What have the cater­pil­lars been smoking?

I’ve writ­ten before about the “Repub­li­can War on Women”. It’s a meme, to be sure, but one that seems to have some stick­i­ness or even truthi­ness to it, because key Repub­li­cans keep doing things that are so glo­ri­ously tone-​​deaf.

Instead of con­cen­trat­ing on jobs, the Repub­li­cans in the House con­cen­trated on sex. House com­mit­tees inves­ti­gat­ing the con­flict between women’s pre­vi­ously estab­lished right to con­tra­cep­tive ser­vices and the desires of the Catholic Church refused to hear tes­ti­mony from women. When Minor­ity Leader Nancy Pelosi held shadow com­mit­tee meet­ing with George­town law stu­dent San­dra Fluke tes­ti­fy­ing, de facto Repub­li­can spokesman Rush Lim­baugh called Fluke a “slut”.

Faced with the ensu­ing con­tro­versy, Repub­li­can National Com­mit­tee chair­man called the idea of a “Repub­li­can War on Women” a false and per­va­sive meme, liken­ing it to a myth­i­cal “War on Cater­pil­lars”. Regard­less of what he meant, the cater­pil­lars were enraged. (more…)