For years, many liberals have tried to reconcile the notion of abortion and why, for instance, at 19 weeks the procedure was legal, but at 20 it wasn't. We may have supported it, but we weren't comfortable. Maybe Alan Simpson, who is usually crazier than a 6-year-old at Chuck E. Cheese, was right about how it's an issue on which men shouldn't even have a vote. But what we have discovered--and suspected all along--was that for those in the pro-life camp, the issue wasn't just about choice. It was part of a larger agenda, an agenda that included control. It was about contraception; it was about sex; it was about women with hyphenated last names; it encompassed everything from block grants, to tax cuts for the rich, to de-funding Medicare and Social Security, to a lemmings-like adherence to the 10th Amendment; mostly, it was about an America and a Democracy the GOP only wanted to share if you had the money, were Christian (or at least acceded to its domain over the country), and drank from the Kool-Aid.  

The GOP is a a CPAC convention away from issuing Hijabs to women and NBC's David Gregory is still giving Santorum the last word. Come November, the best outcome will not be that Obama wins, but that this virulent strain in American politics loses.

Considering how the GOP thinks the president's decision to cover women's reproductive systems in institutions associated with the Catholic Church is a war on religion, where was its outrage when Pastor John Hagee called Catholicism “the whore of Babylon,” "a cult" and “a godless theology of hate”? Rick Santorum, who is running for president to purify us, the unwashed rudderless masses, from a life unmoored from church teachings that only he, alone, accurately articulates, never accused the pastor of intolerance or leading us all to the guillotine. Why was he silent, anyway--too many non-Catholic votes down South he might need ... couldn't get the words "San Francisco" or "liberals" or "humanists" into a tirade when the bile was coming from a minister in San Antonio, Texas? It's not like Santorum, specifically, and Republicans, generally, couldn't hear Hagee--many were standing right behind that fat pile of intolerance, begging for his endorsement.

Watching what's going on in CPAC this week, especially the pandering by the two frontrunners to an audience that demands the pandering, I am losing count at how many times I have smacked myself in the head with my own palm. Choosing between Romney and Santorum is like deciding which faith healer should be cast deeper into hell. The first (Santorum) really believes the laying of hands will root out evil; the other (Romney) knows it's a sham but does it anyway. For the life of me, I don't know which one is scarier.

Being Super Bowl Sunday and the welcome end to football season, a request: considering The Big East--Big EAST--has now accepted Boise State (Idaho), Air Force (Colorado), Houston and SMU (Texas) into its fold, would the conference please change its name. It's as cynical as it is hypocritical as it is greedy as it is geographically moronic.

Here's a phone call I imagine occurred about four milliseconds after Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney.

Newt: Donald, what gives?

Trump: You know, I--

Newt: Hold on, you gaseous piece of mutton. I agreed to participate in that sham, that "Let's watch THE TRUMP parade his pouty Slovenian wife around" thing you called a debate and you treat me like a pool boy in one of those casinos you used to own who forgot to bring you a Fresca. You endorse Romney? Romney!? He makes YOU look sincere. Next to him, you're a deep thinker; next to him, you're almost half the stud you think you--

Trump: Newt, your jealousy is unbecoming ... of me and my life. Your wives are lateral moves. At least I marry up (Christ, Marla now looks like Ivanna); so tell me: you wouldn't like to take Melania to a budget meeting and have her blow you on the break between the Medicare and Foreign Affairs mark-up?

Newt: SHHHH! What are you, crazy? Callista's listening in on the extension. 

Newt: (covering phone) It's nothing, honey. Just Trump showing off in front of the NBC guys. Let Sheldon in, would you? Hide the shellfish. 

Newt: (into phone) You're a putz. 

Trump: So, what, you're Jewish now? And believe me, I live among them in West Palm. I know what I'm talking about. The Jews love me.

Newt: What do you call Adelson?

Trump: A gonnif. But send him my love.