GOP Madness 2012, Round 1, Match 11

The bracket thus far is here. Today's winner will face off in the second round against Romney's Etch-a-Sketch.

1. RON PAUL OPPOSES HONEST RAPES

Did you know that some rapes are such liars you just can't trust them?

MORGAN: You have two daughters. You have many granddaughters. If one of them was raped -- and I accept it's a very unlikely thing to happen -- but if they were, would you honestly look at them in the eye and say they had to have that child if they were impregnated?

PAUL: No. If it's an honest rape, that individual should go immediately to the emergency room. I would give them a shot of estrogen....

Like all fierce opponents of abortion rights, Ron Paul stumbles when dealing with the issue of rape and incest. Because if abortion is truly murder, then there should be no justification for ending a pregnancy. But if a "shot of estrogen" (his attempt to avoid saying "morning after pill") is such a trivial procedure and one without moral qualms, then why work so hard to deny it to all women?

But that's just a boilerplate contradiction in the conservative war against choice. It was Paul's talk of "honest rape" that made this moment stand out. What exactly was he proposing? Hooking up the rape to a lie detector test? An adjudication board that would render legal judgments as to the veracity of the rape? Or as Kaili wondered, "Is this a job for PolitiFact, who can offer its services to rate rapes as true, mostly true or pants on fire?"

Again, Kaili:

What is also stunning about this interview is that Dr. Paul is admitting he would administer emergency contraception in the case of rape, but he refuses to use that terminology. See, Politician Paul knows that "pro-lifers" oppose emergency contraception because they believe, wrongly, that it is a method of abortion. Dr. Paul knows it isn't, but instead of using the words "emergency contraception" or "Plan B" or "morning-after pill," he says he would administer a "shot of estrogen."

Which is rather odd, considering that the various morning-after pills available contain other hormones. A "shot of estrogen" is not the standard emergency contraception medication. So either Dr. Paul doesn't actually know how emergency contraception works, or he simply prefers his own homemade brand. Either way, that's a pretty odd sort of treatment coming from a doctor.

Reminds me of this guy:
2. RICK SANTORUM IS AGAINST WELFARE FOR "BLAH" PEOPLE

On the campaign trail in Iowa:

I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families.

Now that sort of thing plays great with conservatives, but not so great to a national audience. Thus, Santorum had to go into damage control. First, he blamed the comments on the documentary Waiting for Superman:

"I've seen that quote, I haven't seen the context in which that was made," Santorum told Pelley, of the Sunday remarks. "Yesterday I talked for example about a movie called, um, what was it? 'Waiting for Superman,' which was about black children and so I don't know whether it was in response and I was talking about that."

Then, he decided that it was just a "mumble":

'In fact, I'm pretty confident I didn't say 'black.' I started to say a word and sort of mumbled it and changed my thought. I don't recall saying black. No one in that audience heard me say that,' he said.

Then, finally, he settled on his final answer, which was that he was actually talking about those welfare-sucking blah people.

SANOTURM: I've looked at that quote, in fact I looked at the video. In fact, I'm pretty confident I didn't say black. I started to say is a word and then sort of changed and it sort of ' blah ' mumbled it and sort of changed my thought.

And btw, this is all stupid because, you know, he's the black Martin Luther King:

You guys, you guys ' it's really sad that you are bringing this up. It's just sad news. I've done more in the African-American communities as a Republican than any Republican in recent memory.'

Talk about a low bar.