Susan Komen and Planned Parenthood -- Hell hath no fury like a liberal scorned

It must have been quite a trying week for the people who run the Susan Komen foundation. This admirable group has been raising funds to help fight breast cancer and raise awareness of the disease for about thirty years. The foundation has done a great deal in the fight; it is to be commended. Then, earlier this week, Komen adopted rules regarding entities to which it makes grants of funds. Under the new rules, any entity under investigation by the government would no longer qualify to receive new grants from Komen. The policy certainly made sense since it removed from the rolls any organization which might turn out to be engaged in illegal activities.

Then all hell broke loose. Imagine, under the new rules Planned Parenthood could no longer qualify for funding since it is under a Congressional investigation for allegedly using federal funds to pay for abortion services. People on the left went crazy. Komen was engaged in a witch hunt according to Barbara Boxer, the California senator. Mike Bloomberg, the New York mayor, had his liberal sensibilities so upset that he donated a quarter of a million dollars to planned parenthood. After all, just because planned parenthood might be violating the law was no reason to cut off funding; it was barbaric! After a few days, Komen threw in the towel in the face of the assault.

The truth is that what we have witnessed this week has little to do with witch hunts. We were watching the left use its full force to attack a fine organization that was only trying to use its funds wisely. The private individuals who are in charge at Komen were browbeaten into following the madates of the liberal elites rather than the course dictated by their own opinions. It was really sad.

It is important to remember that the progressives who attacked Komen do not really care about the fight against breast cancer. This was a battle over abortion. If Komen could defund Planned Parenthood for allegedly illegally providing abortions with federal funds, the it could happen to any member in good standing of the liberal inner circle, and that was intolerable.