Politics

Top GOP woman: ‘What American women fear most of all is President Obama’s policies’

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WASHINGTON — The highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress is on offense against the charge that Republicans are engaged in a “war on women.”

“Over the last few weeks — as the House Republicans have been focusing on the economy and jobs — the Democrats have been trying to change the subject, and they’ve been trying to distract America from the real issues,” Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers told reporters at Tuesday’s Republican Leadership press conference. “They call it a ‘war on women.’ And as a woman, I’m here to tell you the Democrats are off base.”

McMorris Rodgers, who penned an opinion column on the subject for The Daily Caller on Monday, cited a recent CBS News/New York Times poll which found that 53 percent of American women side with the Republicans on the “conscience clause.” She noted that President Obama’s approval rating among women is at an all-time low, dropping 12 percentage points in the last month from 53 percent approval to 41 percent.

“And as Americans look deeper at these issues, what they see isn’t Republicans trying to undermine women’s health — what they see is the Democrats trying to scare American women. And it’s a scare tactic that isn’t going to work,” she said. “What American women fear most of all is President Obama’s policies: They fear his economic policies; they fear his health care policies; and they fear the debt he is leaving to our children and our grandchildren.”

North Carolina Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan responded to McMorris Rodgers’ comments on MSNBC, characterizing them as part of the “petty partisan gamesmanship” of the last few months.

“[Women] want us to stop this partisanship, stop this divisiveness and actually do some progressive work,” she said.

McMorris Rodgers and Hagan’s comments come as both the DNC and RNC have released dueling web videos hitting one another for their treatment of women.

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Caroline May