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{"id":2939,"date":"2012-02-17T08:54:56","date_gmt":"2012-02-17T14:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/?p=2939"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:03:11","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:03:11","slug":"santorum-aspirin-remark-a-bad-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2012\/02\/santorum-aspirin-remark-a-bad-joke\/","title":{"rendered":"Santorum: Aspirin Remark a “Bad Joke.”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yesterday, Rick Santorum defended the honor of women contraceptive-users everywhere\u2026sort of.<\/p>\n

During a debate in Congress on the Obama administration\u2019s mandated contraceptive coverage, Santorum backer Foster Friess told MSNBC\u2019s Andrea Mitchell,<\/strong><\/a> \u201cYou know, back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraception,\u201d he said. \u201cThe gals put it between their knees, and it wasn\u2019t that costly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santorum later responded, \u201cFoster is a well-known jokester. That was a stupid joke. I\u2019m not responsible for every bad joke someone I happen to know or who supports me tells, adding, \u201cObviously I don\u2019t agree with the basic premise.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s obvious to Santorum might be less so for people who\u2019ve been following his career since his days in the Senate. Santorum has condemned contraception on ideological grounds, recommended<\/strong><\/a> that the federal government withhold funds from it, and criticized the reasoning<\/strong><\/a> in Griswold v. Connecticut,<\/em> the Supreme Court decision that found state prohibitions on contraceptives unconstitutional. The left-leaning press \u2014 your humble blogger here included \u2014 has made the most of this. Irin Carmon\u2019s Salon<\/em> piece, \u201cRick Santorum Really is After Your Birth Control\u201d<\/strong><\/a> is only the most eye-grabbing representative of the genre.<\/p>\n

But that was then, this is now. Since the opening of primary season, says David Weigel,<\/strong><\/a> Santorum\u2019s been playing down his social conservatism in favor of the economic kind. His views on abortion and gay marriage are well enough known among values voters than he can afford to. He\u2019s even managed to \u201cgenericize\u201d his anti-contraceptive views, casting his stand against mandated birth control coverage strictly in free-exercise terms. This is probably a good move, according to Weigel. \u201cIn a new New York Times <\/em>poll,\u201d he writes, \u201conly 47 percent of Republican voters say they\u2019re against any legal recognition of gay unions. In the 2008 entrance poll taken of Iowa caucus-goers, only 26 percent said that \u2018the economy\u2019 was their top concern. In 2012, the number was 42 percent, with 36 percent saying \u2018the budget deficit\u2019 was tops.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Santorum wants to finesse moderates, may he do so in good health. He\u2019s got the vest for it. But to make the act really convincing, he ought to consider treating Foster Friess to some free dental care.<\/strong><\/a> Afterward, Friess can borrow some Aspirin from one of his lady friends.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"