Bushes' Backward March on Birth Control

Politics not only makes strange bedfellows but can lead them to do kinky things when they get there.

In 1947, George W. Bush’s grandfather was the first national campaign treasurer for Planned Parenthood, and three years later Prescott Bush’s advocacy of birth control led to his close defeat for a U.S. Senate seat in heavily Catholic Connecticut.

This month, his grandson named an opponent of birth control to be in charge of all the government’s contraception programs. Susan Orr, head of population affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services, will be overseeing activities that she has been denouncing for years.

In 2001, she pushed a proposal to stop requiring health insurance plans for federal employees to cover birth control on the grounds that ”fertility is not a disease.”

It would be easy to write off her appointment as another sop to the Pat Robertson-James Dobson wing of the Republican base, where Ms. Orr previously labored. But there is a more interesting question in all this:

As a lame-duck, Bush has no political self-interest in placating them. As a human being, he has a wife, mother and daughter who are on the public record in favor of freedom of choice for women, to say nothing of his grandfather’s advocacy.

What drives him to this automaton-like appointment that goes against overwhelming public sentiment as well? If we knew the answer to that, we might begin to understand how George W. Bush in two decades went from the failed son of a wealthy but public-spirited family to a destroyer of so many basic values in American life.

Republican Race for Running Mate

Sam Brownback, who started his run for President by spending a night in jail, is free at last. Tomorrow he will leave the Oz of campaign country and be back in Kansas to announce he is dropping out.

As a bona fide conservative, the Kansas Senator will automatically join Mike Huckabee, who still has hopes, as a leading contender for the ticket of Republican front runners who leave the Rev. James Dobson and other Religious Rightists as unbelievers.

Since Brownback has been bashing Mitt Romney, he may have an inside track with Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson or particularly John McCain, with whom he agrees on immigration. (The new issue of Time proclaims “McCain Is Back.")

Brownback signaled his possible departure from Oz last week by joining with a Democratic Presidential candidate in spearheading a Senate Resolution for the partitioning of Iraq.

“This plan,” he proclaimed, “wasn't pushed by members of one party. Instead, Senator Joe Biden and I, who are consistently on opposite ends politically on economic and social issues, worked together to build consensus to push the legislation forward and on to a resounding victory.”

A man who talks like that has clearly given up his hopes of succeeding George Bush.

No-Name Ties Rudy and Fred in G.O.P. Poll

The Rev. James Dobson has pronounced them all value-less in a New York Times OpEd no less, and Republicans of all persuasions seem concerned about their Presidential front runners.

In the oddest expression of discontent, in a “blind” Zogby poll based on anonymous bios, as many G.O.P. voters have just chosen an unknown Defense Department official as Rudy Giuliani or Fred Thompson.

When the electorate is as enthusiastic about nobody as it is about everybody on the ballot, the Party should be thinking about what’s missing in their field. To oversimplify, voters seem to be finding Giuliani shameless, Thompson listless, Romney clueless and McCain hopeless.

America’s Mayor, with 9/11 tattooed on his forehead, has been an attack dog on two continents, accusing Hillary Clinton of “spewing venom” when she politely questioned Gen. Petraeus, labeling her health insurance proposal “Hillycare” and otherwise acting like a schoolyard bully.

After hiding in the weeds for months, Thompson, the road-show Reagan, has crept out into the open, barely, to bore and confuse voters with his disdain for details.

Romney has as many stances on issues as dollars for TV commercials, but the party faithful are not buying in droves.

McCain is still showing up to jaw with Jon Stewart, apparently unaware that Daily Show viewers are not a prime demographic for the Republican primaries.

Less is definitely not more is this contest, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see a boomlet for Dr. Ward Casscells, a conservative now assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, who did so well in the Zogby poll. As an expert on pandemics, he just might catch on.