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Laura Bush says that the Republican Party has room for all candidates -- even the ones who "frightened" women with unconventional remarks about rape.

During an interview that aired on Monday, CNN host Erin Burnett asked the former first lady if the Republican Party "has made a mistake in doubling down" and making issues like same sex marriage and abortion central to its platform, which may have contributed to President Barack Obama's re-election in 2012.

"Well, no, I wouldn't say that necessarily," Bush replied. "And every candidate was different, each one of them. There were obviously some examples of candidates that were -- that I think frightened some women, but they were the exception rather than the norm in the party."

"And, you know, all of those social issues are very, very heartfelt by people," she added. "And I understand that. There are differences, and people -- you know, there just will be. And I'm glad that in our party, we have room for all of them."

Bush was most likely referring to remarks made by former Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, who said women could not get pregnant from "legitimate rape," and former Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who suggested that pregnancies from rape were a gift from God. Both Akin and Mourdock lost their elections in 2012.

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From this Friday's Real Time With Bill Maher, Bill's annual election reel, "In Memoriam."

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My reaction to this segment by MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry reminds me a whole lot of how I felt after initially listening to Rep. Jackie Speier's remarks on the House floor, after finally being fed up with listening to her colleagues demonize Planned Parenthood and abortion. It's every bit as brave, honest and powerful and something every one of these anti-woman, anti-abortion zealots ought to have to listen to, after Richard Mourdock's callous remarks about conception via rape being "God's will."

For rape survivors, Mourdock’s remark was an(other) attack on consent:

Dear Mr. Mourdock,

Sometimes I still flinch when I’m touched a certain way, even if it’s the loving embrace of my husband. I can’t stand to watch TV shows where rape is the central plot line. Even some seasons of the year are harder for me. Those of us who are sexual assault survivors call these triggers. We spend our lives — the lives we lead after the attack — avoiding and managing these triggers.

A congressional debate shouldn’t have to come with a trigger warning. But apparently, Richard, yours should. Because in Tuesday’s debate for Indiana’s U.S. Senate seat, you said this Tuesday night during a debate in New Albany, Indiana.

Continue reading »

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Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Sunday insisted that "small brush fires" like former Gov. John Sununu's suggestion that former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed President Barack Obama because he's black were just distractions.

Speaking to CNN last week, Sununu wondered whether Powell's endorsement was "based on issues, or whether he’s got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama."

"I think when you have somebody of your own race that you’re proud of being President of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him," the top Romney surrogate said.

But During a Sunday interview with CNN's Candy Crowley, Priebus dismissed Sununu's comment as a "distraction."

"You want people to be disciplined," the RNC chairman explained. "And obviously if people misspeak and they cause -- for no apparent reason -- small brush fires on their own, that's a distraction. But overall, this is still an election about the economy, about the president's failed broken promises and now we have this issue with Libya."

Crowley also asked Priebus if Republican Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's assertion that pregnancies from rape were "something that God intended to happen" hurt the GOP brand.

"I promise you, people out there are not talking about what Richard Mourdock said," Priebus replied.

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Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, who is now a surrogate for Mitt Romney, on Sunday told President Barack Obama's deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter to "get over it" and stop talking about Republican Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's assertion that pregnancy from rape "is something that God intended to happen."

Speaking to ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Cutter noted that a Des Moines Register editorial endorsing Romney "didn't seem to be based at all in reality" because it claimed the Republican candidate would govern in a bipartisan way and "it's the exact opposite of what he did in Massachusetts."

"Over the course of running for president over these last six years, he's never once stood up to the far extreme right wing," Cutter explained. "Just this past week, we saw it when he wouldn't take down his ad for Richard Mourdock, who had -- it's a now famous comment that it's God's will if a woman gets pregnant through rape. He's not willing to stand up when it matters."

But Gingrich told Stephanopoulos that Mourdock had only said what opponents of abortion had been saying for years.

"If you listen to what Mourdock actually said, he said what virtually every Catholic and every fundamentalist in the country actually believes: life begins at conception," the Romney surrogate shrugged. "This seems to be fixated by the Democrats, but the radical on abortion is Obama, who as a state senator voted three times in favor of allowing doctors to kill babies in the eighth and ninth month who were born having survived late term abortions."

While Stephanopoulos did not push back on Gingrich's claim, several organization have debunked the claim that Obama ever supported a so-called “infanticide” provision in an Illinois measure that would have required doctors to administer medical treatment to fetuses that survived an abortion.

However, the ABC host did press the former House Speaker on whether he agreed with Mourdock that pregnancy through rape is "something God intended to happen."

"He also immediately issued a clarification saying that he was referring to the act of contraception and he condemned rape," Gingrich insisted. "One point of this is nonsense. Every candidate in America that I know condemns rape."

"So, why can't people like Stephanie Cutter get over it? We all condemn rape. Now let's talk about whether we also condemn killing babies in the eighth and ninth month."

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Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson says that voters in his state are going to vote for GOP hopeful Mitt Romney because they are not "at all" concerned about preserving reproductive rights for women.

On Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Johnson why women should vote for Romney after he endorsed Republican Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who recently said that pregnancy from rape "is something that God intended to happen."

"I've had one person at all talk about the abortion issue during this entire campaign," the tea party-backed senator explained. "It's not even an issue here in Wisconsin. I mean, it doesn't even move the radar at all."

"What people are concerned about is -- it is unbelievable how many people came up to me demanding answers on Benghazi," Johnson added. "That's really the question on the table in the last ten days, is what happened in Benghazi."

"Abortion doesn't even show up."

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Actress Tiny Fey was seething on Wednesday as she try to express her outrage at recent comments by several Republican politicians about rape.

"I wish we could have an honest and respectful dialogue about these complicated issues," the comedienne told the Center for Reproductive Rights Inaugural Gala. "But it seems like we can’t right now. And if I have to listen to one more gray-faced man with a two-dollar haircut explain to me what rape is, I’m gonna lose my mind!"

Last month, Republican Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin had asserted that women could not get pregnant through “legitimate rape.” And then Republican Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock claimed on Tuesday that pregnancy from rape “is something that God intended to happen.”

"I watch these guys and I'm like, what is happening? Am I secretary on Mad Men?" Fey said on Wednesday. "What is happening?"

"Todd Akin. Oof. This guy," she continued. "Todd Akin claims that women can’t really get pregnant from a legitimate rape because the body secretes hormones. Now I can’t even finish this sentence without getting dumber; it’s making me dumber when I say it—but it’s something about the body not being able to get pregnant when it’s under physical stress."

"Mr. Akin, I think you are confusing the phrase ‘legitimate rape’ with the phrase ‘competitive gymnastics.’”

(h/t: BuzzFeed)

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In the day after Republican Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said that pregnancy from rape “is something that God intended to happen," the Fox News Channel only covered the scandal for about 2 minutes, even though Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney refused to rescind his endorsement of Mourdock.

“I believe life begins at conception,” Mourdock explained during a debate Tuesday night. “The only exception I have for to have an abortion is in the case of the life of the mother. I struggled with myself for a long time but I came to realize life is that gift from God, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. It is something that God intended to happen.”

The liberal watch dog group Media Matters reviewed coverage on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel and found that Mourdock's comments were almost completely ignored by the conservative network.

"Fox News mentioned the comment twice, devoting just over two minutes of coverage to it," Media Matters' Todd Gregory wrote. "Meanwhile, CNN gave the topic an hour and 20 minutes of coverage and MSNBC covered the topic for 2 hours and 7 minutes."

On the Fox News marquee "straight-news" program Special Report, anchor Bret Baier briefly mentioned Mourdock in a 37-second segment about the presidential race in general. The Fox Report later devoted one minute and 37 seconds to the subject.

By contrast, Raw Story calculated that Special Report alone spent about 23 minutes on the Obama administration's response to September attacks in Libya.

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From this Wednesday evening's The Tonight Show, President Obama went after Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock and his comments about conception from rape being "God's will."

Obama tells Leno: 'Rape is rape':

Asked by host Jay Leno about Mourdock's comments, in which the Indiana state treasurer said during a debate Tuesday evening that "even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that it is something God intended to happen," the president said "rape is rape."

"I don't know how these, come up with these ideas ... rape is rape. It is a crime," the president said. "These various distinctions about rape ... don't make any sense to me."

Mourdock, an Evangelical Christian, says abortion should only be legal when necessary to prevent the death of the mother. He argues it should be illegal in cases of rape and incest. Many who share his faith believe God chooses when conception occurs and that abortion is equivalent to murder.

In a press conference Wednesday, Mourdock accused Democrats of twisting the meaning of his comments.

"I would be less than faithful to my faith if I said anything other than life is precious. I think it is a gift from God. I don't think God would ever want anyone harmed, sexually abused, or raped. I think it's wrong when someone wants to take what I said and twist it," Mourdock said.

The Obama campaign aggressively criticized Mourdock's comments throughout the day Wednesday, and sent an email to female supporters in the evening linking Mourdock to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

"Not surprisingly, Romney is still standing by his endorsement and is refusing to ask that [an ad featuring Mourdock and Romney] be pulled down," deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter wrote in the email. "It's a grim reminder of something he's trying desperately to hide in the final weeks of this election: Romney has campaigned as a severe conservative, supports severely conservative candidates, and would be a severely conservative president -- especially on issues important to women."

The Romney campaign on Wednesday said that the presidential nominee disagreed with Mourdock's comments, but would not ask the Senate candidate to take down an ad featuring Romney.

President Obama also reminded the viewers just what's at stake this election with a couple of Supreme Court nominations potentially in the balance and that keeping organizations like Planned Parenthood funded and allowing women to control their own reproductive rights are not just health issues, but economic and family issues as well.

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As TPM noted, it seems John McCain decided to do his part to keep the Richard Mourdock debacle in the news cycle. After the Romney campaign said they still support Mourdock, McCain threw him under the bus on CNN this Wednesday.

McCain Helps Push Romney’s Mourdock Headaches Into Day Two:

If Mitt Romney was hoping the Richard Mourdock story he’s deeply entwined in would go away fast, he apparently didn’t get the memo to one of his top surrogates.

Just as Democrats and the Obama campaign began amping up their effort to highlight Romney’s ties to Mourdock after the Indiana Senate candidate uttered his claim that pregnancies caused by rape are “something that God intended to happen” — and Romney and the Republicans worked to put the moment behind them — John McCain sat down with CNN to throw a wrench in the Republican effort.

Last week, McCain was in Indiana campaigning for Mourdock, who won the Republican nomination by beating the man McCain backed, veteran Sen. Richard Lugar.

Asked if he’s still backing Mourdock following his rape comments Wednesday, McCain instead backed far away from him.

“It depends on what he does. I think it depends on what he does,” McCain said. McCain said that “if he apologizes and says he misspoke and he was wrong and he asks the people to forgive him,” the Arizona Senator would get behind him again. Read on...

What's so disingenuous about this is, as Blue Texan noted here, Mourdock and his ilk were just saying what they -- and the clear majority of Republicans -- believe. This was more than just some "stupid" remark. It's their policy and part of their party's platform.