Note to GOP: Sometimes an Opinion Isn't Just an Opinion

Senator Jon Kyl (R. AZ) advanced the art of GOP prevarication last April when he claimed that Planned Parenthood spends 90% of its budget on abortions. The grossness of the falsehood -- the correct figure is 3%, not 90 -- was par for the course. The imaginative leap was Kyl's explanation that his lie was "not intended to be a factual statement." In other words, it was just Kyl's opinion.

Flash forward to last weekend's Value Voters Summit, where Republican presidential hopefuls refused to disavow Robert Jeffress's implication that Mitt Romney isn't a Christian -- and that Mormonism, his religion, is a cult. After all, Cain, Bachmann and others seemed to say, Jeffress's statements are just a matter of opinion. Jeffress himself offered a variation on the theme when he told Chris Matthews that "cult" means something other than the derogatory, commonly understood Webster's interpretation. Here, it wasn't a number that was a matter of opinion but the definition of a word.

Rick Perry, the intended beneficiary of Jeffress's insult to Romney, has himself made liberal use of the "It's my opinion" trope to deflect questions about evolution and climate change. For him, these are just theories that people have "the right" to opine about one way or another.

Herman "I don't have facts to back this up" Cain -- whose surge in the polls underscores the vacuousness of both Romney and Perry -- was recently given an opportunity by MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell to acknowledge that sexual preference isn't a choice. In the Alice in Wonderland world of Republican politics, this would pass for a courageous stance. Cain too chose the "It's my opinion" route.

The mealy-mouthedness of his opponents' "It's my opinion" gambit gave Romney a chance to show a snippet of courage. But he wouldn't take Jeffress on, preferring the safe harbor of going after Brian Fischer, who believes that Mormons have no First Amendment rights and that grizzly bears are a "curse."

Hedging your beliefs, if you even have beliefs, comes with its own dangers. For all Romney's parsing and brownnosing, he ended up with a pathetic 4 percent in the Value Voters straw poll. Perry's pontification (is the pontiff a real Christian or is Catholicism just another cult?) about his own Christianity and his key role in facilitating Jeffress's appearance at the Summit netted him an anemic 8 percent. Which prompted Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, sponsor of the event and the poll, to hearken back to seminal GOP liar Richard Nixon and essentially declare the results "inoperative."

To be fair, John Huntsman, the other Mormon GOP hopeful, did call Jefress a moron. But the former Utah governor has little to lose. The latest Public Policy Polling survey in Iowa puts him tied for 8th place with 3 votes. That's votes, not percent.

The profiles in dis-courage on the Mormon issue comport with GOP candidates' laissez-faire attitude to cheers from the audience after the "Let him die" incident at the CNN/Tea party debate and their stony silence after some in the crowd booed a gay soldier at the Fox News debate. In the latter case it was homophobe Rick Santorum's weaseliness that stood out. The former PA senator said he never heard the boos -- a statement perhaps not meant to be factual.

"It's my opinion-ism" isn't limited to Republicans, of course. In the heat of the 2008 battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton was asked by 60 Minutes whether candidate Barack Obama was a Muslim. Instead of a simple "No," she took a page from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's slimy playbook, averring "I take him (Obama) at his word." She made a further play for the know-nothing voting block(head) by adding that Obama wasn't a Muslim "As far as I know." Twelve percent of Americans still believe the president is a Muslim -- up from ten percent a few months ago -- so I guess this leaves that question in the court of public opinion.

When it comes to bald-face lying, though, Republicans do it meaner and better. Their dissembling is exceeded only by their hypocrisy. When it comes to reproductive choice, medical marijuana, raising taxes and a host of other issues that are debatable, "It's my opinion" becomes "It's my way or the highway."

As Herman Cain likes to say, in a phrase sure to warm the hearts of condescending CEOs everywhere, "End of discussion."

 

Follow Michael Sigman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/majorsongs

Comments

[Dorothy Hull]

02:16 AM on 10/13/2011

Michael Sigman shows these Republicans up for what they really are: weaselly hypocrites who obstruct legislation, but don't propose any plan of their own! They are against anything the President proposes.

Dorothy Spafard Hull

[Nonpartay]

02:59 PM on 10/14/2011

And what's really amazing is that people actually vote for these people!

[Red45]

08:47 PM on 10/15/2011

Do tell! F+F

[tb91006]

10:11 PM on 10/12/2011

Sigman your facts are incorrect. The facts are 97% of the females are sold abortions because this service is what provides the staff and doctors their salaries and pensions. The numbers you are providing are skewered by Planned Parenthood. Let me educate you on how this works. If a patient comes in and they are provided 5 months of birth control and 5 condoms and an examination and ultimately got an abortion that client would show 12 services with one service being counted as an abortion and the other 11 being other services provided. The mere fact that they performed around 340,000 abortions last year should in itself raise the red flag that only 3% of their services were abortions.

[Gunderan]

09:08 AM on 10/13/2011

if you go by money of course an abortion costs more than giving out advice and free condoms. I think you have made the authors point.If you are male then of course a return the 19th century robber barron culture and company towns appeals to you. If you are a woman then you would have to be insane to vote Republican. Planned Parenthood is a good thing but of course having educated voters means they wouldnt vote for the Republicans.

[Nonpartay]

03:09 PM on 10/14/2011

Sounds more like your opinion to me, and we all know how Republicans just make up stuff and claim how their opinions are facts. How would you know any of this? And btw, abortion is legal, remember? It's a woman's right to take care of her own body any way she sees fit. And no one is "sold" an abortion. That's a highly personal decision that no woman takes lightly. A friend of mine described the experience, and there was no selling involved. She had to see a counselor before the procedure and make sure it was what she wanted. There was no pressure to have one at all. But there was no pressure not to have one either. It was all about making sure it was really what the woman wanted. This was 40 years ago, and I don't know if things are still that way--I'm sure it isn't everywhere--but you really need to get your facts right. I went to Planned Parenthood when I was young, and they were fantastic. I had health insurance, too, but it was just more convenient to go there for my reproductive health needs than a regular doctor since they had better hours, weren't expensive, and really knew about all aspects of women's health.

[Red45]

08:50 PM on 10/15/2011

Very well said. Badged and faved. already a fan.