This is such a fun story!

[Content Note: Misogyny; hostility to agency; rape culture. NB: Not only women are in need of access to a full spectrum of reproductive services, nor are only women victimized by sexual violence in the US military.]

Politico has just a terrific story about the return of the "war on women." Ha ha the return?! I didn't realize it had gone away! Probably because it hadn't!

Not every Republican learned Todd Akin's lesson from 2012 – and Democrats noticed.

This week alone: Sen. Saxby Chambliss blamed sexual assaults in the military on hormones, conservative pundit Erick Erickson credited biology for male dominance in society and Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said working moms are making kids fail in school.

Democrats and liberal groups are seizing on these comments to reignite their 2012 strategy — rally the base to raise big money and put Republicans back on defense with women voters ahead of the mid-term elections.

"Women voters are paying attention — this week was a big reminder that the GOP assault on women's rights continues," said Jess McIntosh of EMILY'S List.

The group, which helps pro-choice women get elected to office, is planning to use Chambliss' remark in an email blast and social media campaign called "Great Moments In GOP Women's Outreach."

Inside the Senate, Democrats are beginning meetings to strategize their messaging on the issue, according to a Senate Democratic aide.

"This is not an issue for Harry Reid or Chuck Schumer to jump into. This is an issue for Patty Murray and Claire McCaskill and the women senators to jump into," the aide said. "We will take advantage of it, but this is the mold of the Planned Parenthood fight and the Blunt amendment fight. The female senators will take the lead. Part of the advantage of having a large number of women in your caucus is having people who are effective messengers on issues like this."

Republicans pushed back at the moves, accusing Democrats of politicizing issues like military sexual assault that should be bipartisan.

At the National Republican Senatorial Committee, GOP operatives sought to squash the controversy, trying to head off a rehash of lessons learned from the last election cycle, after which Republicans promised to be more sensitive when talking about women's issues.

"As a woman, the politicization of sexual assault or rape is offensive in and of itself. This is an important conversation to be had in congressional committees – it shouldn't be used as a page in Democrat politicos' playbooks looking to exploit this tragedy for political gain," said Brook Hougesen, NRSC spokeswoman.

"If Democrats want to debate the 'war on women', look no further than the agenda set by Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer," Hougesen said, turning the issue to the economy. "Women have had a difficult time finding work, and juggling multiple jobs and their personal lives with Democrats controlling the economy and the government for the last five years."

It goes on like that for two more pages.

The Republicans are totes misogynist, gender essentialist, consent-hostile dipshits! The Democrats are totes gonna point that out! But they're definitely gonna let the female Senators do it, because feminism is woman's work! I mean, the best reason to even HAVE female members of your Congressional caucus is so they can do feminism when it's politically expedient! And the Republicans are SO MAD about all this haymaking! OMG IT IS SO TOTALLY OFFENSIVE TO POLITICIZE ISSUES THAT DISPROPORTIONATELY AFFECT WOMEN! I mean, have you even LOOKED at the Democrats' agenda and how it disproportionately affects women in some way?!

Everyone is SO MAD about how everyone else treats women! That's for sure!

It's pretty cool how none of them actually seem to give the tiniest, infinitesimal speck of shit about women, though.

That institutional indifference while pretending to care SO MUCH about women, but really just treating us like a political football, is the real "war on women." And it never returns, because it never goes away.