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We got treated to round two of this Sunday's Meet the Press with the return of Peggy Noonan, E.J. Dionne and Joe Scarborough carrying more water for the Catholic bishops and their attacks on the new health care mandate on this Monday's Morning Joe. I don't agree with Scarborough about much of anything, but even he realizes that if this debate ends up being about contraception and not religious freedom, Republicans are going to lose that fight and he warned House Republicans not to push it too far in going after the new mandate.

Cue Peggy Noonan and another round of pearl clutching.

NOONAN: Let me ask you a question. Do you believe that at this point of this struggle, the White House and the National Abortion Action Rights League, and Planned Parenthood have decided that mischievously and for political gain they will put this whole issue and imbroglio forward as simply a disagreement on contraception? The Catholic Church is trying to take your contraception away from you? Those bad men are trying to mess up with your contraception?

Well that is not what this issue is about. It is not what the struggle and the imbroglio has been about. But I think you are suggesting, tell me if I'm wrong, that the administration for political reasons is going to muck up the waters in that way.

After Scarborough and Dionne pointed out that a lot of the Catholic institutions thought the President's compromise was perfectly reasonable with Dionne explaining that the insurance companies are not going to incur any additional costs because paying for contraceptive coverage actually saves money compared to the costs when women become pregnant, their arguments fell on deaf ears with Noonan.

NOONAN: Well, I'm talking the reality of it and they're going to pass it on to us too.

Completely tone deaf. Republicans have absolutely nothing to run on this year, so they're hoping to turn this into their big wedge issue to get their base riled up in the hopes they turn out at the polls. I'll repeat what I've already said about this, which is good luck with that. There are only so many Noonans and Bachmanns and Palins out there who are willing to throw their fellow females under the bus and then there are the other ninety some percent of us who know this is about reproductive rights and fairness and women having control over their own bodies.

You know, I'd really love to see someone ask Peggy Noonan if she's ever used birth control herself or not. She's a divorcee with one child. If she's so deeply concerned about the Catholic bishops having the right to impose their will on the women among their ranks, does she even follow their teachings? And for that matter, what does she think about the Catholic Church's views on divorce? I'm sure it will be a cold day in hell before one of her fellow Villagers ever asks her about either on the air.

I've really just had it up to here listening to these bloviating hypocrites pretending to take the moral high ground and feigning indignation over this issue and Noonan's been one of the worst offenders.

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From this Monday's The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur and his "Power Panel" of our own managing editor, Tina Dupuy, Michael Shure and Ben Mankiewicz discuss whether the Obama administration made a genius move putting Republicans in a box on the issue of contraception or if they're fumbling their way through and giving too much deference to the Catholic bishops and the likes of Chris Matthews and E.J. Dionne.

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum told CNN's Wolf Blitzer last week that birth control is cheap and therefore should not be covered by insurance plans:

In an interview with CNN on Friday, Santorum also defended his opposition to requiring employers and insurers to cover contraception by asserting that birth control is “inexpensive” and therefore should not be subject to a government mandate -- a claim that, in the backdrop of a fall campaign, could be a target for liberal-leaning groups representing women of modest means or living in poverty. [...]

“This is the federal government using the power of coercion to force an employer to pay for things that are morally objectionable to that employer,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “We're not talking about a $10,000 procedure here. We're talking about something that is an inexpensive drug. And the idea that somehow the government even has to insure this … make(s) a mockery out of the issue of insurance.”

The cost of birth control, Santorum further argued, “is not going to threaten anybody’s financial stability.… This is a president trying to impose his values, rolling over religious liberty, and in the case of the [Catholic] archdiocese, rolling over the freedom of speech.”

This Sunday on Meet the Press, Santorum again denied that refusing to cover the cost of birth control in insurance plans was going to mean that women would be denied access to the drugs and used some hapless Democrats who are scared to death of the Catholic bishops for cover.

Naturally we got no push back from David Gregory telling Santorum that he and anyone else who agrees with him are just dead wrong when they say costs are not a factor in women having access to birth control.

Santorum also repeated these same sort of remarks at CPAC over the weekend and Think Progress has more on that here -- Santorum: Birth Control Is Not Something ‘You Need Insurance For’ Because It Costs ‘Just A Few Dollars’:

Rick Santorum told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this morning that insurance plans shouldn’t cover contraception services because birth control “costs a few dollars” and is only a “minor expense” for women: [...]

In reality, oral contraceptives or “The Pill” range between $35 and $250 for the initial provider visit and the cost of a monthly supply of pills ranges between $15 and $50 a month, which amounts to between $180 and $600 a year depending on woman’s medical coverage. This means some women without insurance coverage for contraception may pay over $850 the first year of their prescription. Other forms of birth control are far more expensive. For instance, the cost for a monthly supply of birth control patches ranges from $15 to $80 dollars, or between $180 and $960 a year. Combined with the doctors visit, uninsured women could spend over $1,200 dollars in the first year.

As I've said before, it really is shameful we're even having this discussion in the year 2012 and if this is really what these people want to run on... again, good luck with that. You're going to need it.

Transcript below the fold.

