It isn't just Rand Paul grumbling about the Lewinsky scandal, with Reince Priebus seconding Rand. TTere's also this:
The Kentucky Republican Party called Monday on Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes to return a $500 contribution from filmmaker Woody Allen, who faces a renewed firestorm over years-old child molestation allegations....I agree with Peter Beinart that Rand Paul's repeated references to the Lewinsky scandal are an attempt on his part to appeal to an evangelical voter bloc that will be important in the 2016 primaries -- a bloc that isn't likely to gravitate to him without a nudge or two, despite his (and his father's) opposition to abortion.
But I also think the Republican Party just can't stand the thought that Todd Aiken lost and foregrounding Sandra Fluke and Obamacare contraceptive coverage helped Obama win. Here's the thinking, from a top GOP strategist:
War on Women? Does @DSCC encourage candidates to keep $ from those accused of sexual assault & sexual harassment? http://t.co/8iBtfpyEhS
— Brad Dayspring (@BDayspring) February 10, 2014This kind of thing didn't work for Republicans in the Clinton years, although they tried to attack both Bill Clinton and Woody Allen back then. (Gingrich, 1992: "Woody Allen having nonincest with a nondaughter to whom he was a nonfather because they were a nonfamily fits the Democratic platform perfectly.") It especially didn't work in 1992 or 1998, and I think Republicans still haven't gotten over that fact. Maybe they think it finally worked for them in 2000, when Al Gore may have suffered at the polls for Bill Clinton's sins. But mostly I think they still feel the universe is out of joint as long as Democrats have the upper hand with female voters. It's incomprehensible to them. And if they can't actually figure out how to win women back, they can at least play "I'm rubber, you're glue" with Democrats on the subject of women.
shorter gop: "im not the war on women, youre the war on women!" https://t.co/4xzUFtgI0f weeeeeak
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) February 10, 2014Indeed.
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UPDATE: Digby writes:
I think [Republicans] are hoping to trip Hillary Clinton up in some conservative jiu-jitsu on the current concerns with rape culture, inappropriate workplace intimacy and women's rights, by using Bill Clinton's scandals to throw liberal women off balance and ensure that the more traditional women have some tools to join the battle After all, a lot of younger women don't know the details of those scandals and a lot of people have probably forgotten them. It may have a different kind of salience today than it did then.Sounds right to me.
