks in, won’t all their screening activities (as well as PP’s) become pretty much obsolete? Once we have over 95% of women covered by insurance, they’ll just go to their doctor for screenings and mammogram referrals. Which could be one of the reasons that Komen has (reportedly) been on the side of keeping the status quo in health coverage. It could also be one of the reasons they decided to go full-bore wingnut on PP – it was their last chance to try to kill the group before ACA kicked in and their screening grant became superfluous. They’re going to have a tough time explaining their utility and excusing their fat salaries once this big part of their mission is taken over via wider health insurance coverage.
Garbo
Here’s what I’m doing. I’m emailing their corporate partners and suggesting they transfer their allegiance and donations to non-political supporters of wellcare and screening for all parts of all women.
Jeff Boatright
@bodacious:
Actually, that’s not true. The board can toss her any time they want. She is the founder, not the owner. There is no owner.
sukabi
if that’s the case, ie Handel being the primary pusher of the Komen Planned Parenthood de-fund effort, and the criteria she pushed was ‘investigations’, then it’s important to find out what connections she has with the R’s in congress who pushed for and ultimately launched the investigation she’s using as a blockade.
these things don’t ‘just happen’ fortuitously , they are planned and executed.
SectarianSofa
@inkadu:
I think that in general, PUMA’s and so on aside, Democrats aren’t paranoid or singleminded enough to get on Komen’s case the same way. Not spinelessness so much as temperament.
Garbo
Sorry, forgot link:
Komen Corporate Partners
scav
@SectarianSofa: There are also more than one way to skin a cat than screaming at it in louder & louder volumes or beating it with the same hammer over and over again.
Elizabelle
Time to do a Josh Marshall/Talking Points Memo strategy, and keep an eye out in our communities for local stories about SGK, then share them with the web community.
A la the US Attorneys firings, that got stopped before they got to Patrick Fitzgerald and other targets.
Ask your local papers: what ARE the local affiliates and donors doing?
ETA: and how are PP and other partners in the fight against breast cancer (and other diseases that affect women) doing?
SectarianSofa
@Garbo:
Like it. And strike while the iron is hot.
I think this strategy should be adopted by as many interested parties as possible. (This is one of the cases where I’m unhappy that I’m a social media non-entity.)
Maude
@lacp:
A hazardous waste site, for sure. Won’t use that compost in any yard.
Jenn
Honestly, tearing down Komen isn’t the hill I want to die on. I mean, Brinker founded the damn thing, the odds of her leaving are slim. My deal: I no longer support them, and will encourage others to switch their support to those with better records. Komen is tarnished. What I’d like to see our efforts go to is supporting the charities that actually do it right, and build up their lobbying power, and to pressure elected Dems to put some skin in the game and publicize All Of what PP does, and protect it. IMO, focussing on who stays or goes at Komen is a distraction from more important things.
Dollared
@Jeff Boatright: It’s her club. One of those board members who can “hire and fire” is her useless adult son….
SteveinSC
SGK has one option: Root out the perpetrators or see their money disappear. This family will not purchase SGK-related, donate to, or otherwise support SGK until they come clean. And we will run our mouths to whomever to spread the “good news”. They are fucking toast without an asshole-ectomy.
SectarianSofa
@scav:
Right. I didn’t mean to imply that it was necessarily a flaw. Circumspection and all that. Obama is not W.Bush, and happily so.
handsmile
Laura Barrett, the writer of the HuffPo article linked to in DJG-E’s update above, appeared this morning on CNN’s “Starting Point” program.
She directly and unequivocally used the words “lie” and “liar” in referring to Nancy Brinker’s remarks on Karen Handel’s role in the Planned Parenthood decision. In fact, she repeated those words when pressed by host Soledad O’Brien.
Barrett unflinchingly asserted as well that for the Komen Foundation to regain its creditability or apolitical reputation three things must be done immediately: Handel must be pressured to resign her post; Brinker must publicly apologize for her inaccurate statements; the foundation must commit to making its grant-making more transparent.
No one laughed or called her shrill. So that was refreshing.