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In the wake of a controversy over a requirement that religious institutions provide contraceptive coverage, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) now supports a bill that gives any employer the right to exclude any type health service that they find objectionable.

Speaking to CBS host Bob Schieffer on Sunday, McConnell said that he wasn't satisfied with the way that the Obama administration had mandated health insurance companies cover birth control, even though Catholic hospitals and universities will no longer have to provide the services directly.

"The fact that the White House thinks this is about contraception is the whole problem," the Kentucky Republican explained. "This is about freedom of religion. It's right there in the First Amendment. You can't miss it right there in the very First Amendment to our Constitution. And the government doesn't get to decide for religious people what their religious beliefs are."

"The [Catholic] Bishops came back and said they want to push now for stronger legislation to extend this ban on religious institutions having to buy these things," Schieffer noted. "And Sen. [Roy] Blunt from Missouri -- one of your Republican colleagues -- he wants an amendment now that would allow any group that had a moral objection to this to not have to pay for birth control pills. Are you willing to go as far a Sen. Blunt?"

"This issue will not go away until the administration simply backs down," McConnell replied.

Schieffer pressed: "Are you willing to go as far as Sen. Blunt now wants to go and just write in legislation that would ban any group that had just a -- quote -- moral objection, not just a religious group, but just any group. Would you be willing to push that in the Senate?"

"Yeah," McConnell admitted. "If we end up having to overcome the president's opposition by legislation then, of course, I'd be happy to support it and intend to support it. It will be difficult as long as the president is rigid in his view that he gets to decide what somebody else's religion is."

According to the National Women's Law Center, Blunt's amendment (PDF) actually goes a lot farther than contraception, creating a loophole that allows any employer to exclude any health service.

"For example, any corporation whose CEO opposes contraception based on his 'moral convictions' could deny all coverage of contraception or any other service to the company’s employees," the center observed. "Even more disturbing, a CEO’s view of 'morality' could potentially include concern for the cost of a particular benefit. Such broad, undefined refusals (without any protections for the insured) would result in millions of individuals losing vital health service coverage."

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I hate to break it to Peggy Noonan, if there's anyone out there who's taking an "extremist" position, it's the Catholic bishops and those on the right like herself, who are in disagreement with the 98 percent of Catholic women who have used contraception at some point in their lives.

Noonan joins the list of recent lackeys for the Catholic bishops, who are not only out of touch with their own female church members but with the American public in general. She does her best to conflate support for contraceptive services with being in support of abortion, and paints this as some black and white issue with only two sides which don't exist. I guess it's too much for her to grasp that if you don't want women to have abortions, then the first thing you should be supporting is for them to have access to contraception.

As always, what this really comes down to is sex and wanting to make people ashamed for having it. Conservatives can pretend this is about morality or abortion, but it always comes back to them wanting to control people's sex lives. And as far as these Catholic bishops go, when they stop protecting child molesters among their ranks and give women some equal standing in their church hierarchy instead of being second class citizens, maybe they'll have a leg to stand on to tell someone else what they're doing is immoral.

And if Republicans think running on a campaign of not paying for women's birth control is a winner this upcoming election as the Villagers in the corporate media keep trying to tell us it is, bring it on. They're going to see a backlash from this where they don't know what hit them once enough women start to realize they want to move backwards on covering contraception in the year 2012. Peggy Noonan is going to find out those so-called "leftists" in the Democratic base are actually right in the middle of where the rest of the country is at when it comes to the availability and affordability of contraceptives.

Transcript below the fold.

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House Budget Committee Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Sunday said that the Obama's administration move to accommodate the Catholic Church's concerns about covering contraception for women was just an "accounting trick."

The White House said last week that it would change proposed rules requiring religious hospitals and universities to cover birth control, instead mandating that insurance companies provide those services.

"This thing is a distinction without a difference," Ryan told ABC's George Stephanopolous. "It’s an accounting gimmick or a fig leaf. It’s not a compromise. The president's doubled down."

"They're treating our constitutional First Amendment rights as revocable privileges from our government, not as inalienable rights from our creator," he added.

"This is not going to force the Catholic institutions to pay for the coverage," Stephanopoulos noted.

"It's really an accounting trick," Ryan insisted. "It forces the insurance company that they have to pay to do the coverage. So instead of making the institution itself, it forces the insurer -- and a lot of these Catholic institutions are self-insured. And all insurers under this rule must provide these mandated benefits."

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From our friends over at News Hounds, it's not just Karl Rove out there conflating the morning after pill, which is emergency contraception with the abortion drug RU486. Here's Peter Johnson on this Saturday morning's edition of Fox & Friends shilling for the Catholic bishops as well. As Priscilla rightfully noted in her post:

And I can't believe that it's 2012 and we're talking about a woman's right to birth control. The last time I heard this argument was around 1961 when Catholic priests used their pulpits to condemn Planned Parenthood and women who used the sinful birth control pill.("Every Sperm is Sacred!") I was appalled then and I continue to be appalled at how this church uses its power and wealth to try to impose its misogynistic views on all women. And unlike the old days, it has a national news network from which to spread its, IMHO, archaic, misogynistic views. Fox News "fair & balanced" thanks be to Roger Ailes, Fox's "version of God."

