Something very rare and equally odd happened on MSNBC Friday.
Not only did an anchor criticize President Barack Obama on the air - horrors! - All In host Chris Hayes also accused the current White House resident of engaging in what he called "crazy vagina politics" (video follows with LexisNexis transcript and commentary):
CHRIS HAYES, HOST: Our politics will seemingly never stop going haywire when women's reproductive rights are on the table. There is just a special universe of politics where the issue of control over women`s reproductive processes exists apart from regular rules of any other kind of politics. There is normal politics and then there's crazy vagina politics.
And you can see the difference really clearly in the way this particular issue played out in this particular administration.
Watch this. You're going to see two clips of the same president talking about science and medicine from two different political universes. The first is the normal political universe. The second is a crazy vaginal political universe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To ensure that in this new administration, we base our public policies on the soundest science. That we appoint scientific advisors based on their credentials and experience, neither politics or ideology. And that we are open and honest with the American people about the science behind our decisions. That's how we will hashes of power of science to achieve our goals.
As the father two of daughters, I think it is important for us to make sure that, you know, we apply some common sense to various rules when it comes to over-the-counter medicine. And as I understand it, the reason Kathleen made this decision, was she could not be confident that a 10-year- old or an 11-year-old going to a drugstore should be able, alongside bubble gum or batteries, be able to buy a medication that potentially if not used properly could end up having an adverse effect.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HAYES: Here have you a reasonable pro-science administration making an explicitly, well, know-nothing, Archie Bunker-style argument, because the issue at hand is teenage girls' sex lives. Even though this administration has no general, ideological, or political commitment to control young women's sex lives, because the politics in this country get crazy around women having sex. Simple as that.
For some background, in December 2011, the FDA decreed that the Plan B morning after pill be available to women and girls of all ages without prescription.
The Obama administration quickly stepped in overruling the FDA and saying that girls under seventeen needed a prescription.
On Friday, a federal judge in New York ruled against the Obama administration ordering the pill be readily available without prescription to women and girls regardless of age.
With that in mind, Hayes believes Obama, facing reelection in 2012, engaged in "crazy vagina politics" by overruling the FDA eleven months before Election Day.
In some respects, I can't argue with Hayes for the simple fact that there is a political calculus in everything this president does.
On the other hand, in this instance, I agree with the Administration's December 2011 position and am displeased with the federal judge's ruling.
As such, not only do we have the oddity of an MSNBC anchor criticizing Barack Obama on the air, it's made even more bizarre by the vast majority of conservatives likely taking the President's side on this one.
Will wonders never cease.
(HT Mediaite)
