Women: If Romney Wins, Say Goodbye to Your Bodies

The title of this post is not hyperbole.

Today's Republican Party, with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as its standard bearers:

Yes, that's Richard Mourdock, who unseated moderate Republican Richard Lugar in the primary, now running in red-state Indiana for senator. Mitt Romney, learning a few days back that Mourdock, like many Tea-Party candidates this fall, is at risk of losing a red-state Senate seat, decided to cut an ad in support of his candidacy.

Then, oops, Mourdock reveals his true feelings in a debate Tuesday night:

 I believe life begins at conception. The only exception I have for to have an abortion is in the case of the life of the mother. I struggled with myself for a long time but I came to realize life is that gift from God, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. It is something that God intended to happen.

Republican Todd Akin, running against moderate Democrat Clair McCaskill in Missouri, had this to say a few months back:

 Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan quickly said they "disagreed" with Akin's comments. And yet, here's Paul Ryan in an early campaign interview:

A careful listen shows that Paul Ryan agrees with Todd Akin (and by extension Richard Mourdock), not his running mate Mitt Romney, but for the sake of the ticket, Mitt's the boss!

As for Mitt Romney's view, in spite of his usual Etch-A-Sketch approach to convictions, here's Mitt Romney on Mike Huckabee's Fox News show:

That's Mitt Romney, standard bearer and possible president of the United States, saying that he favored a "life begins at conception" (aka personhood) amendment to the constitution that would outlaw all abortions as well as many currently accepted birth-control methods including IUDs and morning-after pills. Other fundamentalist Christians believe such an amendment would ban hormone-based birth control, as well.

This is the face of today's Republican Party. This is what we all face if Mitt Romney wins. Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post warns this morning:

While Romney has become a general-election tabula rasa, he sits atop what may be the most radical major political party in American history. Regardless of Milquetoast Mitt’s positions, a government with a Republican president and Republicans in control of the House and Senate would use its budget-reconciliation powers (which enables a Senate majority to sidestep the 60-vote requirement so frequently used to stymie legislation) to defund or repeal not only the health-care guarantees and financial regulations that Obama signed into law but also much of the education funding and regulatory safeguards on which Americans have depended for decades.

The radicals who dominate the Republican Party have entertained Romney’s turn to the center as a necessary electoral expedient. The day after a Romney victory, their blitzkrieg will begin — leaving the moderate Mitt of the general election to historians specializing in short-lived phenomena.

A favorite take by many people on Mitt Romney's seemingly non-existent set of convictions is that he's a moderate who'll say anything to get elected in today's Tea-Party environment and that we can be assured that Mitt the Moderate will return and be a centrist leader to the nation. But what if there's no center remaining in his party?

Oh oh, there is no center remaining in his party.

Finally, what are the chances that a Supreme Court, now on the brink of becoming the most conservative in history could survive two or even three justices appointed by a Republican president driven by a far-right Republican Party?

Think of this:

• I was 15 when blacks were guaranteed the right to vote.
• I was 16 when birth control was made legal.
• I was 23 when abortion was made legal.
• I was 55 when sex between consenting adults in the privacy of their homes was made legal.
• I was 62 when gays were allowed to serve in the military.

Imagine a Supreme Court with six justices with views roughly between Joe Alito and Clarence Thomas. Holy crap. Speaking of holy, Alito and Thomas, as well as Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and Chief Justice John Roberts are Catholic. Under their church's doctrine, both birth control and abortion are forbidden.

This video is funny about an unfunny topic, but it is a little bit of comic relief:

Not so funny but a little freaky nonetheless. But no less freaky than this classic Rush Limbaugh rant, dissected ably by Huffington Post's Cara Santa Maria:

As a de facto leader of the Republican Party, what are the chances of Rush letting Moderate Mitt be moderate? Here's a good reminder of how moderate Mitt Romney is:

And here's a news report about Paul Ryan expressing -- behind closed doors -- outright support for Richard Murdock:

Now we've come full circle. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan support Richard Mourdock, who believes if you get raped, it's God will that you have the rapist's baby. Women, what's so moderate about that?

Nothing. Women (and men), vote for Barack Obama.

Update. This is for men and women of all ages to ponder:

Got it. Richard Mourdock believes Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are unconstitutional, and Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan support him. This is today's Republican Party.

Update 2. Mitt Romney's campaign just announced that they aren't pulling the ad supporting Richard Mourdock. Okay...

Update 3. Mourdock apologizes but stands by his statement. Just weird. Note in the article that John Cornyn, longtime senator from Texas, supports Mourdock's views.