Laura Bush says there's room enough for everyone

EB: Some of the issues with women in the country, obviously, you know last time more than half the women voted for President Obama, in part because of abortion, gay marriage, issues like that. Do you think the Republican Party has made a mistake in doubling down on those issues and making social issues so central to the platform? LB: Well, no, I mean, I wouldn't say that necessarily. And every candidate was different, each one of them. There were obvious examples of candidates that I think frightened some women, but they were the exception rather than the norm in the party. All of those social issues are very, very heartfelt by people. And I understand that. There are differences. There just will be. And I’m glad that in our party we have room for all of them. I think that's important too.

In what apparently was an extraordinarily slow news day at CNN, former first lady Laura Bush sat down with Erin Burnett to share her deep thoughts on how Republican men sort of scare the bejesus out of women. And no, she's not even talking about her husband emailing bizarre nude self-portraits to his sister. This is actually about the 2012 election.

Well, thanks for that political insight, Mrs. Bush. Obviously, it was only a few examples of the Republican Party who explained the virtues and "science" of rape, threatened to defund women's health care, and scoffed at such radical ideas as equal pay for equal work and trying to reduce violence against women. It's not like Republicans wrote their extremist "social issues" agenda into their party platform or anything. Except for how they did.

But that's just the kind of all-inclusiveness we've come to expect from the party that kicked out Arlen Specter, chased out Olympia Snowe, and teabagged Lisa Murkowski—all Republican senators who had the audacity to not make hating women their whole raison d'être (translation: freedom reason). So you see? The Republican Party is its own big tent, with room enough for everyone—the old white dudes who think rape isn't that bad, so just lay back and enjoy it, and the old white dudes who think rape is a gift from God.

