Apparently, the GOP would rather have a bunch of conservative anti-feminist women explain to them that they should either keep their mouths shut when asked about abortion in the instances of rape, or keep their responses vague.
SBA List is going to offer Republicans rape sensitivity training, which will consist of learning to respond with “I sympathize with rape victims” whenever they are asked any questions.
That should go over really well. People love it when their elected officials offer canned answers in response to important questions.
[read full post at ABLC]
Cassidy
OH GAWD CROSS POST! In before Ulee, Cacti, etc.
Anyways. Let these clowns keep running their mouths. I want them to explain what legitimate rape is. I want them to show up in neighborhoods with their assault rifles. I want them to tell us exactly what they think. It’s working beautifully.
Baud
Rape is hard.
Xecky Gilchrist
learning to respond with “I sympathize with rape victims” whenever they are asked any questions.
It still won’t work. If there’s a pause, they’ll fill it with “as long as it’s legitimate rape and they weren’t asking for it by wearing one of those short skirts, you know the ones with …gararrragglle”
Roger Moore
Sounds a hell of a lot better than their current responses of “she was asking for it” and “that isn’t legitimate rape”.
ETA: Let’s just hope they can avoid mentioning that the real victims of rape are men who are afraid of being falsely accused.
Eric U.
if they weren’t so evil, I would feel sorry for these people. So many inconsistencies between what they and their base believe and what 73% of Americans consider rational thought, I can’t imagine the problems they have answering any question.
Roger Moore
@efgoldman:
Also, too, let’s not forget that they don’t know when conception is, so they’d better back date it to the moment of ovulation, or maybe a bit before that.
Patricia Kayden
“rape sensitivity training”.
There is such a thing? Wow.
cyntax
You can’t say it won’t be an improvement over what they’ve said in the past.
On a more serious note, I really, really recommend the blog yes means yes for cogent and painfully informative discussions of the topic, in particular the post titled “Meet the Predators.” And for any burners out there, you might be interested to read “A Rape in BlackRock City.” None of it is light reading and some might find it triggering but it’s worth your time.
Cacti
@Cassidy:
Que?
This is my first post today.
Flattered to know that I’m on your mind.
Cacti
As for the OP, Phil Gingrey is the posterboy for the old joke…
Q: What do you call the dumbest guy in his medical school class?
A: Doctor
aimai
@Roger Moore:
You beat me to it. That’s exactly what I was going to say.
Jay
I know the SBA List’s program isn’t the same, but it made me think of my undergrad school’s efforts to educate incoming freshmen about rape during Orientation Week (To be fair, I think my school did a good job, even bringing in the famed speaker Katie Koestner when I was a freshman. What a speech she gave!).
My point is something like this: it’s another low point for the GOP now that one of their interest groups has decided to treat them like college freshmen, but then, to compare this current crop of GOPers to college freshmen would be unfair to college freshmen.
BGinCHI
Fixed for demographic specificity.
Higgs Boson's Mate
That GOP pols require instruction on how to respond to the issue of rape is another example of how deeply they’ve driven their heads up their own asses.
BGinCHI
@efgoldman: I worked the Plains in there. Those rectangles go all the way to the Canadian border!
We need a name for the AZ, UT, ID swath of GOP nutcases.
Anoniminous
Rape isn’t any kind, by any stretch of the imagination, an “important question.” It’s a vicious physical assault.
Pure and Simple.
Woodrowfan
Well, they recently held a discussion on trying to appeal to a more diverse voter base (i.e., the Blahs) in the Burwell Plantation room. Perhaps they’ll hold their meeting on trying to appeal to women in a Hooters…
WereBear
The astonishing fact that they apparently don’t know unless prompted is what really sickens me.
Imani Gandy (ABL)
@Anoniminous: Indeed. The important question being “should rape victims be forced to carry rape babies.”
Calouste
@WereBear:
Well, they don’t know and they don’t understand. Saying “I sympathize with rape victims” is not going to make them understand it any better, to them it is just a mantra that helps ward off evil, in this accusations of insensitivity. And that’s the positive take on it. The negative take is that they damn well know and mean what they said before and that they have to be taught how to hide it.
Calouste
@BGinCHI: Greater Mormonia?
MikeJ
@Anoniminous:
Yes, but talking about rape is important, and questions can be involved. Talking about rape is not a physical assault.
Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)
John Quiggen on Manning and Swartz
http://crookedtimber.org/2013/01/15/obama-should-pardon-aaron-swartz/
Anoniminous
@Imani Gandy (ABL):
You grant me ground I should not have.
What the %@#$^! business is it of mine to weigh in, one way or the other?
As far as the rapist, we have an old New Mexico tradition I would invoke: staking the person out over an ant hill and slathering them with honey. Problem solved.
Roger Moore
@efgoldman:
Objection: cruelty to animals.
Gwangung
@efgoldman: No, they’d get turned on by it.
Villago Delenda Est
@BGinCHI:
“Mountain West”.
Interestingly, to some degree Oregon and Washington east of the Cascades fit in more with those states than they do with the blue areas west of the Cascades (where most of the people in those states live).
BGinCHI
@Calouste: I was thinking Outer Mor(m)onia.
Not sure how it would be pronounced.
Davis X. Machina
@Villago Delenda Est:
Low humidity high stupidity….
