join me now are abbey huntsman and jess mcintosh.en the catholic church is more flexible on social issues than sarah palin and the gop? >> it might shock you to learn that i am not actually a papal scholar. but it sounds like the pope is pretty much in line with a lot of the american public in that it is 2013. and we are surprised though find ourselves debating and redebating contraceptive use and abortion. on emily's list we do a lot of polling of voters and women of all stripe, republican, democrat, moderate, independent, want to be talking about jobs and the economy, just like i'm assuming the catholic church wants to be talking about what can we do to help the poor and working families. they don't want to be relitigating these social issue fights that we thought our mother's generation put to bed. but this is what happened in 2012 with the rise of the tea party. and we're seeing it continue through 2014. >> you know, abbey, rush limbaugh called sandra fluke a prostitute nearly two years ago because of her defense of contraception

joining me are former pennsylvania governor ed rendell and jess mcintosh. thank you both for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> our pleasure. >> jess, how important has the abortion issue been in the virginia race? >> look, i think women's issues, women voters have been absolutely critical in virginia. because they have a candidate who is literally the human embodiment of the republican war on women. we saw in 2012 historic gender gaps. more women turned out for democrats than ever before in history. and it was because they were rejecting a buffet of terrible policies that roll back the clocks on women's rights and opportunities. and ken cuccinelli has accepted every item on that menu. that's why we'll see even more women turning out today. >> governor rendell, it's been a major problem with the gop, the gender gap. in 2012 the president bested mitt romney among women by 12 points, 55-43. and today in virginia the gap is twice that. cuccinelli trails by 24 points among women. when will they learn, governor? >> it's amazing. you would have thought 2012 w

joining me now are krystal ball and jess mcintosh. thanks for both coming on the show. >> thanks for having us, rev. >> krystal, let me start with you. 32 republicans today voted for discrimination against gays. if that were not enough, they're still going after women's rights. why haven't they learned anything, krystal? >> well, i think the problem is they sort of set this train in motion and now they're not able to get off of it. i mean, they've been feeding their base this far right rhetoric saying the world is going to end if we allow women to make their own decisions, if we allow gay people the same basic rights that everyone else expects and is granted in this country. so when you've allowed that rhetoric to take hold in your base, you can't all of a sudden then turn around and say we've had a change of heart. actually those things we said before, just ignore that because now we want to go in this direction. lindsey graham is a prime example here. he's facing a potentially tough challenge in a primary in a conservative state. he