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In a heated confrontation on Sunday, lesbian Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen shot down Faith and Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed after he argued that the primary purpose of marriage was procreation.

During a NBC panel discussion about the Supreme Court's decision to consider the federal government's Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Reed suggested that current polls in favor of same sex marriage did not matter because 31 state elections had backed "traditional marriage," while only three had affirmed marriage equality.

"The issue before the country is, do we have a compelling interest in strengthening and supporting the durable, enduring and uniquely complementary and procreative union of a man and a woman?" the conservative activist asked. "And by the way, the reason why is it's better for children, and all the social science shows that."

NBC host David Gregory pointed out that the American Academy of Pediatrics has said that marriage was in the best interest of children living with same sex parents.

"Ralph raises a point that we cannot ignore," Rosen observed. "Which is the rationale that the opposition is putting before the Supreme Court, the only difference between a gay couple and a married straight couple that gets benefits from the federal government is that one has accidental procreation. I think that would be a surprise to a lot of infertile heterosexual couples."

"Well, that's not really a fair characterization," Reed insisted.

"Of course it is," Rosen shot back. "That's the point you just made, which is the point of marriage is procreation. That's not the point of marriage. The point of marriage is love and commitment."

"What I said is the verdict of social science is overwhelming and irrefutable," Reed said, refusing to look at at Rosen, who is a same sex parent. "And that is without regard to straight or gay -- in other words, this applies to one-parent households, it applies to foster homes, it applies to the whole panoply. They have looked at them all, that the enduring, loving, intact biological mother and father is best for children and it's not even a close call. And the only issue before the court is there a social good to that and does the government have a legitimate issue in protecting and strengthening. That's the only issue."

"We're going to dispute on the science," Rosen replied.

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Franklin Graham, the son of Rev. Billy Graham, says that President Barack Obama's re-election is just further evidence that "we've turned our back on God."

In an interview that aired Friday on the ABC Family Channel, CBN's David Brody asked Franklin Graham where the country is going now that a president who approves of same sex marriage will be in office four more years.

Graham explained that the "secularization of America wasn't going to stop" even if Obama had been defeated, but it could have been slowed down.

"That's why we need to get out and vote, and vote for candidates who support moral values," he insisted. "We need someone like a Jerry Falwell to come back and resurrect the Moral Majority movement where you get people that have a moral background who are willing to come together and vote for moral issues that are important to this nation."

"If that would take place, we would see a great change in this country, but our country is in trouble. It’s in trouble spiritually. We’ve turned our back on God."

Franklin Graham also suggested that Mitt Romney lost the election because the "vast majority of evangelicals did not go to the polls."

But a national post-election survey published by the Faith and Freedom Coalition found that a record 27 percent of the electorate in 2012 were evangelical voters. And about 78 percent of white evangelicals cast their ballots for Romney.

"Evangelicals turned out in record numbers and voted as heavily for Mitt Romney yesterday as they did for George W. Bush in 2004," Faith and Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed said in a statement last week. "That is an astonishing outcome that few would have predicted even a few months ago. But Romney underperformed with younger voters and minorities and that in the end made the difference for Obama."

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As Mugsy rightfully noted, it looked like someone spiked Matt Dowd's oatmeal during this Sunday's This Week panel segment. Of course he couldn't do this without the typical Villager qualifications about "both sides" being equally horrible false equivalence for openers, but it was nice to see someone call out the Republicans' utter hypocrisy when carping about the speed of the investigations over the embassy bombing in Libya.

DOWD: George, here this is what I think is what's wrong I think in this system that we have today in which there is no pause button. And there's no time for thoughtfulness on both sides of it. Somebody says something, and we automatically throw everything at them and say, oh, I can't believe they said this. They're horrible. They have bad intentions, they're evil, or what they did. Why don't we have answers and all, that there's no point in time where we can sit back and say calmly, on both sides of the aisle, it happens on both sides.

But I think, let me just say one thing to put this Benghazi thing in context of like, why don't we have answers and where are they -- I worked for President Bush. We had a president and an administration for years made an argument about weapons of mass destruction for years, and now we've lost thousands of lives over an Iraq based on a false assumption and all of that.

This is not - there wasn't two weeks, this was months and months and months of a conversation where we never got the right answer to this. And still today, nobody in the administration at a high enough level...

SUSTEREN; And the point is that our intelligence gathering is bad.

