Lessons Not Learned--Handel's Hallelujah Chorus

I wanted to review some comments of one Karen Handel, the wingnut warrior alleged to be the driver of the bus she was eventually thrown under in the whole Susan G. Komen dumping Planned Parenthood debacle. She recently had a friendly interview with CBN, that got picked-up by somewhat less-friendly Rawstory.

Here's stuff she actually said:

“And lets remember Komen is a breast cancer organization,” Handel continued. “We’re not involved in politics or this type of guerrilla grassroots campaigning that Planned Parenthood unleashed on us. All for, not the sake of women’s health, but for the sake of politics and their political agenda, which should make all of us very, very concerned. 

“This was nothing sort of a shake down,” she said. “To watch what played out, and somehow an organization like Planned Parenthood to be held up as sort of the face of the women’s movement was stunning to me. There is clearly a real bias around this, that somehow the right to an abortion equals women’s rights, and I reject that. It is outrageous, absolutely outrageous. 

Handel ran in the Republican primary for Georgia governor in 2010, but lost in a tightly contested runoff to Nathan Deal. Part of her political platform was ensuring no taxpayer funds were used by Planned Parenthood.

So, politics wasn't involved until Handel got involved, with a previous agenda to defund Planned Parenthood,  and once Komen announced that the partnership was ended, a grassroots effort (which means, a "bottom-up" effort--not orchestrated by PP, even if they put up a petition or donation widget on their site--like dur, who wouldn't? But no--they did not orchestrate the response nor did they attack or politicize--)

Actually, the Komen decision politicized breast care eligibility by judging the women who sought exams or referrals from PP as "less-than" because PP services low-income people and also offers abortion services in the first place. Planned Parenthood was one avenue for low income women to get early detection--which could lead to early necessary cancer care. Breast cancer survivors are intimately cognizant of the importance of early detection and treatment. They often do know of someone whose cancer was not diagnosed early enough due to poor access, and they have every reason to be pissed without any influence from PP.

I appreciate that Karen Handel wants creative control over the songs that are sung for her in Wingnut Valhalla, but it is still too soon--we still know what her role was and how Komen failed as a result of her urging.

She disrupted, badly.