Where have I seen this before, Rush Limbaugh asked his radio listeners while talking about the left's manufactured flash-mob anger over Indiana's religious freedom law?
Come to think of it, Limbaugh said, this last happened in the previous presidential campaign when the same Democrat operative/pretend journalist played gotcha with another GOP politician to kick-start liberals' bogus war-on-women meme.
On his radio show yesterday, Limbaugh cited the parallel about ABC's George Stephanopoulos absurdly asking Mitt Romney during a 2012 debate if states should be able to ban contraceptives and Stephanopoulos badgering Indiana Gov. Mike Pence over a religious freedom law in his state modeled after the federal version signed in 1993 -- by President Clinton, Stephanopoulos's boss at the time (audio) --
The Washington Post gives up the game .... Right here it is, 'Indiana law draws Republican White House hopefuls into the culture wars.' Exactly right and precisely by design. The only real surprise about this is that the Democrats did this so early on in the presidential process, but they may not really have had much control over it because Indiana did their law when they did it. ....
Now this story is by Philip Rucker and Robert Costa (yes, formerly of National Review) ... There's actually two stories here. There's the Washington Post story and then there's a follow-up here by the Politico and both of these stories give up the game. "The national debate ..." (Limbaugh quoting from Washington Post story) " ... over an Indiana religious liberties law seen as anti-gay" -- by who is it seen as anti-gay?! ... It is promoted as anti-gay by the opponents of the law! There's nothing about anti-gay in the law. There's nothing anti-gay in the formulation or the conception of the law. (Returns to Post story) "The national debate over an Indiana religious liberties law seen as anti-gay has drawn the entire field of Republican presidential contenders into the divisive culture wars which badly damaged Mitt Romney in 2012 and which Republican leaders eagerly sought to avoid in the 2016 race."
Now the Mitt Romney thing -- that was the war on women. So the war on women has run its course and now what we get, the war on gay marriage or the war on humanity? What's it going to become now? And once again, where did this all start? George Stephanopoulos.
George Stephanopoulos's fingerprints are on both of these. In the Mitt Romney case, it was a presidential debate, primary debate, Republican contenders, and there's our old buddy George Stephanopoulos asking a question about birth control and conception and so forth in the middle of a Republican presidential debate when the subject had never come up. It was not an issue. It was not being talked about by anybody anywhere. And out of the blue Stephanopoulos asked Romney what his thoughts were on state-sponsored birth control measures and what have you. And Romney was caught flat-footed because he had no idea why (Limbaugh mimics Romney's response), what do you mean, George?! And Stephanopoulos would not give it up -- just give me a yes or no, he said, give me a yes or no -- do you believe that states should have the power to be involved in contraception measures and so forth? And Romney's thinking, no! This is states -- George, I don't even think about this. But eventually Romney gave an answer, didn't matter what the answer was.
He eventually answered the question and immediately the war on women came to life because then the media and everybody ran around saying that Romney as a Republican was in favor or governments being involved in contraception and this and that and everybody knows what that gave birth to, no pun intended.
So last Sunday it's George Stephanopoulos again, you've got the governor of Indiana, Mike Pence on This Week and there's Stephanopoulos once again demanding, yes or no, yes or no! Why do you want to put a bill into law that discriminates against gay people?! Isn't that what you're doing?! ... State-sponsored discrimination! Tell me how people can't see it, it's just a yes or no question, governor! And Pence hems and haws and so forth and the birth of an issue happened again right before our very eyes. And then we get this story in the Washington Post, 'Indiana law draws Republican White House hopefuls into the culture wars.' No -- the media has has drawn Indiana law and Republican presidential hopefuls down a sewer, which is what has happened here.
Next up on This Week -- George asks political operative James Carville how Democrats can parlay anger over religious freedom laws into big gains in the 2016 campaign ...
Think this scenario is a stretch? It was less than three weeks ago that Carville, Stephanopoulos's wizened War Room combat buddy, was one of his guests on This Week. Carville, to his credit, is transparent about his reptilian advocacy for Democrats. Stephanopoulos tries in vain to keep it hidden.