Of course he was interrupted before he could even finish his point by Fox's Greta Van Susteren and that crook Ralph Reed, who ought to be sitting in a jail cell instead of appearing on my television screen, both carrying water for Mittens and basically ignoring what Dowd said. If 9-11 had happened on a Democrat's watch, after seeing these Republicans in action on the Libya debacle, I'm fairly sure they'd have been impeached over it.

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Sadly, Jonah Goldberg has another book to promote, which means he'll surely be popping up for more interviews like the ones that Blue Texan already wrote about here and here. For anyone who would like a reminder of the dishonesty in the last book he wrote, check out Dave Neiwert's post from back when Glenn Beck was still on the air and promoting Goldberg's fraudulent Liberal Fascism: Historians stand up to 'Liberal Fascism' and its abuse of history, while Beck blithely promotes it.

This Friday, Goldberg appeared at Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition conference and although he claimed that he was not there to plug his new book, that's clearly what he was doing during the end of his speech there. I'm assuming a lot of what he said is straight out of his new book, The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas, but someone else who has actually read it will have to let me know, since I'm not in the mood to beat myself upside the head with a hammer attempting to read it or to send him any money. Hearing him talk about it in the interviews or speeches I've seen is bad enough.

I'm no expert on so-called "liberal philosophers" like the ones Goldberg was quoting here, but to this non-expert, his arguments seem completely ridiculous. Feel free to correct me in the comments section because what he said here is so convoluted, I'm having trouble making sense of it, but his basic premise seems to be, here are some things some liberal philosophers said. I'm going to interpret what they said to mean they want man to take the place of God. Man shouldn't have anything to do with government getting involved with policies that protect the least among us, because that's God's place. The lowest person in a society is an unborn fetus, so you can't care about those who are actually born unless you put that unborn fetus first. And President Obama has repeated some things these liberal philosophers have said, therefore he must be a Socialist. And his Life of Julia campaign is very creepy.

For a more honest assessment of President Obama's Life of Julia, here's Steve Benen's take from last month: 'The Life of Julia':

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Ah yes... if we're going to have a discussion about President Obama and his recent announcement that he's "evolved" on the issue of gay marriage, who better to bring on than someone who's had a long history of anti-LGBT bigotry like Pat Buchanan? That's exactly what we got this Monday when Buchanan appeared on Megyn Kelly's show on Fox News, America Live.

Although I can't say some of the other networks are doing much better since I can't seem to get his fellow bigots Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, Ralph Reed or Bishop Harry Jackson, among others, off of my television screen either. It wouldn't bother me so much to have them on if they were actually being challenged on their views, but as Media Matters noted in their post from Sunday, with the exception of Chris Matthews, that generally has not been the case.

Here's now Fox Insider portrayed the interview above: Pat Buchanan: Joe Biden ‘Dragged Barack Obama Out of the Closet’:

Pat Buchanan, who ran against former President George H. W. Bush in 1992 in the GOP primary, joined Megyn Kelly on America Live to talk about possible backlash the president could face.

Buchanan disagrees that President Obama’s public support will help him, saying, “I think that Joe Biden basically dragged Barack Obama out of the closet.” He continued, “I think the president has put his presidency at risk because this is an emotional, cultural, moral issue. And when folks go to the polls the overwhelmingly majority already in 30 states have imposed a ban on homosexual marriage.”

Megyn Kelly recalled Fox News contributor Sally Kohn saying that the vote in North Carolina to ban gay marriage shouldn’t be taken as an indicator of anything because the number of people who turned up to vote was very small. Buchanan responded, “How does that guest of yours explain how it was for example in California in 2008 where Barack Obama was winning in one of the largest margins in history. 52 percent of Californians voted to ban gay marriage, a majority of Hispanics, and 70 percent of African Americans.” [...]

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Declaring that she was not a "witch" did not work for failed Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, but a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday advised presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that his new slogan should be "I am not a bully."

Former Cheney counselor Mary Matalin told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that an incident where Romney was accused of assaulting a gay man in high school "didn't happen" -- even though the candidate does not dispute events depicted in a Washington Post report last week.

Matalin recommend that Romney defend himself with the following campaign ad: "I'm Mitt Romney. I'm running for president of these United States. I am not a bully. That's a politically motivated tactic to distract you and dismiss me. I'm not going to let that happen. I'm going to cross this country talking about my economic plan to get you working again and get the government working for you. I'm Mitt Romney and I approve this message."

