Now that people are laughing at Sen. Orrin Hatch and his
obviously pandering lie about Planned Parenthood, his staff is saying he "misspoke." (This all seems so familiar somehow,
doesn't it?)
When appearing on a Family Research Council webcast—and that right there should tell you how desperate Hatch is to regain the trust of crazy wingnut voters—Hatch claimed abortion was "about 95 percent" of what Planned Parenthood does. The actual figure is perhaps three percent, making a difference, of, oh, about eleventy hundred percent. I'm not a scientist, I can't be sure. Math is for communists!
Via the Salt Lake Tribune, here's Hatch spokesman Matt Harakal conceding factual defeat on that one, but in the process making a rather baffling argument as to what Hatch meant:
Harakal acknowledges Hatch got it wrong on the webcast and said the senator meant to refer to a letter he sent with the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins in April, which claimed that 98 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services for pregnant women involve abortions.
The hell? First Jon Kyl said it was 90 percent, then Hatch said it was 95 percent, now Hatch's spokesman is saying no no, he meant
98 percent. He just meant "for pregnant women," as opposed to all the other women who go there for non-pregnancy reasons. Oh, and that's completely false as
well, according to Planned Parenthood (you know, pregnant women
do need medical services other than abortions, Mr. Hatch), but is yet
another stupid claim invented by people like (surprise) the Family Research Council.
I can't tell if Hatch's spokesman here is really claiming Hatch "misspoke" or in fact is doubling down on the statement. "He was wrong, but he meant to refer to this letter over here that was also really freaking wrong" sounds suspiciously close to "not intended to be a factual statement." Not as hilarious, but still a nice bit of doublespeak.
Apparently conservatives are bound and determined to make Planned Parenthood their next bogeyman, along with contraception in general and, thanks to Rick Santorum, the notion of icky non-procreational sexytimes in general. That's what even the old stalwarts like Orrin Hatch are going with, which I think means the Republican Party is entirely out of other ideas.