In the battle over church and contraception Connecticut Congressman John Larson has it right and the other Connecticut Congressman-slash-woman Rosa DeLauro has it wrong and so they're both fighting over the matter. Larson is siding with the church and DaLauro the devil who wants women to be promiscuous without any consequences . I happened to have read Dante's Inferno so I know this is all true.
Now there are conflicting rights, so it seems. The right of the church to exercise their conscious verses the right of access to contraception through medical insurance for women who are employed by churches in hospitals and schools. Actually the latter right is so long that its very length may disqualify it as a right.
With Obamacare rights are not natural anymore, they've become something owned by the president and he doles them out according to ideological whims. If a Republican were in charge he or she would rule the other way. The problem is not so much that there is a right or wrong way to rule on the issue the problem is the law itself which makes government the final arbiter on whose rights are more important.
Ironically the president could be off the hook on this because the Supreme Court will rule on Obamacare and may just throw the thing out altogether. The case before the Court is whether a federal judge in Florida was correct when he ruled Obamacare unconstitutional because it takes away the right of people to not purchase health insurance. Another problem with the law is that it can't just remain in place while restoring individuals the right to opt out. There is no severity clause in the bill so if one part goes the whole thing falls apart. What is not talked about much is the real likelihood that Obamacare will not exist come election day.
And if Obamacare does become unconstitutional it could take the wind out of the sails of the one thing we don't like about Obama. There will be no conflicts like the one that is straining the relationship between Larson and DeLauro. They'll still argue about who has better hair or more of it (Larson does), but church and state disagreements will disappear for them and the rest of us. This could actually help Obama win, although he won't have a Senate anymore (Senate is very likely to go Republican, this is also in The Inferno) and thus he will become essentially a lame duck president for his entire next term. In fact the Supreme Court could make his first 4 years lame duckish retroactively.
All this underscores just how lousy a president the president is. Is he so tone deaf that he did not know that there would be an uproar over the contraception issue? Did he really have to pick a fight like this one in an election year? We can all argue the efficacy over policy no matter what ability Obama has but if he were a Republican there is no reason to think he would be any better a president than he is now. Reagan got his way when there was a Democrat majority in both the House and Senate. Obama is dead in the water with freshman Republicans in the House who barely know the way to the House chamber. Obama had trouble getting Obamacare passed with a majority of his party in both legislative bodies.
Now he has Connecticut's two liberals fighting and it's ever so delightful to watch. Larson represents a Catholic district in the Bristol area and DeLauro pretty much represents Yale which, by the way, has "sex week" coming soon. No one is expected to win this one but the two represent a growing divide within the Democratic party that pails in comparison to the one within the Republican party during its primary battles. Thanks Barry.
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