The message is similar to an ad that tea party favorite Republican Christine O'Donnell created during her 2010 bid to become a senator from Deleware.

After HBO comedian Bill Maher released a 1990s video clip of O'Donnell admitting she "dabbled into witchcraft," her campaign responded with a high-mocked commercial where she declared, "I am not a witch."

On Sunday, former Christian Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed insisted that The Washington Post's story on Romney's prep school years proved how "desperate they are to tear this guy down."

"What ever you think of him politically, turning around Bain consulting, building Bain Capital -- one of the most respected private equity organizations in the nation -- turning around the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, outstanding job as governor of Massachusetts -- this is the kind of man that you want your daughter to marry, this is the kind of guy that you would want to be a business partner with."

"Here's my concern," Reed continued. "If this is what we're going to do to candidates, George, who's going to want to serve? Who's going to want to put their name on the ballot if they know people are going to be dumpster diving in your high school or prep school."

"I don't think that there's anything new with looking at candidates," Politico's Maggie Haberman pointed out. "I think there has been a complaint among Republicans privately -- Democrats talk about it more openly -- that Mitt Romney has not done much in terms of his own biography and defining himself. He's done it in bits and pieces. He does have a story to tell and if you're not telling it, someone else fills it in."

Current TV host Elliot Spitzer argued that the story of Romney bullying a gay classmate was not relevant because "no one thinks he's mean spirited or a bully."

"I don't think he's a nasty guy," Spitzer opined. "I like him. I don't mind saying that. I think he's a good, decent person with whom I disagree. He's not a bully, therefore this story is out of context."

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Nothing like watching one of the leaders in the Democratic Party step all over one of the few successful talking points the party has managed to have hit home with female voters and the fact that when you look at the way Republicans have been governing, there is little doubt they would like to take women's reproductive rights back to the 1950's. But that's exactly what we got from Congressional Black Caucus chairman Emanuel Cleaver on CNN this Sunday.

I'd like to know where Rep. Cleaver has been while the House has been going after Planned Parenthood and their funding and passing a record number of bills restricting women's access to contraceptive and abortion services. I hope someone like Debbie Wasserman Schultz who was on the same program just before Cleaver has a chat with him about the fact that it's not helpful to be ceding the messaging wars to someone like Ralph Reed of all people and remind him that it's a complete false equivalence to compare the made up "war on religion" that Republicans are constantly harping about as Reed did here, to the actual attempts to roll back women's access to health care and the ability to control their own reproduction.

Now we can look forward to one Republican after another coming on the air and saying "even Emanuel Cleaver admits there's no war on women." Way to go Congressman. Maybe you should take Sen. Lisa Murkowski's advice if you don't feel the attack is real and "go home and talk to your wife and your daughters."

You want to know what's actually "damaging the body politic?" Pretending that Republicans' cruel policies on restricting women's access to health care and treating them like they're too stupid to make decisions about their own reproduction, for the sole purpose of pandering to the religious right, isn't doing real damage to real women and costing actual lives when they're also limiting access to services like cancer screenings.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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Congressman Paul Ryan likes to talk a good game, as he did during this speech at the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition this weekend, where he decries the evils of reliance on government and talks about how he pulled himself up by his own bootstraps as a teen and into his early twenties.

What Ryan conveniently omitted from his speech on this topic is the fact that his family relied on Social Security survivor benefits after his father died of a heart attack when he was 16. If Ryan had his way, that system would be privatized and gone as we know it today.

Ryan attacked President Obama as someone who "is not able to run on his record" when he's the one who's been leading the charge to privatize and dismantle every one of our social safety nets. His speech at Ralph Reed's event was full of fearmongering over what another four years of an Obama administration might bring and Ryan pretending that Republicans have made any sort of good faith efforts to work with him, when anyone that follows how they've governed knows the opposite is true.

This man is the poster child for dismantling Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and for having not a care in the world that his budget is so awful that every Republican who has an ounce of sense ought to be running from him as quickly as possible given the policies he's put forth and how unpopular they are. But Mitt Romney was happy to have his endorsement and praise his leadership during this same event.

All I can say is that the Republicans are counting on the public being completely misinformed and clueless about what either Ryan or Romney have in store for us if they're willing to vote for either of them. Sadly, I cannot say that the corporate media won't do their best to make sure that happens. They all still love Paul Ryan and continually paint him as somehow "brave" or "courageous" or "honest" for wanting to put the screws to the average American while benefiting the wealthiest among us.