But I’m sure you’ll all be very surprised to learn that following Barrett’s appearance, O’Brien and her regular group of punditubbies vigorously agreed that Planned Parenthood was a “powerful and sophisticated political organization.” Mouth-breather Will Cain was shocked, shocked at its thuggishness: “Basically, they’re saying, ‘Support Planned Parenthood or else.” Yes, he really did.
Butch
@SectarianSofa: The specific question asked was “Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screening services?” 32 percent answered unfavorable; I just don’t get that result.
SectarianSofa
@Butch:
OK. I agree. That is a head-scratcher. Poll infiltrated by zombies? Over-thinking the meta-implications of the poll?
Felinious Wench
It’s got to be done by hitting the corporate sponsors. Komen won’t fire her; she fits right in.
I’ve sent hand-written letters that say that until there is change, I will not be buying any products tied to Komen in any way, because I do not have confidence in Komen’s mission to serve ALL women.
And even if she were gone, I still will never buy anything with Komen’s name on it ever again.
kindness
Komen isn’t toast but I suspect it will grope onward with a distinctively smaller budget.
Talk about idiots. By kicking the hornet’s nest people now know Komen spent most of their money on themselves. Duh!
Tone In DC
@ppcli:
I hadn’t heard about the suing of other cancer-fighting organizations. That alone makes SGK worthy of contempt.
slag
@Jenn:
Well that’s good, because it’s not a hill you could conceivably die on.
Tearing down Komen is all benefit at this point. The only cost in this case is time and effort, so, anyone who cares about women’s health can only gain on this hill. There are other, more altruistic, organizations there to fill in the gaps left behind by Komen.
xian
sounds like crazification factor plus probably 5% idiots
ornery_curmudgeon
“The right scares the fuck out of the press”
No, the Right OWNS the press … why the FUCK CAN’T YOU SEE THAT DougJ?
pseudonymous in nc
The IRS gives c3s a pretty wide berth as long as they’re not blatantly endorsing candidates or spending 99% of their funds on living the high life.
I think the smart strategy is to leave SGK to its own devices. They’re shelling out to Ogilvy PR on quadruple-time for emergency damage control. Everybody who gives a shit about this story knows that their chief in-house lobbyist is a wingnut who puts wingnut political goals ahead of the stated mission.
As MattF said upthread, their assets are the brand and the local orgs: the former is damaged goods, the latter is undermined because the organisation showed a huge amount of disrespect to its core donor and volunteer base.
SGK has done enough to destroy its own credibility over the past week without needing to demand one more push from outside. The smart move might be to look for an alternative umbrella org that isn’t as compromised by this specific clusterfuck, or by the wider issues of pinkwashing.
Violet
@Butch:
Well, 27% of it is explained by the standard rule. That leaves 5% of folks that maybe just don’t like Planned Parenthood because of abortion, and just stopped reading or listening when they heard “Planned Parenthood”.
I wonder if the poll question read: “Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of breast cancer screening services provided by Planned Parenthood?” if the results might change a bit a little bit closer to the 27% crazification factor.
Henry Bayer
This story appears to have it all wrong. Ari Fleischer hired Handel, according to ThinkProgress. The TP story appears to come from someone who also interviewed for the Handel position, and says that Fleischer pushed on Planned Parenthood in the interviews. Ari was the middleman hired by Brinker to keep her hands clean. Handel is the flunky, Brinker is the ideologue. Don’t buy the Handel scapegoating to save Brinker.
Nutella
@pseudonymous in nc:
I’d say keep pushing so they don’t recover from this. Keep up the pressure on corporate partners, local affiliates, and donors with reminders about 1) their lies about the PP defunding, 2) the small percentage of donations that go to research and health care, and 3) that they didn’t back down at all from the defunding. And have a handy list of good charities to offer as an alternative.
pseudonymous in nc
@Nutella:
This may be a quibble, but there’s pushing and there’s leaning. I’m all with leaning on the corporate partners and local affiliates, but I don’t necessarily think “Bring us the head of Karen Handel, stat!” is smart politics, even if that’s standard wingnut practice.
