Carly Fiorina is being talked about as VP material on the McSame ticket. I’m thinking the failed head of Hewlett Packard isn’t exactly what one wants on the ticket, but McCain needs to appeal to women, so. . . ho hum. Fiorina herself made an attempt this week at appealing to issues women find important. Alas, she advocated policies that are in contradiction to McCain’s voting record. Worse still, Carly Fiorina mentioned the words “Viagra” and “birth control.” Republicans generally don’t like those words spoken out loud without sure condemnation attached. (Well, those Republicans not named Dole.) Here’s Carly Fiorina’s words, from PrimeBuzz at the Kansas City Star:

According to an account in The Washington Post, Fiorina said, “There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra” – O.K., she just invoked one of those never-to-uttered-in-a-national-campaign words – “but won’t cover birth control” – two more – “medication.”

“Women,” Fiorina said, “would like a choice.”

“Choice?”

A reportedly top candidate for vice president on the Republican ticket who has the ear of the presidential nominee using the word “choice,” and in a positive way?

It is true that some health insurance plans include provisions for men who need a bit of chemical encouragement, and I’m not sure that is wrong. It is also true that many health insurance plans do not cover birth control, even though that might save a whole lot of expense when they have to cover unplanned pregnancies. No, women are not happy with that issue…

What Fiorina evidently does not know is that McCain has been consistent in support for Viagra, and in not supporting reproductive choice, even at the level of birth control. This bit from the San Francisco Chronicle clears things up a bit about McCain’s record:

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, the nation’s leading abortion and reproductive rights group, told The Chronicle that she sent Fiorina a copy of McCain’s voting record on women’s health issues this week after Fiorina publicly misrepresented McCain’s positions.

Fiorina made the comments - reported by the Washington Post - during a speech about women and health insurance, in which she argued that “many health insurance plans cover Viagra but won’t cover birth-control medication. Those women would like a choice.”

Keenan said a McCain presidency would offer women no such choice. “Obviously, she doesn’t know his record,” she said. “He really did vote against a proposal that would have required insurance companies” to cover prescription contraception in the same way they pay for Viagra.

It wasn’t the first such slipup, Keenan said. Fiorina’s public reassurance to a group of former Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters in Columbus, Ohio, raised hackles after she said the Arizona senator “has never signed on to efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade.”

But McCain has repeatedly underscored his opposition to abortion and has said on the campaign trail that the landmark law that protects a woman’s right to abortion procedures “should be overturned.”

The fun part comes when Mr. StraightTalker himself is asked about the issue. He evidently blushed. And he stammered. And he couldn’t remember which way he voted on the issue of birth control. Oh, John McCain did not talk straight. Huffpo’s Charles Babington covered this, but this little snippet is from MSNBC:

Maeve Reston of the Los Angeles Times, the pool reporter on the bus, asked McCain about comments advisor Carly Fiorina made earlier this week, calling it unfair that insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control.

“I certainly do not want to discuss that issue,” McCain said to nervous laughter, according to the pool report. He went on to say he did not know what he voted for on the issue.

“I’ll look at my voting record on it,” he said, before an extended pause. “I don’t recall the vote right now. But I’ll be glad to look at it and get back to you as to why.”

Pressed by Reston whether it was fair that some insurance companies cover the erectile dysfunction medication but not birth control, he gave another long pause, clocked at eight seconds.

“I don’t know enough about it to give you an informed answer,” he said, “because I don’t recall the vote. I’ve cast thousands of votes in the Senate.”

Man, John McCain is stammering here so much that you’d think someone had accused him of using Viagra while in the bathroom stall at the Minneapolis airport. Of course, there is no excuse for not remembering one’s position on the issue. Reproductive choice is always a big electoral issue in this country. McCain simply didn’t want to admit that he’d voted against contraception coverage. He wants votes from women very badly. His handlers made the standard whiney excuses. Standard, I think, for the upcoming campaign where the “StraightTalker John McCain will use others as often as he can to make his whiney excuses for. . . not talking stright.