"Back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly."

- Foster Freiss, interviewed on MSNBC, February 16, 2012

It has been a thunderous few days. Republicans, having vowed to put aside cultural issues to focus on the economy, focused once more on ... well ... you know.

Foster Freiss, THE major financial backer of Rick Santorum, contributes heavily to other causes as well. He is a six figure level donor to Republican Governor Scott Walker's efforts to avoid a recall effort at the hands of outraged constituents in Wisconsin. But mostly he boosts former Senator Santorum. Mitt Romney is forced to battle for conservative souls by raging against any effort to interfere with employers who merely wish to exercise their religious freedom, standing against the immorality of women employees who may want to use birth control.

You would think the latest effort of Foster Freiss on behalf of Santorum, an appearance on MSNBC to joke about the promiscuity of modern women who use birth control, would produce a tidal reaction that would last for weeks. It still might. But, for now, there are other amazing events that eclipse it.

For one thing, the Honorable Darrell E. Issa (R-CA), Chair of the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on the entire contraceptive controversy. You can kind of get the tone by the official title of the hearing: Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?

If you wonder toward what opinion the Chairman is disposed, you are just the movie goer to pay top price for the best seats at the premier showing of Rocky 9, just to find out who will win the final round.

Representative Issa had an impressive line of witnesses. Religious leaders and conservative college professors. They all had in common a disdain for the administration compromise that would provide contraceptives to women employees without requiring church related employers to do the providing.

That the witnesses were all men was a fact not lost on Democratic members of the committee. They asked that one lone woman be included. Their prospective counter-witness was a college student prepared to testify about serious health effects among her classmates because of denial of contraceptive coverage. One cancer victim lost an ovary. Contraceptives are a major part of treatment for ovarian cancer.

Issa and other Republican committee members insisted the issue does not concern contraceptives. They narrowed the focus to religious objections by their witnesses to contraceptives for women employees. The woman proposed by Democrats as a witness was turned away. She was not allowed to testify. Several Democrats boycotted the hearing.

Public opinion is so far away from conservatives on this issue Sarah Palin can't see mainstream America from her window at Fox News. It is the political equivalent of The Producers, the Mel Brooks musical about efforts to embezzle financial backing by making a Broadway production fail. "Springtime for Hitler" becomes a shocking hit in the fictional account. This new effort at GOP self-immolation does not seem destined for similar success.

It's like some sort of Mack Sennett silent film. A Republican sets his hair on fire. A conservative supporter helpfully hands him a hammer.