NRSC chair Cornyn still not sure about Kyl’s ‘not intended to be factual’ Planned Parenthood stats
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Last week, Twitter was host to a Stephen Colbert-encouraged pillorying of Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) following a spokesman’s claim that when Kyl said on the Senate floor that “well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does” is abortion-related, it was “not intended to be a factual statement” (Kyl disowned the explanation, and the spokesman later retracted it). Yet Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) is standing by his fellow Senate Republican’s original claim.
Evan Smith, CEO and editor-in-chief of the Texas Tribune, an Austin-based nonprofit news organization, sat down with Cornyn today and quizzed him on his party’s attack on social programs in general and Planned Parenthood specifically.
When Smith asked Cornyn, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, about Kyl’s inaccurate statistic, Cornyn took the tactic favored by high-profile birthers of asserting a keen desire to “learn more” about a controversial notion, about which there is already abundant evidence. On whether he agreed with Kyl’s initial claim, Cornyn had this to say:
Well, I’m not so sure. Here I am in the middle of the debate and I’m not so sure. I’ve been told that 98 percent of the services they offer to pregnant women are abortion-related services. I’m not sure, but I think we ought to find out.
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I actually went on Planned Parenthood’s website yesterday to try and see if I could get some good info, and I came up empty.
In fact, Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report (PDF) is freely available on its website and is easily accessed in the site’s “About Us” section. The report includes full disclosures of where Planned Parenthood allocates resources, as well as the exact information Cornyn claimed he couldn’t find, in a handy visual format. The report’s statistics on Planned Parenthood’s activities — and indicating that just 3 percent of what Planned Parenthood does is offer abortion services — were given new life by a pie chart passed around recently by The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein.
Incidentally, Smith’s joke that Planned Parenthood would appreciate getting Cornyn’s IP address may have been a dig at the senator’s 2009 introduction of a bill that would have forced Internet Service Providers to create fixed IP addresses for all users and log their activities. Cornyn claimed the bill was meant to aid in the fight against child sexual abuse, but critics said it would have favored telecoms by doing away with public wireless in restaurants and public buildings, and could have paved the way for selective censoring of online content. Cornyn laughed at the quip anyway.
Cornyn is a first class rear end. He is opposed to ANYTHING that the people want and need. He is opposed to dropping the so-called Defense of Marriage Act by lying, saying that the majority of Americans are opposed to same-sex marriage. THAT IS A LIE! Just today, 19 April 2011 it was shown that the MAJORITY of Americans are fair minded and are for dropping DOMA. It has been PROVEN that Kyle is full of Cornyn. I’ve written to this guy a couple score times and his staff have always answered with information that is useless. Id love to be able to call him a homophobic bigot and liar to his face but on the other hand, I don’t think I’d want to get that close to him lest I get arrested for assault.
Aren’t we Texans fortunate to have such a thoughtful senator representing us? He clearly stops at nothing to learn the truth, and women’s health and welfare are one of his greatest concerns.
What Cornyn meant when he said that he came up empty was that he could not find any data supporting his claim. Any and all other information would have been ignored.
Gosh, I am so pleased to be represented by two such fine legislators as I am–Cornyn and Gohmert– neither of whom would recognize a fact that does not support their dogma. If they ever bothered to look for one, that is.
John Cornyn said, “I’m not so sure. I’ve been told that 98% of the services they offer to pregnant women are abortion-related services. I’m not sure but I think we ought to find out.”
Smart guy. Casually, flawlessly manipulative while artfully covering his own ass. If denim-clad pretty boy big John Cornyn decides he wants the G.O.P.nomination for President, I don’t see him having any problem getting it, a troubling thought….
John Cornyn is no dummy to say the least; he worded what he had to know was a MASSIVE lie in such a way that he could never be pinned down for having said it, much less sued for liable or slander.
Claiming he’d “been told” and that he was “not sure” sounds casual and friendly, but it very efficiently plants and fertilizes valuable propaganda with just enough subtlety that the people he’s pandering to would never notice those little disclaimers. They then spread that outrageously false statistic as truth.
Smart guy. This is the kind of political evil that operates more or less opposite the style of Donald Trump and the Tea Partiers; with subtlety and quiet class, above the fray, seemingly sincere but never shrill or stupid. People should seriously keep an eye on this guy.
