The US Senate passed the Violence Against Women Act intact, with badly needed protections for thousands of domestic violence victims who currently have no protection under the act. VAWA passed 68-31. Would it shock you to learn that those 31 "no" votes were all Republicans---and all men?

That's the good news. The bad news is that Republicans in the House, led by Washington State Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA, 5) are pushing an alternative proposal---which McMorris Rodgers, incredibly, said will protect "the true victims of domestic violence and sexual assault"---that does not provide any of the Senate version's protections for Native American women, gay women, rural women, and some illegal immigrants. (The latter provision is aimed largely at protecting so-called child and mail-order brides brought into the country illegally and under false pretenses.)

McMorris Rodgers' statement is worth repeating. "House Republicans are committed to protecting the true victims of domestic violence and sexual assault," she said. "True" victims---those worthy of protection---in other words, do not include Native American women, women who live in remote rural areas, children and women sold into sex slavery, or lesbians.

(Meanwhile, Obama has threatened to veto a Republican bill that preserves low student loan interest rates by gutting a provision of the health-care bill that provides mammograms and cervical cancer screenings for thousands of women.)

And the Republicans wonder why women hate them?