COMMENTARY | Foster Friess, a 71-year-old investor who has given money to Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign, got himself and his candidate in a little trouble for his take on the birth control controversy, according to Reuters.
Friess repeated a decades-old joke about the cheapest birth control pill being a Bayer Aspirin. The trick is the girl has to keep it between her legs throughout the date. I first heard it from a friend whose Southern Baptist preacher father used to use the story as an admonishment to keep chaste. It did not work insofar as my friend was, incidentally.
It was a rather lame joke, but the reaction to it was even lamer. Andrea Mitchell, who has interviewing Friess, has to pronounce herself breathless at the old gentleman’s take on contraception. Jonathon Capehart, writing for the Washington Post, took Friess’ attempt at humor seriously, calling it “stupefying, backward and dangerous.” Then he went on a rant about what a Neanderthal Friess is and, by extension, Santorum.
At least he didn’t shout, “G-D-America!” as the close friend and spiritual adviser of a certain president once did.
Friess was forced to offer a gentlemanly apology and Santorum an explanation that he cannot be held personally responsible for everything a supporter might say.
The whole incident serves as an object lesson. President Barack Obama can associate with a wild eyed, ranting preacher and “pal around” (to use the phrase by Sarah Palin) with a former terrorist and the media will yawn.
But a man of obviously antique moral scruples who happens to be a supporter of a conservative presidential candidate can tell a joke fathers have been telling their children for generations, and the media will have the vapors like a bevy of Victorian doyens confronted by a streaker.
It’s a testament to the culture of “gotcha!” journalism, at least where righties are concerned, that Friess’ little joke did not get the response it deserved: An audible groan and then moving on to another subject. Instead Friess might as well have advocated the return of the chastity belt as a birth control method. It is silly but more than a little sad.
Sources: Santorum backer apologizes for contraception remark, Susan Heavey, Reuters, Feb 17, 2012
Foster Friess is a real pill on contraception, Jonathon Capehart, The Washington Post, Feb 16, 2012