| It's less than a week after the giant Komen fiasco and people are still asking what seems like an obvious question: How could such a principled, benevolent organization get so badly led astray?
If you look at the people at the top, the people making the decisions and pulling the strings, not only is the answer obvious, but the question is seen as badly misguided.
We'll touch lightly on the big boss, who went on MSNBC in the midst of the controversy to lie about their decision, and has so far paid no price for her actions.
Let's just take one step down the corporate ladder, though, and see who's running the organization.
First in this rogues' gallery must be Karen Handel, a right wing former Georgia Secretary of State who was endorsed by Sarah Palin to "fight what the federal government will want to do to our states" when she ran for governor. Even before she was hired by Komen, Handel was saying "since I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood."
Another key player, an outside consultant rooted in the extreme right, is the odious Ari Fleischer, whose prior job was telling lies for George W. Bush. When Komen was looking for a new Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations they called on Fleischer to run the search. According to a source with first-hand knowledge, Fleischer drilled prospective candidates during their interviews on how they would handle the controversy about Komen's relationship with Planned Parenthood. You might consider that a pretty normal question, except that Fleischer was already on record as an enemy of Planned Parenthood. In his book, Taking Heat, Fleischer criticized Planned Parenthood as a partisan, ideological organization that receives undeserved positive coverage in the press. In 2001, Fleischer said that the Clinton administration verged too far to the left on family planning efforts because "if Planned Parenthood wanted it, the previous administration favored it."
Finally, from the outside the anti-woman, anti-choice forces were supported by Charmaine Yoest, who runs Americans United for Life, who has been attacking Planned Parenthood for years. Americans United for Life has, for the past year, aggressively pushed Congress to end Planned Parenthood's federal funding. It has also drafted model legislation that states can use to bar abortion providers from receiving federal funds. Nine states have passed such laws, although the Obama administration has blocked their implementation. If you think this is the end of her war against Planned Parenthood, think again. Ezra Klein reports that she darkly warns that she will be "be looking at their other supporters." It was her work that got the bogus Congressional witch hunt against Planned Parenthood started.
So there you have it. The Komen organization is closely tied to a variety of anti-woman hate groups, and there isn't any sign that's going to change anytime soon. |
