Bob CollinsDemocrats are the ones keeping birth control on the front-burner, Washington Post writer Melinda Henneberger writes this afternoon. Henneberger, who writes the Post’s “She The People” column, says Democrats have found the issue is good for raising campaign cash, because public opinion is on their side.
She notes that she disagrees with most of Rick Santorum’s positions on birth control, but says he’s been manipulated into keeping it on the front page.
But in every interview Santorum has given on the topic of birth control — in 2006, last summer and recently — he always stresses that he supports Title X funding for contraception. He’s also said he would strenuously oppose any state effort to ban birth control. And do we really believe that a guy who freely allows that he’d bomb Iran if they didn’t let inspectors into nuclear facilities is strategically hiding his true intentions regarding the pill?
When Charlie Rose asked Santorum on CBS about what Friess had said, the candidate repeatedly tried to steer the conversation to the economy and jobs, but Rose wasn’t having it, insisting that voters “need to understand how you differ from what this guy said.” His response, when he finally agreed to give one? What Friess had said was “a bad joke, a stupid joke,” not reflective of his own views. “I voted for Title X federal funding of birth control.”
Funny she should mention that because I tweeted about that interview last week. It wasn’t Rose’s finest hour:
