Mainstream Republicans of Washington Stand for Planned Parenthood When Convenient

We thought that the Washington State GOP was taking the Anthony Weiner thing too far by asking Jay Inslee to give an 11-year-old donation back to him, and we thought it was over when Inslee turned around and gave the $1,000 in question straight to Planned Parenthood. But a separate State Republican organization, Mainstream Republicans of Washington* ("a centrist, socially moderate arm of the Republican Party," in their own words), isn't letting it go.

MRW co-chair Louise Miller says that Inslee, a longtime supporter of Planned Parenthood, is damaging the pro-choice cause: "It’s irresponsible for Jay Inslee to use Planned Parenthood to clean up his mess - Planned Parenthood is already under attack and to attach them to a partisan sex scandal is really stupid." She added, "Inslee should have just given this money to a food bank or the Red Cross,” but wouldn't that, by this logic, tied them up in the "mess"?

The press release sent by the organization also made sure to point out that MRW Board member and Chair of Republican Women for Choice** Samantha Cotton said, “When
politicians like Jay Inslee use abortion as a political weapon it threatens women’s rights.”

The big question is, despite MRW Executive Director Alex Hayes saying that he wants the scandal to pass, why would they bother with this? One theory: they're trying to position favored Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna as a moderate. MRW's political giving has been scarce recently -- they have made no political contributions in 2011 so far, and only a handful last year, according to PDC records -- but with a gubernatorial election coming up, and no Republican Washington State Governor since 1985, perhaps they see a moment of relevancy for their organization. Although, as our own astute Everett Rummage pointed out, a moderate is only one of McKenna's many hats.

Compounding this theory, Hays also commented, “If Inslee keeps making angry decisions like this, his campaign will never pull ahead of McKenna.”

As of this posting, Inslee has not announced gubernatorial candidacy yet.

Despite MRW obviously pushing the utmost authorities on pro-choice activism in the state forward, I figured I'd ask someone a tiny bit closer to the issue what they thought.

"Congressman Inslee has a long history of standing with Planned Parenthood and standing up for women's health, both personally, and in the U.S. House of Representatives," said Planned Parenthood Votes Political Director Dana Laurent, adding that the group is "overreaching by talking about an 11 year old contribution." Inslee, she says, has always supported Planned Parenthood, even when he's not trying to pass off a Weiner donation.

Some days, you can't get rid of a Weiner check:

* As far as I can tell from the Federal Election Commission and the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, the MRW has never given to Planned Parenthood. Their biggest contribution was $85,000 in 2005 to Keep Washington Rolling; besides that, and their federal PAC moving money back into the local one, their largest contribution to anybody was $1600.
** I can find no evidence that this organization exists on Google, the Federal Election Commission or the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission. Perhaps they are a casual cocktail group? I also tried to search to see if Cotton had given to any pro-choice organizations -- she'd only given to MRW.