Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter’s remark seemed to have no sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English. – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus must feel like Alice this week, after Democrats and the media snatched from his grasp and plunged through the rabbit hole with his straightforward point on Democrat absurdity. Let’s start with a Politico story:

Dems hit RNC chief for comparing GOP gender gap to a ‘war on caterpillars’

The headline completely mischaracterizes his statement. When conservative commentators criticize Republicans for not managing the media more deftly, they should keep this example in mind. It must be difficult to keep your wits about you when the seemingly normal tea party you are attending can instantaneously transition to one of the Mad Hatter’s, with everyone immediately playing along.  Here is what Priebus actually said: 

If the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars and mainstream media outlets talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we have problems with caterpillars,” Priebus told Bloomberg TV in an episode of “Political Capital with Al Hunt” airing Thursday night.

He is quite clearly making the point that Democrats and their allies work together to create frenzies that make Republicans look bad… and often times it works.  The reaction to his innocuous statement proves its truth. The disingenuousness of Obama’s deputy campaign manager is something to behold:

The Democratic National Committee and President Obama’s campaign pounced on Priebus’s comment, using it as further evidence that the GOP has a “war on women” demonstrated most recently through their opposition to the White House’s contraception mandate. The comment “shows how little regard leading Republicans, including Mitt Romney, have for women’s health,” said Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter in a statement… Cutter also demanded a response from Romney’s presidential campaign regarding the comment.”

Taking this response seriously would be utter insanity, as the Washington Post concedes:

That point is debateable. By our watching — and reading — Priebus is picking a fanciful idea (a war on caterpillars) to call into question the idea that Republicans are engaged in a war on women. He’s only comparing caterpillars to women if you accept the first premise — that the GOP is indeed conducting this war.

The larger point here is that Democrats are going great-guns to drive a wedge between Republicans (and specifically former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney) and women, using even the thinnest of threads — and that’s what this seems to be — to build a narrative that the GOP is no friend to females.

Debatable? I’m quite certain if you injected Stephanie Cutter with truth serum even she would admit her statements are preposterous. But that’s how this game is played. The Democrats and their allies in the media throw out anything that pops into their head, no matter how far-fetched, to attempt to impugn Republicans. This line of attack is crazy, so the Dems irrationality in this “caterpillar” instance will be purposefully forgotten in a day or so. But once in a while they find something that sticks, and the media latches on with them, and they don’t stop until they have a conservative carcass.

On the flip side, Nancy Pelosi holds a regular seat at the Mad Hatter’s table, where she pontificates on Catholic theology and blue cups, yet barely gets a notice. Republican politicians deserve their fair share of criticism, but we’d do well to have some humility with regards to the environment they operate within.

And if by some chance Priebus was comparing leftist feminists to caterpillars, perhaps he had this in mind:

‘Who are you?’ said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, ‘I – I hardly know, sir, just at present – at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.’

‘What do you mean by that?’ said the Caterpillar sternly. ‘Explain yourself!’

…Alice said nothing: she had never been so much contradicted in her life before, and she felt that she was losing her temper… And she thought of herself, ‘I wish the creatures wouldn’t be so easily offended!’