WASHINGTON -- There is another horripilation on the campaign trail. Someone has told a joke that has roused the virtue police. I am speaking of the virtue police who are working for the grim forces of political correctitude. They do not find the joke very funny. The jokester is a supporter of Rick Santorum, and now he too is on the hot seat for it.
Late last week, his supporter, the amiable Foster Friess, perpetrated the joke. It went like this: "You know, back in my days, they'd use Bayer aspirin for contraceptives," the easygoing multi-millionaire philanthropist told MSNBC. "The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn't that costly." Kaboom -- all hell broke loose. According to the Washington Post, "the remark outraged women's groups and many others."
Who would those "many others" be? Democrat campaign strategists? Stockholders in Bayer aspirin? Actually, I have not found anyone whom I know who gave the joke a second's thought, and my confreres include members of the Concerned Women for America, scores of fellow bird watchers, and many people who use Bayer aspirin every day, particularly after reading the Washington Post.
Actually, the Post would be on firmer ground if it had spoken merely of "someAL) women's groups." And let me add that even the complaints cited were pretty lame. I heard on CNN Friday some feminists gassing on about Friess' joke, and they brought up Santorum's response to it. Santorum said that it was a "bad joke" but that he was "not responsible for it ... that is 'gotcha'" politics.
Well, it is preposterous "gotcha" politics. One of CNN's feminists went on to say that it was time for Santorum to "put on his big-boy pants." How cruel and insensitive is that?! Since when do women remark on a man's pants? What if Santorum cannot afford to buy a pair of big-boy pants?
Then the Democrats pivoted from Friess' joke to the question of contraception. They are going to make an issue in this campaign of contraception! Allegedly, the Republicans are against contraception. Truth be known, I cannot recall any election ever in American history that revolved around the issue of contraception.
If the Democrats are going to continue at this infantile level, I would respond by accusing them of wanting to outlaw the passenger car in favor of returning America to the era of the buckboard. "Why, Mr. Obama, do you want us to return to the horse and buggy?" There is plenty of evidence that leading Democrats hate the passenger car. What is all this talk about bullet trains and mass transportation, if not a not-so-subtle call for the return of the horse and buggy?