Democratic Congressman: There is No Republican War on Women

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 9, 2012   |   12:24PM   |   Washington, DC

Last week the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties feuded over whether Republicans are engaging in a “war on women” because of their opposition to a mandate the Obama administration handed down requiring religious employers to pay for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions for their employees.

Asked to debate the mandate and the “War on Women” claims pro-abortion Democratic Party chair Debbie Wasserman Schulz made last week, pro-abortion Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, admitted on CNN’s “State of the Union” show that it is “wrong” to use such language regarding opposition to the mandate.

Ralph Reed: “So is it — Congressman, is it similarly wrong, then, for Democrats to say that the Republican Party is engaged in a war on women? Is that wrong?”

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO):  “Yes, that is wrong. And I’ve never said it, not one time.”

Reed:  “Ok, well, then perhaps we could – ”

Rep. Cleaver:  “Mr. Reed, what we need — what we need is for you and me, and I’m willing to do it, I don’t think you would, but when that happens, do what I do. I condemn it. If it’s a Democrat, if it’s my cousin, it’s wrong. And I think we need to stop that. It is damaging the body politic and it’s further separating the people in this country.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in an interviewon Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,”  “If the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars and every mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we’d have problems with caterpillars. It’s a fiction.”

The GOP chairman said the real issue is jobs and the economy and that Democrats and Obama are making up a fictitious war on women to divert attention from the Obama administration’s lack of success in improving either.

“This president hasn’t fulfilled his promises,” Priebus said. “We can do better in this country in regards to jobs and the economy.”

He promised the GOP and the eventual Republican nominee will make their case “to women and everyone in this country.”

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the pro-abortion congresswoman President Barack Obama handpicked to head the Democratic party, shot back, saying, “The jury of women across America have ruled that the Republicans have been unbelievably extreme and out of touch and hyper-focused on cultural issues.”

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