Gretchen
@39handsmile: This whole meme about PP’s thuggishness is making me crazy. Their whole response was “We’re very sorry they decided not to partner with us. We wish we’d been given the opportunity to talk to them about it”. How thuggish is that? It was the donors on Facebook and Twitter that drove the firestorm. It’s the old “you have the right to spend your money as you see fit, and we have the right not to give you any more”. I’m looking forward to seeing how Race for the Cure does this summer – will those cities that previously drew 45,000 runners/walkers do it again? Or will there be a pathetic 400 right-to-lifers?
gwangung
I’d have no problem with local affiliates spinning off and going independent.
JoyceH
Hmm – insider accounts, leaked e-mails. Isn’t it obvious? SGK is going to throw Handel under the bus and assume that will fix everything.
Nuh-uh, folks. You’re the ones who hired her, and you did that after her explicitly anti-Planned Parenthood campaign for governor.
The Powers That Be at SGK think just like Handel – that’s why they made her their VP of PUBLIC POLICY. Now they’ll make her their scapegoat, but that doesn’t mean they’ve had a change of heart.
Exurban Mom
Yup, the update you added seems to indicate the groundwork for firing Handel and blaming the whole dust-up on her.
This is quite typical in a crisis communication setting. Audiences will often associate the negativity with a human who is a part of the group, rather than paint the group as a whole with a broad brush. If SJK works at it a bit, they can prop up Handel as the main instigator and evil-doer, fire her, put out some abject apologies about wrong-headed policies and not wanting to mix politics into the valuable work they are doing, and pray really hard that the public buys it and lets them off the hook.
cynosurescence
Congratulations on your Moore Award nomination, good sir:
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/02/moore-award-nominee.html
Bob2
Congrats on the Moore Award Doug!
“I think the Komen story is important [because] we need scalps. The right scares the fuck out of the press (for example) because they got people at NPR fired recently, ended Dan Rather’s career a few years ago, etc. The left needs to scare people too. Nothing scares comfortable people more than the destructions of careers and organizations,” – DougJarvus Green-Ellis, Balloon Juice, trying to milk what should be an apolitical protest for all it’s worth.
Should be an apolitical protest? Methinks Chris did not pay attention to this story.
Lit3Bolt
Burn, DougJ! You were awarded a Moore Award by a dewy-faced young centrist from The Dish, who thinks fights over women’s health and lady parts in America should be “apolitical.” Considering how naive this intern is about politics, it makes me wonder what basis Sullivan uses to hire these apolitical man-children…
nn
There isn’t much left to discuss until they “reneg” on their “backtracking” and decline to renew PP’s grants. Then the heat comes back on.
Lord Omlette
Congrats on the Moore Award nomination!
Max L
Congrats on the scalp and all that, Ari Fliescher and helmet haired ladies from Texas deserve the scorn. But, it would be better if this story was about cancer, right? I hope, going forward, that this story keeps shining a light on the roaches of cause marketing.
BUT Sullivan has a point,one I agree with, and I am sure it has something to do with him actually being sick (with HIV, right?). I am in my 13th month of cancer treatment. We all know someone who is going through this, and your “scalp” really is a distant second place ribbon.
Bob2
Max L, hoping you get better soon.
Couple points though, It wasn’t Sullivan, but Bodenner that awarded it.
Having followed this story closely, Doug’s point about getting scalps is so people like Karen Handel don’t try something like this again. There’s a position open at Komen for Director of Public Policy now so it seems like she’s being eased out. Handel tried to hide her anti-abortion ploy via a pretense of defunding groups in ongoing investigations and she had to pay a price for it or no one would take it seriously.
I would say he’s fighting back AGAINST people who try to make it not about cancer.
Doug is worried about the constant rightwards shift since the the media cycle tends to be controlled by the right wing due to left wingers giving in to whatever right wing narratives get pushed. There tends to be a huge lack of fight on the left side of the blogsophere.
Max L
Bob2 – I agree with all of that. And I have no issue with DougJ’s post here. It was a great day for squishing the Komen roach, indeed.
But, just to be clear, the real problem with SGK’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood, and the cause of the uproar, was that they brought politics into an activity that should be completely apolitical. So there is some irony, some missing of the point, to then score this all as a political event.
I don’t mean to be defending Sullivan’s vacation replacement team here, just saying that it would be a complete victory, both political and moral, if we keep the light shining on SGK beyond this abortion politics skirmish and onto their repellent, toxic cause marketing scam.