If it walks like a toad, talks like a toad, and acts like a toad, it is a toad. So it is with radio personality Rush Limbaugh, who has managed to be a sideshow to the sensitive contraception mandate issue by calling Georgetown student Sandra Fluke a "slut" for testifying in support of the proposed mandate as it stands.
My thinking is that if the government wants to offer free birth control coverage, it should offer it directly and not mandate that businesses or private insurers do so. At the least, it should broaden its religious exemptions. The Catholic Church's opposition to artificial contraception is outside the mainstream and is thereby finding itself an easy target for denying freedom of conscience as an institution with employees at hospitals and universities. If cooler heads prevailed they could easily hammer out an agreement on this issue that respected both sides. However, President Obama wants the votes of women, the GOP want the votes of social conservatives, and the media loves a circus, so I can't say that I'm optimistic...