Corbett Ultrasound Comment Still Making Waves

By Eric Boehm | PA Independent

HARRISBURG – As if drubbing the Republicans in last year’s national elections were not enough – thanks in no small part to GOP candidates’ tendency to flub, gaff and flail their way through numerous questions on sensitive issues like rape and abortion – national progressives trotted out 16 of what they called the stupidest right-wing sound bites for a “March Madness”-style bracket to coincide with the 2013 NCAA basketball tournaments.

And our very own Gov. Tom Corbett was crowned the champion Wednesday morning for his less-than-suave comments in March 2012 about a Republican-backed bill to require ultrasounds before abortions.

Corbett said he was fine with the requirement because there was no way to make a woman watch – all you have to do is “shut your eyes,” he said.

But Corbett’s comments – obtuse and awkward though they were – have been taken out of context by individuals and groups on the left to score political points.

As Pete DeCoursey of Capitolwire pointed out last week, the comments Corbett made about the ultrasound bill indicated he was not comfortable with the type of internal ultrasound (or “trans-vaginal ultrasound”) that some Pennsylvania Republicans were trying to require before abortions.

But Michael Morrill, a progressive activist (and plenty of others who have used Corbett’s words in blog posts, emails and fundraising missives), has it wrong when he says the governor was endorsing an internal ultrasound.

From DeCoursey’s column:

The governor first says he only supported it “as long as it’s not obtrusive,” adding “as long as it’s on exterior, not interior,” then gets into the remarks Morrill noticed. And he said that in the very same comments Morrill is making a federal case out of. Mike Morrill is a smart guy and he knows that the words “on exterior, not interior” mean. They mean the probe would not be inside of a woman. Morrill also knows better than to play up two sentences of a quote while pretending two preceding sentences did not exist.

The bill never got so much as a committee vote, by the way.

Yet a year later we’re still hearing about the governor’s thoughts on it.

Sure, it wasn’t Corbett’s greatest moment. But the more interesting thing about the comment is what it reveals about the echo chamber on the political left.

Within days of Corbett making the “shut your eyes” remark last March, the video clip was on heavy rotation on progressive blogs like Keystone Politics, Daily Kos and ThinkProgress (who, by the way, used our video without crediting us).

From there, it made the jump to the Huffington Post and MSNBC, where Rachel Maddow prominently featured it on her show about a week after Corbett said it.

By then, the same bloggers and activists who started the circulation were able to pick up clips of their favorite national liberal pundits discussing the clip and post those clips to their websites.

Soon, Democratic campaign machines were using the clip in fundraising emails and getting candidates to blast the governor (which prompted more feverish blogging about those activities).

And now it’s been recycled again in this “March Badness” tournament. Round and ‘round we go.

Of course, this phenomenon is not unique to the left. The political right does the same thing when the opportunity arises.

And Corbett deserves some of the mocking he got because of the comment – but Morrill and others should at least give the proper context for it.

Boehm is bureau chief for PA Independent. He can be reached at Eric@PAIndependent.com