UPDATE: I now think that I’ve botched this post, as I expect to confirm more fully soon. My apologies.
UPDATE 2: Here is my correction to this post.
John D.: To compound the inanity of the Democrats’ idea that the profoundly confused Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke is some sort of “expert witness” on the HHS contraception mandate, I’ll point out that the HHS mandate on employers has nothing to do with the insurance coverage that universities provide to their students. As the Department of Justice explains (p. 14 here) in responding to a “passing reference” in Belmont Abbey’s lawsuit against the HHS mandate,
Neither the preventive services coverage regulations [including the HHS contraception mandate] nor any other federal law requires [a university] to provide health insurance to its students — much less health insurance that covers contraceptive services.
Nothing in this point, I’ll emphasize, bears meaningfully on Belmont Abbey’s lawsuit, which principally concerns its obligations under the HHS mandate to provide coverage to its employees of contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilization.
At bottom, Fluke’s testimony (even apart from her resort to unverifiable anecdotes about fellow students) doesn’t even have any connection to the HHS mandate. The fact that pro-HHS mandate propagandists are touting Fluke as their star witness is a stark sign of how empty their case is.
Hah! Fluke, the latest too-smart-by-half Nitwit on Parade probably kvetched herself out of a ton of job opportunities.
What law firm/company would want to take a chance on a whiney harpy who loves to showboat? She's an HR litigation nightmare waiting to happen.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGovernment job for sure.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNah.
She'd make a perfect community organizer.
Whatever the hell that is ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTo paraphrase George Will to Robert B. Reichhhhhhhhhhhhhh...
"Ms. Fluke you are a pyromaniac in a field of straw women."
Former President Clinton was heard saying "Where was that babe when I was a G-Town?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou know, this is something that has bugged me from when I first heard about her testimony - I couldn't figure out how a STUDENT was involved in a debate about what EMPLOYERS are providing to EMPLOYEES.
This clears it up. All the more reason her testimony was, as is typical of the Left, nothing but a show. How many "sob stories" have we been shown by the Left about health care and they have all come up short - usually there is plenty of information missing, if not outright lies being told.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOh, and how typical is it that the Left always uses "anecdotes" to push their agenda, never actual facts. It's all FEELING. Tell a sob story and watch everyone rally behind them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat's why I call 'em "Dramacrats."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe right did a pretty good job of creating drama regarding Terry Schiavo, going so far as to propose a federal "Terry's law".
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThen there's the fact that Georgetown Law costs well over $60,000/year. Students who can't afford to schtupp probably can't afford law school.
The young lady doesn't seem to be a very good shopper, either. Generic oral contraceptives can go for $20-$30 a month. Less than a dollar a day. And condoms are free in DC.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe more I thought about her testimony, the more preposterous it seemed to me. Just for example, the married couple who could no longer afford contraception. A quick Google search found 136 places in Washington, D.C. that give out free condoms.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo by all means label the woman a prostitute, thereby turning someone who would be completely forgotten into a sympathetic hero. I honestly think conservatives are their own worst enemies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAmen. I didn't hear anything about this woman until some winger called her a "sex-crazed coed" and NRO started with all the unseemly speculation about her "rutting" habits. Then Rush Limbaugh called her a sl*t and turned the noise up to 11.
Requiring everyone to buy health insurance is unpopular. I don't know why the right doesn't focus on the mandate as a whole. You could even tie it to the economy. At a time when families & businesses are struggling to make ends meet, here comes Barack Obama new bill for to pay. You might even win some head nods from liberals. While the far right sees the Obamacare as an unprecedented expansion of government power, the far left sees the it as a gift to the insurance industry. Don't believe me? Spend some time over at firedoglake.
Instead you guys expend a lot of wasted energy trying to convince people that contraceptives aren't a part of health care, and that women who use birth control may as well hang flashing open for business signs over their virginias. Isn't the GOP supposed to be the party of dogwhistles? Can't anyone figure out how to telegraph the party's misogyny to the people who go for it without completely disgusting everyone who doesn't harbor a deep hatred of women?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBut that's just it -- this woman should not be "completely forgotten". She should be held up and spotlighted as the perfect symbol of the fatuity of the Obamanian Age.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOn the other hand, when I found out that my fist teen girfrield grew up to be a Women's Studies professor, I wrote and asked her for my money back. Did I get it? Of course not.
@Ed Whelan: At Bench Memos arlier today, you noted that the NYT claimed that the California legislature had passed same-gender marriage. Actually, that claim is true (but deceptive). Back when the governator was there, the overhwelmingly Democrat legislature did indeed approve of a redefinition of marriage. It was vetoed by Arnie (who probably would have approved it if he'd known that his political careeer was aabout to end in scandal). Arnie instead said that the issue should be decided by the voters (Prop 8 was soon to be on the ballot) or by the courts. At the time, many believed that Prop 8 would fail, or that (as turned out) the courts would annul 8. So, Arnie's veto was really for show. I worry that this could be the case in other places, such as New Jersey. Christie, schmistie.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNext Press Secretary or WH Staffer...
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