Hilary Rosen debacle is payback for Democrats over their Rush Limbaugh attacks and 'war on women' claims

By Toby Harnden

Published: 05:09 EDT, 13 April 2012 | Updated: 08:15 EDT, 13 April 2012

Hilary Rosen's comments were a spectacular own goal by Democrats but also a result of their recent overreach in attacking Republicans for a supposed 'war on women' and portraying Rush Limbaugh as the leader of the GOP.

Perhaps the most preposterous thing Rosen said on CNN last night was not the foolish 'never worked a day in her life' jibe aimed at Ann Romney but her contention that Republicans invented the notion of a 'war on women'.

'Well, first, can we just get rid of this word 'war' on women?' she said.

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A war of words: Huffington post editor Hilary Rosen, left, and Ann Romney, wife of Republican presidential candidate, Mitt, right

'The Obama campaign does not use it. President Obama does not use it. This is something that the Republicans are accusing people of using, but they're actually the one spreading it.'

The problem with that is (h/t Bob Obringer for most of these links) that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee drew up a petition protesting the 'Republican war on women'.

So too did the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. And Nancy Pelosi described the Ryan budget as a 'war on women'.

Not to mention such notorious Republican outfits such as NARAL, Emily's List, Daily Kos and MoveOn.org

Oh and then there was a person called Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who just happens to be chair of the Democratic National Committee. And as chance would have it was advised by, er, Hilary Rosen.

Rosen does not represent the Obama campaign, a Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom and former First Lady Barbara Bush have claimed. But she has visited the White House at least 35 times since Barack Obama became president and her firm SKDKnickerbocker (what a comically Washington name) has been paid $120,864 by the DNC this cycle alone.

Drama: One of Hilary Rosen's controversial Tweets in the debate over women in society

Among the people she met in the White House have been President Obama, Michelle Obama, and inner circle aides David Axelrod (now chief campaign strategist) and Valerie Jarrett.

The DNC says that the contract with SKDKnickerbocker was exclusively for the services of Anita Dunn, former Obama communications chief in the White House (and who also advised David Cameron during the 2010 UK election). Well, we haven't seen the contract and the Rosen's work for Wasserman Schultz means this hardly passes the smell test.

Obama spokesman Jay Carney's protestations that he knows three Hilary Rosens was a comical attempt to distance the White House from her (Rosen's response was: 'I don't know any other Hilary Rosens but Jay must. It's politics.'), as was Axelrod's point that John Boehner also visits the White House a lot.

Family: Ann and Mitt Romney with their 16 grandchildren and five children

The problem for the Obama campaign is that it leapt all over Republicans for not denouncing Rush Limbaugh's notorious 'slut' comments quickly or enthusiastically enough.

My feeling at the time was that politicians should not have to react to everything a talk radio host said. Similarly, campaigns should not have to 'own' everything a party strategist says on a cable show. But having used Limbaugh (who has no party position or role) as a stick to beat Republicans, Democrats were forced to own Rosen, who is at the apex of Democratic politics in Washington.

The 'war on women' meme certainly had an effect on support for Romney - issues like contraception are what Democrats want this election to focus on, rather than jobs and the economy.

But by portraying Republicans as anti-women, the Democrats left themselves open to a counter-attack the moment one of their own slipped up on a gender issue. The new Republican 'war on moms' meme is just as silly as the 'war on women' slur. But Democrats are not exactly in a position to complain.

The rapid and comprehensive disavowals of Rosen underlined the fact that this was not a fight the Democrats wanted to have. They realised that Ann Romney is extremely popualr and a major asset to the presumptive Republican nominee. And most Americans, Right or Left, instinctively respect a woman who raises five sons and also survives Multiple Sclerosis and breast cancer.

Oddly enough in all this, it was Democrats who played the lesbian card, accusing Republicans of attacking Rosen because she was gay (she adopted twins with her former partner Elizabeth Birch). Their evidence was a single tweet from the Catholic League. In fact, there was remarkable self-discipline on the Right in not bringing Rosen's sexuality into it.

But people like Axelrod and Jim Messina, the Obama campaign manager, are no fools. They realise that Ann Romney is a woman most heartland voters can relate to much more than Hilary Rosen.

The election won't be won or lost on what Rosen said on CNN seven months before the election. But they gave Romney the chance to unite Republicans behind him in outrage (albeit much of it synthetic) over stereotypical liberal disdain for stay-at-home mothers - and to stop the 'war on women' claims in its tracks.

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