Amen to that sister. Go read the whole thing here for a description of Johnson's hackery -- Peter Johnson Jr. Continues Lie That Emergency Contraception Is Abortion Drug.

As Media Matters noted, we've got more of this coming sadly even after the President's compromise on the insurance mandate -- Fox Prepares To Move The Goalposts On Insurance Coverage For Contraception.

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Karl Rove did his best to shamelessly conflate the morning after pill, which is emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy, which is covered by the recent mandate from the Department of Health and Human Services that has the Catholic Church leadership worked into a frenzy, with the abortion drug RU486.

Rove didn't mention either drug by name during this interview with Greta Van Susteren, but it's obvious to that was exactly what he was doing when he falsely stated that a Catholic doctor or hospital is going to be told by the Obama administration that they have to "be willing to commit abortion" under the new mandate. They're not and he knows it.

He's apparently hoping the viewers don't realize that emergency contraception is just that, contraception and does not induce an abortion. Rove is supposed to be some political genius according to the media, but if he and the GOP think dragging us back to the culture wars of the 1960's and attacking women's right to use birth control is somehow a good idea or will win them any gains among the electorate for the next election, I've got news for him. It's going to backfire.

They already don't care if a single minority voter supports the Republican Party after all the race baiting and attacks on the Hispanic population in America we've seen over the last few years. It seems they're determined to make sure there aren't any women left in their party as well.

Transcript of Rove's hackery below the fold.

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After discussing the press conference held earlier in the day with students from Catholic University and other local campuses, held at the National Press Club who wanted to bring attention to the fact that a large number of Catholic universities and hospitals already cover contraception in their health plans, Rachel Maddow responded way too kindly in my opinion, to this:

Fox Pundit Tells CPAC Crowd That Rachel Maddow Is ‘The Best Argument In Favor Of Her Parents Using Contraception’:

In the “closed circuit world on the right,” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is often the subject of ugly denigrations. Whether it’s being mocked for her sexual orientation, her name, or even her education, right-wingers can’t get enough of slamming her.

During a political discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today, Fox News pundit and conservative columnist Cal Thomas continued the ugliness. After the Heritage’s Genevieve Wood played a quote of Maddow eloquently debunking the conservative argument on contraception, Thomas said:

I’m glad that you played the Rachel Maddow clip because I think she is the best argument in favor of her parents using contraception. I would be all for that. And all of the rest of the crowd at MSNBC, too, for that matter.

No one on the panel condemned the comment.

As Rachel noted in her segment, the thing that has Republican's in an uproar now with their feigned outrage, was supported by six of their own a little over ten years ago -- Six Republican Senators — Including Snowe And Collins — Co-Sponsored Federal Contraception Mandate In 2001.

MADDOW: Their rules are a compromised measure, trying to be super sensitive to religious institutions. Their rules are precisely what was proposed by Olympia Snowe and other Republicans in 2001, but yet they were being denounced as some sort of liberal abomination. It is in fact such a liberal abomination, that anybody who disagrees with Republicans' position on this today, according to the folks at Fox News, should never have been born at all. [...]

That happened at CPAC today, at the Conservative Political Action Conference today. Mr. Fox News person speaking there, I am sorry that you feel that way about me that you wish I had never been born. Personally, I'm glad that you were born.

Otherwise how would Republicans get the special Fox News bat signal that it's time to be outraged now, about what used to be Republicans' own policy idea.

UPDATE: Rachel Maddow reported tonight on her show that Cal Thomas called her personally and apologized to her and said he wished he had not made the remarks. Maddow graciously accepted Thomas' apology.

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum warned on Wednesday that President Barack Obama and other liberals are leading people of faith down a path that ends at the guillotine.

During a campaign event in Plano, Texas, the candidate charged Obama had an "overt hostility to faith."

"When you look and see what the left is trying to do in America today, progressives are trying to shutter faith, privatize it, push it out of the public square, oppress people of faith, strip their charitable deductions away from them, trying to weaken them, churches -- trying to say that anyone who believes in the value of Judeo-Christian principles," Santorum explained.

"As we saw in the Ninth Circuit just this week, that if you believe that [same sex marriage is wrong] -- this is what the court said -- that if believe that, if believe what's taught in Genesis, if you believe what's practiced Biblically and a generation since then you are irrational. The only possible reason you could believe this, according to the Ninth Circuit, is that you are a bigot and that you are a hater."

He continued: "They are taking faith and crushing it. Why? When you marginalize faith in America, when you remove the pillar of God-given rights then what's left is the French Revolution. What's left is a government that gives you rights. What's left are no unalienable rights. What's left is a government that will tell you who you are, what you'll do and when you'll do it. What's left in France became the the guillotine."

Santorum admitted that the U.S. was "a long way from that," but if Obama had his way then "we are headed down that road," citing the Obama administration's decision to require nearly all private health insurance policies to cover family planning, including female contraceptives.

"Now is the time for America to rise up and say enough!" the GOP hopeful exclaimed.