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From this Monday's Andrea Mitchell Reports, Rep. Marsha Blackburn did her part to make sure that the Republican party remains the "stupid party." I don't think remarks like this are going to help them much with making inroads with women and minority voters.

GOP Congresswoman: I Opposed Domestic Violence Bill Because It Protected Too Many Groups:

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Monday openly admitted that she opposed the latest reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) because it included protections for LGBT, Native American, and undocumented victims of domestic violence.

In an appearance on MSNBC, Blackburn pointed out that the latest iteration of the law protects “different groups” and thus dilutes funding for straight, non-Native American women with the proper documentation:

When you start to make this about other things it becomes an “against violence act” and not a targeted focus act… I didn’t like the way it was expanded to include other different groups. What you need is something that is focused specifically to help the shelters and to help out law enforcement, who is trying to work with the crimes that have been committed against women and helping them to stand up.

Domestic violence is domestic violence, period. And there is no way to justify Blackburn’s suggestion that some victims of this violence are more deserving than others. Read on...

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Regardless of the right's continued attacks and insults against activist Sandra Fluke, I for one and happy to see such an articulate and smart young woman speaking out for women and their issues at this year's Democratic National Convention.

As MSNBC's Ed Schultz, who caught up with Fluke on the Monday evening before the convention pointed out, the Republican National Convention wasn't exactly a big hit and didn't move the needle for Republicans with women, or with anyone else for that matter, and he asked Fluke what she thought of their event.

Fluke is exactly right that women don't care about who gets put on the podium at these events. They care about the policies. We didn't hear anything mentioned at the Republican convention about women's health care, equal pay, reproductive rights, or violence against women. We got a vice presidential candidate with an absolutely horrid voting record in that regard and who wants to do things like change the definition of rape. And from the speakers, lots of empty platitudes about how much they love women, but not much else or much evidence to support that assertion when you take a good look at their policies and their platform.

I think we can say that Fluke's presence, among others who will speak as well, proves Bill Kristol's theory wrong that Democrats aren't going to focus on social issues during the rest of this presidential campaign. Schultz gave Fluke a chance to respond to Bill O'Reilly disgusting remarks that the convention was going to drop condoms from the ceiling when Fluke spoke and as usual, she kept it polite and classy with her response. I can't say the same for O'Reilly. He seems to have the maturity of about a 12 year old boy.

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Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's social polices would take the U.S. back to the 1950s.

Speaking to supporters in Keene, New Hampshire, Biden noted that his speech would focus on the economy but he also wanted to make a point about Romney's social and foreign policies.

"We will not go back to the 50s on social policy, to the Cold War on our foreign policy and to the policies of the last administration on our economic policies!" the vice president exclaimed. "We will not do it their way again! We intend to move forward!"

"I haven't even touched on Romney's social policy, either," he explained. "One that says a woman should no longer get to make her own decisions about her body and her health. One that says that it's OK for insurance companies to charge women more for health insurance than men, to count pregnancy as a pre-existing condition. I know this sounds like fiction."

Biden continued: "Ladies and gentlemen, the new Republican Party's attempt to unravel the bipartisan consensus on something that I wrote and I'm proudest of in my whole career, the Violence Against Women Act. The Violence Against Women Act has become part of our popular culture. Businesses, everybody has embraced the notion that a woman has a right to be free of violence an intimidation on the street and in her own home, wherever it is. And these guys in the House just voted down our version, the continuation of the existing Violence Against Women Act. And they cut out big chunks."

"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."

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I'm not sure what's gotten into Chris Matthews' drinking water lately, but we're seeing him be a bit harsher with Republicans who come on his show and just try to spew their talking points unchallenged. Matthews and Rep. Barney Frank grilled right wing bigot Tony Perkins last week over his stance on homosexuality and gay marriage, and this Monday, Matthews got a bit tougher with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers with her playing the role as GOP apologist for her party's continued attacks on women than we saw during his last interview with her.

He challenged her support of the Republican version of the Violence Against Women Act and it was nice to see him end an interview by telling her that her views are going to be pretty hard to swallow with the voters in her district, instead of praising her as one of the new, "great leaders" in her party as he did when she was blaming Democrats for creating "all this war on women stuff" during his interview with her a couple of months ago.

Matthews' other guest was Rep. Gwen Moore, who we posted about here, who is a sponsor of the Democrats' version of the bill, and who laid out very plainly why there should be protections extended to same sex couples, Native Americans and immigrants no matter what their legal status as long as they're cooperating with authorities. I think Moore made a pretty compelling case for why the law should be extended to all of these groups during this segment.

McMorris Rodgers on the other hand, kept attempting to take the debate back to the fact that there are no federal laws legalizing same-sex couples. I was happy to hear Matthews' response to that which was a similar one I might have made myself if asked and basically summed up with this statement when McMorris Rodgers tried to call those protections "a side issue."

MATTHEWS: Well, they`re not side issues if you`re getting beat up by your partner. That`s not a side issue, it`s your life.

Thank you Chris Matthews. I was happy to see him take her on and call her out for the fact that they don't want to protect women against violence because heaven forbid those protections might include groups they want to discriminate against. The GOP has entrenched itself to the point where they are so anti-gay rights and anti-immigrant that they'd rather tank an entire bill that protects women than heaven forbid vote for something which includes those groups and protections for any of them as well. And that in spite of, as Rep. Moore noted, the fact that those recommendations for those protections were made by those in law enforcement, the DOJ and the FBI.

I find it sad and disheartening to listen to the likes of McMorris Rodgers make excuses for her party being on the wrong side of bigotry, sexism, hatred and allowing for violence to escape prosecution if you believe the person the act was committed against is a second class citizen.

I know I should not be surprised by the fact that we've got women willing to make embarrassments of our sex by being willing to vote for issues that harm women as McMorris has done, but it doesn't make me any less disgusted with her ilk. She is doing as much damage to women making strides towards equal rights and protections under the law as hate monger Rush Limbaugh. She's actually worse, because she does it under the guise of pretending most women don't care if other women are abused and giving those claims credence in our corporate media.

Transcript below the fold.

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In a Tuesday speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) was moved to tears as he spoke about the need to pass the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

At the conclusion of his speech, Franken recalled his friends, former Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN) and Sheila Wellstone, who died in a tragic 2002 plane crash.

"Sheila Wellstone isn't with us today," Franken said, his voice cracking. "Sheila and Paul and their daughter, Marsha, were tragically taken from us too soon, but Sheila's example is with us. Her legacy is with us and her words are with us."

Wiping his tears, the Minnesota senator offered the following 1995 quote from Shiela Wellstone:

We really have to look at the values that guide us and that we have to work towards an ethic that respects every individual, to be physically and emotionally safe. That is ultimately what our goal is: to understand that no one, regardless of age, color, gender, background, any other factor, deserves to be physically or emotionally unsafe. We need to do everything we can to respect that safety, and everything that we can to protect it.

In a just society, we pledge to act together to ensure that each individual is safe from harm. In a just society, we support individuals in systems that are working to protect victims and to prevent the violence. In a just society, we support the professionals who are trying to stop the violence. In a just society, we come together with a common goal of making sure that everyone is safe. In a just society - I think we have to say this over and over and over - we are not going to tolerate the violence.

"The VAWA reauthorization bill is another step to a just society as Sheila described it," Franken concluded.

(h/t: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite)