Of Lipstick And Pigs

Mr. Straight Talk, he who was slammed for lying by (of all people) Karl Rove, continues his campaign for President by promising change in Washington. That campaign has been revved up by his selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, thereby establishing his credibility with the Religious Reich and supposedly with undecided women. The maverick image, however, is just that, image, as this op-ed piece published September 12 in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer makes clear. The author of the column, Roberta Riley, points to Mr. McCain's record when it comes to issues concerning women and children.

Oh how John McCain courts women. With Sarah Palin at his side and our unpopular president sidelined, he promises huge, glass ceiling-shattering change.

What is the substance behind his symbolism? On every issue of concern to women -- from education to equal pay, health care and physical security to retirement and financial security -- John McCain and George W. Bush are identical and abysmal. It is their best-kept secret. ...

What did "compassionate conservatism" do for women's physical safety? Approximately 1,200 women are killed and 1.3 million physically assaulted each year by an intimate partner. In 1994 Congress enacted the Violence Against Women Act to fill gaps in state prevention efforts. To oversee the act, Bush appointed Nancy Pfotenhauer to the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women. In her earlier role as president of the Independent Women's Forum, Pfotenhauer waged a bitter fight against the entire act, claiming it would encourage "vulnerable women to mistrust all men."

With Ms. Trust Your Batterer pulling the strings, it is not surprising that right after a photo op authorizing its renewal, Bush cut the act's funding. McCain voted against restoring those funds and opposed programs to aid children affected by domestic violence. With one hand, Bush and McCain deplore the murder of pregnant women and "unborn children." With the other hand they scrap promising federal efforts to prevent such murders. ...

Though most women believe everyone should have affordable health care, the number of uninsured climbed from 36 million in 2000 to 47 million today. McCain voted against coverage for 10 million uninsured kids, and when a bipartisan majority in Congress passed the measure, Bush vetoed it because he considered it a step toward "federalizing" medicine. McCain applauded Bush's veto, earning "The Worst Senator for Children" rating from the Children's Defense Fund.

American teens suffer high pregnancy and chlamydia rates, yet McCain and Bush oppose medically accurate sex education. Instead, McCain panders to the far right, vowing to continue the Bush tradition of doling out hundreds of millions of tax dollars to fundamentalists who preach "abstinence only" and don't want young people to know about condoms. ...

That lipstick crew has been working behind the scenes. Some would turn the clock back half a century to when contraception was a crime. Take, for example, Dr. Susan Orr, author of "Real Women Stay Married." She equates contraception with "a culture of death." Bush appointed her to lead Title X, the program that subsidizes contraception and cancer screening for the uninsured. Orr brought the program to its knees. McCain earlier voted to abolish Title X altogether. Today 17 million uninsured women need these services. [Emphasis added]

Some maverick, eh? Not only did McCain vote with Bush 95% of the time over the last 8 years, he revelled in it, especially when it came to women and children who can't afford 7 houses (or is it 12?). Mr. Straight Talk self-righteously lies about Sen. Obama's having voted in the Illinois legislature for comprehensive sex education for kindergartners , but votes against providing accurate sex education to teenagers. And then, to help shatter the glass ceiling, he selects a woman to be his running mate who as governor charged rape victims for the cost of rape kits.

We need four more years of this?