What Komen - Planned Parenthood PR Debacle? For Rightbloggers, It's Win-Whine

tomt200.jpgLast week, breast cancer org Susan G. Komen for the Cure suddenly withdrew its support of Planned Parenthood. In response, many Planned Parenthood supporters complained. So Komen had to back down, which was a blow to its public image.

That's the story as seen by normal people. In rightblogger land, here's what happened:

Last week, Komen heroically withdrew its support of baby-killers. In response, totalitarian feminists bullied, jackbooted, and threatened to destroy them. So Komen had to back down, which was ultimately good for conservatism.

Komen's original decision got jumped right out of the gate, particularly on Twitter, and soon Democratic politicians, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG, The Decemberists, and even some Komen executives lined up against it.

Both Komen and Planned Parenthood claimed large upticks in donation pledges. But Komen took heavy PR damage (which they seem to have expected -- in December they got former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer to preemptively war-game the decision).

Fleischer wasn't the only one on their side, though. Rightbloggers engulfed Komen in a warm group hug.

National Review's Kathryn J. Lopez praised the defunding as "Taking Back the Pink... This Komen-Planned Parenthood relationship has long been a target of pro-life activists and, media bias aside, this appears to be a remarkable turning point... The 'icon' is broken, the myth is being shattered."

"Hats of to [Komen CEO Nancy G. Brinker] and her organization as they find out how committed the baby-killers truly are," said Rick Rice at Wizbang.

"One of America's most unabashedly corrupt and evil organizations has lost some of its funding," said Leon H. Wolf at RedState, "which is cause for at least some rejoicing." RedState chief Erick Erickson bade his disciples send Komen donations in gratitude.

At Get Religion, Mollie Hemingway shared a touching story about a friend who was doing Komen walks in honor of his mother, who suffered from breast cancer. Hemingway was going to contribute, but then she learned Komen gave money to Planned Parenthood, and confronted her friend: "He felt that the money offered to Planned Parenthood would not go to support abortions and therefore was not a dealbreaker," she wrote. "I could not in good conscience support a group that supported Planned Parenthood, even though I really wanted to support him in honoring his mother. Now, I can (and already have and will continue to do so)."

See? Planned Parenthood was keeping Mollie Hemingway from contributing to fight breast cancer. Who wouldn't be against such monsters?

Then came the Dolchstoßlegende! Jenny Erickson at The Stir, who was thrilled by Komen's decision (in part because, she said, Planned Parenthood "gives advice to pimps on how to set up brothels full of underage sex slaves"), seemed to see what was coming: "If it backfires," she shrugged, "and they lose more support from this decision, they can always go back to the way things were."

Well, it backfired -- spectacularly. Under public pressure, Komen released a statement that seemed to reverse its stand on Planned Parenthood -- "we will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood" -- though it left wiggle-room for a de-facto defunding in the future.

The rightblogger response was mostly one giant cry of "No fair."

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