With Liberty and Abortifacients for All

In the movies we are at about the point where the German SS officers walk into HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' office and announce, "Ve haft left your luger on your vanity. Ve trust you know what to do wis it."

It's less than a week after the American Catholic bishops had there letters read at churches across the country and the White House, the Obama reelection campaign, and the DNC are in panic. Rather than face the press, press secretary Jay Carney skipped his daily briefing. The highest ranking Catholic in the administration, Vice President Biden is MIA. Five Democratic Senators, Lieberman, Manchin, Casey, and both Nelsons (Bill and Ben) have jumped ship and there are reports that John Kerry will follow. If there is any consolation in this it's that the public has forgotten about the funny unemployment numbers and Eric Holder is off the front page. The White House must be dreading to see Sunday come. The Catholics had their turn last week and this week they can expect to catch hell from the Protestants most notably the Southern Baptists. Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethic and Religious Liberty Commission has written "We consider this callous requirement by the Obama administration to be a clear violation of our nation's commitment to liberty of conscience and a flagrant violation of our constitutional protection to freedom of religion." Dr. Land is ready to go to jail over this. "Christians should go to jail rather than comply with the Obama administration’s mandate to provide all contraception, including abortion-inducing drugs, in their health care plans." A fact neglected in the press is that the Baptists, like the Catholics, operate hospitals and universities. Unlike the Catholics they are not reticent to criticize Obama in colorful prose.

How did the White House manage to possibly lose the next election by needlessly raising the most contentious issue since the Vietnam War? Maybe Obama was hen pecked into this decision. It is known that former White House chief of staff Bill Daley and Vice President Joe Biden urged Obama to play it safe and carve out an exemption the Church could live with. Just as Hillary Clinton and Samantha Powers are credited with forcing Obama to intervene in Libya, White House harpy Valerie Jarret, Kathleen Sebelius, and Planned Parenthood's Cecile Richardson and maybe even the First Lady seem responsible for the debacle. Supposedly Obama was inclined to listen to Daley and Biden until fresh from whipping the Susan Komen Foundation into submission, Richardson showed up with her polling data that she interpreted as meaning most Americans believe that women deserve to get their abortifacients from the Catholic bishops.

Clearly Jay Carney isn't going to be able to talk the administration out of this mess. If it reverses course it angers the left especially Senators Boxer and Murray who have invested so much indignation on the subject but having tipped its hand it's going to be difficult to convince the bishops and the voters that another reversal won't follow after the election. A congressional carve out that Obama could reluctantly sign might do the trick but good luck getting that through the Senate. Despite the defections there are probably only 53 votes for such a measure as Boxer, Murray and friends would filibuster it. It's a hell of a mess!