John McCain’s campaign and reliable supporters in the media have been flogging the ridiculous idea that Barack Obama is somehow sexist for talking about McCain’s failed attempt to dress up a pig with lipstick, charging that Senator Obama has referred to Senator McCain’s running mate as a pig. Putting aside the irony of Governor Palin's willingness in her nomination speech to describe herself as a female dog (a characterization that thankfully is well outside the mainstream of accepted American politics), the idea that Barack Obama is a chauvinist and John McCain is a defender of women’s rights is laughable.
As we will see after the flip, John McCain does not support women's health and is against requiring birth control coverage, and has opposed the rights of working women. In addition, his personal and professional life reveal the mind of a cad.
John McCain does not support women’s health.
As should be known to everyone, John McCain is staunchly against a woman’s right to make decisions about her own health. He said explicitly in South Carolina in February 2007 that Roe v. Wade should be overturned: "I do not support Roe v. Wade. It should be overturned." In May 2007, he reiterated his desire to overturn Roe v. Wade during an appearance on Meet the Press stating, "My position has been consistently in my voting record, pro-life, and I continue to maintain that position and voting record." McCain called Roe a "bad decision." He chose as his running mate a woman who opposes abortion even in the case of rape and incest. John McCain also has always supported a gag rule that prevents relief agencies from receiving U.S. funds if anyone advises clients on abortion as a legal option, if the agency does so out of its own funds, and he voted in favor of the gag rule as recently as 2005.
John McCain is also against providing birth control to reduce unplanned pregnancies. In 2005, he voted against a $100 million allocation to preventive health care services. In 2006, he voted against providing comprehensive, accurate sex education to teens. John McCain and his running mate also oppose teaching teens any form of birth control other than abstinence. In March 2007, the New York Times reported this stunning exchange:
Q: "What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush's policy, which is just abstinence?"
McCain: (Long pause) "Ahhh. I think I support the president's policy."
Q: "So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?"
McCain: (Long pause) "You've stumped me."
McCain’s inability to thread the needle between his pretended moderation on women’s issues and his actual right wing record has tripped him up on other occasions, such as when asked about coverage for birth control. The truth is that in 2003 and 2005, McCain opposed legislation to improve the availability of contraceptives for women and to require insurance coverage of prescription birth control. While many insurance plans commonly cover Viagra, contraceptives are frequently not covered. For reasons at which we can only speculate, John McCain supports that bizarre state of affairs (a position at odds with the vast majority of Americans and even Carly Fiorina), but refuses to defend his position, sends Fiorina out to confuse people, and hopes no one will notice:
Senator McCain even voted against Title X funding in 1990, which, in addition to providing funding for birth control, provides low-income and uninsured women and families with health care services including breast and cervical cancer screening. His running mate actually charged rape victims for their own test kits, even while finding the money to build a multimillion dollar sports complex.
UPDATE: It's even worse than I thought. As detailed in JedReport's diary here, the reason Alaska passed a statute in 2000 banning Wasilla's practice of charging rape victims for their own tests was to qualify for federal funds under Joe Biden's Violence against Women Act, a law that John McCain voted against. And, as described in this diary by jkennerl, Wasilla could have paid for the rape kits and had money left over from the "walk around" money that Alaska paid to Governor Palin for living in her own house.
John McCain is against working women.
John McCain is against equal pay for equal work. He opposed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to change the statute of limitations for claims for back pay based on gender discrimination. Trying to muddy the issue, he claimed that the problem was not discrimination, but that women were just too stupid and needed "more education and training."
John McCain tried to gut the Family and Medical Leave Act, a law that has allowed parents to work without fear of being fired for taking a day off to care for a sick child. McCain voted to suspend the Family and Medical Leave Act unless the federal government certified that compliance would not increase business expenses or provide financial assistance to businesses to cover any related costs.
John McCain has consistently abused the women in his personal and professional life.
While he is fond of talking about his experience as a POW, which made him even more of a celebrity than being an Admiral’s son, John McCain also used it as license to divorce the women who waited at his kitchen table for his return for five and a half years. While still married, Senator McCain cheated on his first wife, Carol, with his current wife, Cindy, whom he met in Honolulu, a location John McCain now claims is an exotic bastion of elitists. In addition to being younger, Cindy McCain also had not had the misfortune of being disabled in a car accident while acting as the mother of John McCain’s children. She also came from an extremely wealthy, well-connected family with ties to organized crime.
Senator McCain was somewhat kinder to his second wife, not having yet "traded up" for a newer or richer model, but still referred to her as a "cunt" and a "trollop" in front of reporters, and suggesting to a group of drunks that she should have competed in a contest of nudity and simulated fellatio.
John McCain thinks that the rape of a woman is hilarious. John McCain’s unique brand of "humor" was also on display in 1998, when he suggested that Chelsea Clinton was "so ugly" because "Janet Reno is her father." Although he allegedly apologized to Bill Clinton later, John McCain has never apologized to the women he personally insulted. Indeed, McCain later chuckled when asked of Hillary Clinton, "How do we beat the bitch," before answering, "That’s an excellent question."
If Barack Obama intended to call anyone a pig, it would not have been Governor Palin, whose personal and professional failings are of a different variety. Had Senator Obama intended to call John McCain a pig, it would have been perfectly understandable, given that John McCain is, in fact, one of the biggest sexist pigs going. The real pig in this barnyard, however, is the failed policies of Republican rule, which have been thoroughly discredited, along with their former champions, George Bush, Jr. and Dick Cheney. John McCain desperately wants people to avoid looking at that pig, now that even its cheap Chinese lipstick has faded away. His latest attempts to shoo us away from the pig have even included McCain’s stirring defense of child molesters. Look at that pig we must (as well as the toxic lipstick that has been used to attempt to disguise it), and we shall, but those are issues for other diaries.