Boehner’s Rx for GOP’s Women Woes: Be More Sensitive
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ABC News(WASHINGTON) — Some Republican lawmakers have a sensitivity problem that hurts them with women voters, House Speaker John Boehner acknowledged in a press conference Thursday.
“You know, when you look around the Congress, there are a lot more females in the Democratic caucus than there are in the Republican caucus,” Boehner said. “And you know, some of our members just aren’t as sensitive as they ought to be.”
The comments come after a report in Politico indicating that the National Republican Congressional Committee is holding sensitivity training sessions to try to teach lawmakers how to avoid more of the headline-making and insensitive comments about women that hurt them in 2012.
In particular, Todd Akin, a former Congressman from Minnesota, lost his bid to oust incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill in the 2012 Senate race, in part due to the controversy stemming from his comments that pregnancy rarely occurs after “legitimate rape.”
According to Politico, the sessions schooled Congressmen and their aides on how to talk to women and how to run against female candidates.
Boehner added that he thinks his party is making progress.
Democrats have made the “War on Women” a nearly permanent staple of their attacks on Republican candidates nationwide.
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