Michael G
I’d love it if someone started asking the “rape baby” congressmen “Sir, if your wife was raped, would you raise the baby as your own, or put it up for adoption?”
(Yeah, it would probably be counterproductive, but that’s the kind of jackass I am.)
BGinCHI
@Villago Delenda Est: Agreed, but I didn’t want to put CO in there. Lots of nuts but also lots of progressives. Also home to some of the best beer in the country and the biggest brewing fascists (rhymes with Poors).
ranchandsyrup
@BGinCHI:
The sagedouche rebellion.
Anoniminous
@MikeJ:
With all due respect (and for me that isn’t an inane, vacuous, phrase) I really – really, really, really – do not understand why is it a topic of conversation.
It’s wrong. End of discussion.
Whether a woman who has been raped has an abortion, or not, carries the child to term and raises it or puts it up for adoption is something up to the woman. She is the one who was subjected to brutality, she is the one who needs to decide. There are some issues – put it – here that as men we don’t ‘get’ in any way, shape, or form.
Mike in NC
Oh, the rape sensitivity training stuff will be quickly forgotten when the new Congress is seated and a dozen GOP representatives file articles to impeach Obama for a dozen different insane reasons.
TS
on the politico link
“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.”
On what planet do candidates for congress NOT understand the reality of rape. I guess they have to be taught that “women are people too”. The GOP is regressing back to the time of drowning witches.
The Other Chuck
If these nitwits had any kind of working filter between their lizard brain and their mouth in the first place, they wouldn’t need this crash course in affecting an appearance of sympathy which has the prerequisite of engaging said filter. But hey, golf claps all around for the grifters charging for the course.
RSA
“My name is Todd, and I’m a Republican. It’s been five months since I’ve made a rape comment.”
Full room: “Hi, Todd.”
Jibeaux
When they are asked ANY questions? Like, debt ceiling questions? Okay. Most of them bring it up of their own accord when talking about abortion. They may forget to pull that particular string unless they’re asked about rape.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@RSA:
That won’t work because it has too many steps, it’ll be too complicated for them.
Villago Delenda Est
@efgoldman:
And therein lies the problem. Which is why they keep talking about it. They can’t help themselves. Their totally fucked up asshole invisible sky buddy demands it.
Imani Gandy (ABL)
@Anoniminous:
I’m on board… if you add fire ants.
Anoniminous
@efgoldman:
I don’t care what that amalgamation of intellectually incompetent, drivel spouting, lack-witted goobers & troglodytes say about anything. What I do care about is the political power those fuckwads have but there’s bugger all I can do about it so I don’t let it weigh me down.
Granted, I’m male and over draft age so I’m fortunate.
Anoniminous
@Imani Gandy (ABL):
Fire ants in this neck of the desert are 10,000,000 a penny, “no hay problema,” as we say ’round here; “inga problem” as my ancestors would put it.
the Conster
Every day brings confirmation that every single Republican is a mouth breather. Word by word, action by action, they’re revealing themselves as being stunted, amoral, heartless dumbasses who have nothing to offer anyone, forget about producing a national leader who would command any respect on the world stage.
Keep flying those freak flags, clueless rapenuts.
Sly
In other news, the Frederick Douglas Club, a lobbying group specializing in Voter ID, is telling Republican governors to begin their talking points on the issue with the phrase “of course, no one wants to restrict voting rights for all black people.”
ranchandsyrup
The number appears again:
Cacti
@BGinCHI:
Mormons.
zoot
I know that republicans are stupid as hell, but it is still astounding to see that they are so stupid, so insular, and so ego maniacal that they would need sensitivity training relative to rape.
Its a damn shame that such human wastage as the modern republican exists; what a vile, horrid perversion of the immaculate potential of humans.
The Other Bob
@BGinCHI:
Mormon?
The Other Bob
@The Other Bob:
Oops, bunch of folks beat me to it.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@ranchandsyrup:
I heard today that Tea Party support is at 23%. You know you must really suck when your support is lower than your 27% base.
Petorado
“But” — that will be the SBA List’s undoing. After the consultants go home, the smiles fade from the RNC’s self-satisfied faces of nipping another PR problem in the bud, and as the Republican knuckleheads finish nodding in agreement of how to save their party’s fading reputation, this will all be undone when the first goober goes in front of the klieg lights and says, “I sympathize with rape victims … but …” And then it will be back to their insane highjinks as usual.
ranchandsyrup
Heh. They’re going to try to focus group and rebrand out of this.
Knowing that more than a quarter of people are insane helps me from time to time in meatspace. It’s a catch-all for fucked up situations.
Jamey
I think the only way the GOP can successfully give sensitivity training to their pols is if SBA stands for “STOP BEING ASSHOLES.”
Gloryb
I understand that they had no members of minority groups (just a group of white folks) to moderate the session on how to communicate with other ethnicities.
brantl
It’s worked for them for 30 years; ever heard of Frank Luntz?
brantl
@BGinCHI: Coors is the most flavorless beer I have ever had.
Tone in DC
@Imani Gandy (ABL):
Nah.. Use siafu instead. Or just wait for some rather large vultures to fly by.
Tone in DC
@brantl:
Maybe people are ready to turn down their iPods and actually listen to what’s going on. Like they did when these g00pers tried to restrict voting last November.
Insult people enough, baldly enough, and Luntz and his cronies may not be enough to overcome the response. They weren’t enough last November.