Latest Ploy: Blame the Wife

Wife-beating is out, but wife-blaming is in—in some circles, that is. Look at how GOP presidential nomination front-runner Mitt Romney last week blamed his wife for writing a check to pro-choice women's health provider Planned Parenthood. C'mon, Mitt. The check was written from the joint checking account controlled by you and Mrs. Romney. And all one need do is head over to YouTube.com and watch the 2002 video of the telegenic Romneys (Mitt and Ann) proclaiming to a Boston TV interviewer their joint support for a woman's right to determine her own biological future. Ah, Internet video is a wondrous thing, leaving little doubt of the 180-degree whipsaw the former governor has done on abortion rights.

That was 2002. This is 2007. In the inconveniently intervening five years, Mitt Romney has stopped running for governor of—if not the bluest—one of the bluest states in the nation. Instead, he's running for the GOP presidential nomination, a selection controlled by the nation's reddest of conservative voters. No wonder he was pro-abortion rights then and is antiabortion rights now.

There's more wife-blaming going around. Before clearing his own record this weekend and admitting he supports abortion rights, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani let it be known that his half-dozen or so contributions to Planned Parenthood were made jointly with ex-wife Donna Hanover. C'mon, Rudy. Americans know you cannot win the New York mayoral race as an antichoice candidate any more easily than you can persuade the College of Cardinals to elect you pope as a pro-choice candidate in this day and age.

Besides, Americans no longer fall for the "I'm antiabortion, but pro-choice Republican women should support me because my wife is pro-choice" routine of both George Bushes, the elder and the younger.

Barbara and Laura let slip in clearly conniving interviews that they were sort of pro-choice. Look where that got pro-choice Republican women.