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Tea party groups and Republican politicians rallied outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday, urging that the justices declare President Barack Obama's health care reform law unconstitutional.

Group leaders led chants of "Constitution, yes. Socialism, no" and "Real women buy their own birth control" while waiting for speakers to come to the podium.

"Obamacare is a cancer in our government and we're going to rip it out!" Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin told the crowd.

Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed declared that "Obamacare is a dagger aimed at the heart of religious freedom."

"From the taxpayer funding of abortion that is allowed under this legislation that has been extensively documented by the National Right to Life Committee, to the rationing of care by the Independent Payment Advisory Board that would lead to the sequestering across the board of funds under Medicare and ration care to seniors, to the elderly, to the infirmed and to the disabled, to the Obamacare mandate on religious charities that would force them to fund health care services that violates their conscience and that offends their morality and which undermines the teaching of their faith," Reed explained.

In contrast to Reed's claims, proponents of the Affordable Care Act argue that it prohibits federal funds from being used for abortions with the exception of certain cases of rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother as was already permitted by the Hyde Amendment.

Former Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann proclaimed that "This is the day that we have been waiting for!"

"We have not waved the white flag of surrender on socialized medicine!" the Minnesota congresswoman yelled to the crowd. "This is one of the most important, consequential decisions that will ever come before this court. ... We believe that the Constitution means something!"

"If they can tell you, you shall buy health insurance then they can tell you, you must buy a dishwasher," Rep. Steve King (R-IA) warned. "Or you must buy a certain kind of health food, that you can no longer use your light bulbs or eat nice, good, juicy, grade 'A' choice beef anymore. I want the nanny state out of my life!"

President Ronald Reagan's former Solicitor General Charles Fried has said that the conservative argument that the heath care reform law would eventually allow the government to force people to eat broccoli was “totally bogus.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) told the story of a woman in England who had breast cancer and "died because she had government health care."

"We've seen what government health care does to women's health!" he exclaimed. "You're not going to have your privacy rights anymore because the government will have everybody's health care records. Under Obamacare, the federal government knows every single secret about every person's private health. You want the people that control the IRS, the people that use the IRS to also know your deepest private secrets?"

The president of a group called American Commitment acknowledged the pro-health care supporters at the event, who reportedly outnumbered tea party supporters.

"Let's talk about the chants we are hearing!" he shouted. "Let's do a chant that they will all join in because they are too dopey to know not to. We are the 99 percent! We are the 99 percent!"

"Let me tell you what, if you useful idiots love Obamacare so much, you can have it!" he added. "As for the rest of us, we'll take freedom and the United States Constitution."

As the event was wrapping up, a speaker led the group in a final chant of "Obamacare is doom!"

Later after the court heard arguments on the Affordable Care Act's individual health care mandate, many experts noted that Justice Anthony M. Kennedy skepticism signaled that the provision was likely to be struck down.

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Following up on her reporting from last week where Rachel Maddow called Herman Cain a "performance artist and "the practical joke no one is getting", Maddow took us for a little walk down memory lane on the scandal ridden Tim Phillips, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist who all have ties to the Koch brothers and Herman Cain's campaign manager, Mark Block.

Cain's headaches with these charges of sexual harassment or possibly sexual assault after the accusations made today are not the only troubles his campaign is facing by far.

As Rachel reminded us, we recently had Cain the complaints filed against his campaign by CREW, calling himself "the Koch brothers' brother from another mother.":

On Friday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) over allegations that Prosperity USA had illegally funneled donations to the Cain's campaign through Americans for Prosperity. At the time, Prosperity USA, the Wisconsin arm of Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, was operated by Cain campaign manager Mark Block.

"It is not sufficient for the Cain campaign to investigate itself," CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said in a media advisory. "Rather, the FEC -- the federal agency charged with enforcing campaign finance laws -- must look into the matter."

Cain first met Block while working as a speaker for Americans for Prosperity in 2005.

The New York Times has more on the allegations against the Cain campaign here -- Cain to Review Links to a Nonprofit.

With the news that convicted lobbyist just got out of prison and is now out there trying to sell his new book as we just saw during the 60 Minutes interview this weekend, it was nice to see all of them called out properly for just how big of crooks they are.

Rachel reported on Tim Phillips and his ties to Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed back in March of this year and she did a nice job of going back through some of that material in the segment above.

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