New conservative advocacy group alert! Conscience Cause, founded by several former Bush administration officials and other socially conservative boldface names, will try to “stop the implementation of a Department of Health and Human Services regulation which would compel people and organizations to pay for drugs and services that violate their faith.” In other words, they want to make sure that employers that find birth control icky can find ways to not provide it to their employees, although former Bush adviser Mary Matalin tells Politico “this group … does not have a uniform view of contraception.”
The group also includes former RNC chairmen Ed Gillespie and Jim Nicholson and former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, a Democrat who has endorsed Romney. Flynn called the Department of Health and Human Services mandate that all employees’ health insurance plans cover birth control a challenge to “freedom and the protection of our religious values.” Says Matalin: “I love the Church, I love the Constitution. This is at the crossroads.” Clearly, Conscience Cause would rather you focus on the idea of religious freedom rather than Rush Limbaugh’s recent “slut” outburst.
In other Bush administration alumni news, Dick Cheney has canceled an April appearance in Toronto because Canada is just too dangerous. “He felt that in Canada the risk of violent protest was simply too high,” Ryan Ruppert, who booked Cheney for the Metro Toronto Convention Center, explained.
