Republican senators bravely stand up for the rights of rapists and abusers

You can tell just how insane the Republican Party has become when it can't even agree that prosecuting and reducing violence against women is a no-brainer. For nearly two decades, even Republicans supported the Violence Against Women Act, because what kind of horrible, rotten excuse of a human being would publicly take issue with that?

Well, on Tuesday, when the Senate voted, again, to re-authorize the VAWA, 22 senators'all Republicans, all men'raised their hands to proudly proclaim, "I am that kind of horrible, rotten excuse of a human being!"

Let's take a look at some of these brave defenders of the sacred right to rape and beat the shit out of women:

• There's Marco Rubio of Florida, the savior du jour of the Republican Party. He's the guy Republicans think will make them seem reasonable and not at all the party of old white guys because, hey, his parents are from Cuba and he speaks Spanish. Which is why, of course, he should have even greater sympathy for immigrants, and yet, for some reason, he has a real problem with VAWA protecting immigrants. Huh. Go figure.
• There's Dr. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who never shies away from invoking his medical expertise to justify, say, opposing reproductive health care for women. See, when he supports laws to strip women of their rights, it's because he's a doctor, and he's simply acting out of concern for women. As a doctor. Funny that in all his years of practice, he apparently never encountered a victim of rape or domestic violence. Hell of a "doctor," that guy.
• There's Rand Paul of Kentucky, who thinks the government doesn't have the right to do a single thing except crawl up inside your vagina and regulate the hell out of it. Oh, and there was that one time in college when he kidnapped a woman'you know, as a joke. But hey, he probably has a really good reason for standing up for the rights of woman-beaters. Besides self-interest.
• Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is the very model of chivalry, so it's hard to understand his opposition. After all, he so generously offered to mansplain how math and numbers and budgets work to his fellow Wisconsinite, Tammy Baldwin, when she was elected to the Senate in 2012. Guess he's fickle that way. He'll help the girls with their math homework, but if they get beaten, they're on their own.
• James Inhofe of Oklahoma doesn't want to lift a finger to combat violence against women, but that's probably because he knows it isn't a real problem. Just like he knows climate change isn't a real problem. Just like he knows properly training and protecting women who are already in combat in the military isn't a real problem. In fact, the only real problem that concerns Inhofe is how to stop The Gays from taking over the world with their big gay agenda.

You can go below the fold for the full list of Republicans who don't give a damn about women. And be sure to sign the petition from Daily Kos and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee urging House Republicans to protect all women by passing the Senate version of the expanded, bipartisan Violence Against Women Act.