As it presses the accusation that Republicans are waging a “war on women,” the White House has a key adversary saying otherwise on and off the Hill: the top-ranking GOP woman in the House, Washington state Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
“The war on women is a myth and it’s been manufactured by the Democrats as a wedge issue,” the vice-chairwoman of the House Republican Conference told PJM, stressing it’s “unacceptable” to be diverting attention away from the mounting national debt and economic insecurity.
McMorris Rodgers said Republicans won the women’s vote in 2010 midterm elections for the first time since the Reagan era, and she believes opposition to President Obama’s policies such as the healthcare law will drive women to the polls in 2012 as well.
“They do not want the federal government interfering with their ability to make decisions,” she said, stressing that women not only make 85 percent of healthcare decisions in this country but comprise the “vast majority” of healthcare professionals.
On the last day of healthcare arguments before the Supreme Court, McMorris Rodgers and nine other House Republican women held a press conference outside the Capitol to talk about their gender’s opposition to the healthcare law.
“As the Democrats keep talking about a ‘war on women,’ the biggest reason they haven’t gained any traction on this issue – according to polls – is that it only reminds women about what they don’t like about ObamaCare,” she said then. “And as women look at this entire controversy more closely, what they see isn’t Republicans trying to undermine women’s health, it’s that Democrats are trying to scare American women. But what American women really find scary are the president’s policies.”
The congresswoman also noted in her conversation with PJM that women are starting 400 new businesses every day and face burdensome taxes and regulatory efforts.
This puts the White House on the defensive, she charged.
“President Obama and the Democrats recognize they have to do better among women,” McMorris Rodgers said. “They’ve manufactured this war on women as a distraction.”
The contraception-mandate testimony of Sandra Fluke, for instance, was “all part of their campaign orchestrated to make a point and it’s unfortunate that we stepped in the trap.”
The fourth-term House member said she is “working to expose what I think is really going on — this is a campaign issue, this is a political ploy.” Republicans should “not allow President Obama and Debbie Wasserman Schultz to paint a false picture.”
“I think for a number of years the Democrats have talked to women like they are single-issue voters,” she said. “They are concerned about a whole host of issues: economy, energy, energy prices.”
McMorris Rodgers’ name is on most analysts’ veepstakes lists, considering her experience on the Hill and Mitt Romney’s need to build support among women voters.
Intrade has McMorris Rodgers at a 0.5 percent chance of being on the ticket and political expert Larry Sabato puts her in the fourth tier of potential VP picks, along with Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Race42012.com put the congresswoman at No. 7 in its March power rankings.
“I’m really focused on being the best representative I can be for the people of eastern Washington,” McMorris Rodgers said. “I’m really not expecting to be on the ticket or seeking to be on the ticket, for that matter.”
She did sign on as the chairwoman of Romney’s Washington state campaign, though, and does believe the race to get women voters will be closer than some recent polls have suggested.
“The issues that are impacting women are the same issues that are impacting Americans,” McMorris Rodgers said. “Those are the issues that Obama is going to be judged on. As much as Romney can talk about those issues, he’s going to appeal more.”
The congresswoman joined her colleagues Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) — also mentioned as a potential vice presidential nominee — in helping out the Romney camp in a call today to convince reporters that Obama’s economic policies are failing women.
“For more than three years, President Obama’s disastrous economic policies have wreaked havoc on women in the workplace with record levels of unemployment and the highest poverty rate in nearly two decades,” McMorris Rodgers also said in a statement issued Wednesday by the Romney camp. “Now the president has doubled down on his record of failure by proposing even more regulations and more taxes that will make it more difficult for women to find jobs. Mitt Romney supports pay equity for women and, as president, will do what President Obama has not – implement pro-growth economic policies that will allow women and all Americans to finally get back to work.”
The “war on women” debate steered in the past day toward working moms when Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen said on CNN that Ann Romney wasn’t a good adviser to her husband on women’s economic issues because she “has never worked a day in her life.” Ann Romney quickly joined Twitter and responded, “I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.”
Democrats included DNC Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz and David Axelrod criticized Rosen’s comments, while Rosen issued tweets directed at Ann Romney: “I am raising children too. But most young American women HAVE to BOTH earn a living AND raise children. You know that don’t u? … @AnnDRomney Please know, I admire you. But your husband shouldn’t say you are his expert on women and the economy. #HeNeedsMore”
McMorris Rodgers, 42, was minority leader of her home state’s legislature before stepping down to run for the House. A member of the conservative Republican Study Committee caucus, she is the first member of Congress to give birth twice while in office. Married in 2006 to a retired Naval commander, the couple welcomed son Cole in 2007 and daughter Grace in 2010.
“It’s not that much different for me than the millions of other moms that are juggling the demands of career and a family,” she told PJM earlier this week. “I have tremendous support from my husband … he carries a big share of the load.”
McMorris Rodgers plans a well-timed special order on the House floor to explain why Republican women are so, “putting the face of the Republican women out front.” She continues to hold “Heels on the Hill” networking events for women. And she urges women thinking about running for office to jump in the game.
She noted the record number of Republican women who ran for the House 2010 and the record number elected. “Women are seen as being better listeners, problem-solvers, trustworthy, honest, more likely to get the job done,” she said, and being Republican comes “with a fiscal responsibility brand.”
“She’s a big part of the solution as we move forward,” McMorris Rodgers would say to a woman interested in entering politics. “I would just encourage her to get in there and work to be a problem-solver.”
Among those who were evidently encouraged? The other congresswoman from Washington state, GOP Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, the youngest woman serving in the House and a onetime legislative analyst for McMorris Rodgers.
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