Maddow blasts GOP for talking about jobs while legislating against women

In an unusually blunt and plain-spoken segment on Friday night's "The Rachel Maddow Show," host Rachel Maddow tore into Republicans for claiming that they care about jobs numbers when all they actually do on Capitol Hill is try to pass more and more laws restricting abortion, even when they know those bills are doomed to fail.

Thursday saw the release of disappointing jobs numbers, which has been a blow to the Obama administration. Republicans seized on the news and responded with a PR blitz, criticizing President Barack Obama and his economic policies.

A closer look at the numbers, however, shows that the jobs being lost are government and other public sector jobs, losses that are coming about as a result of Republican austerity programs and budget cuts. The very drop in jobs numbers that the GOP is decrying is a result of its own policies, said Maddow.

And yet, for all their talk about jobs, their only consistent legislative focus has been anti-abortion legislation. According to Maddow, after all the Thursday morning jobs ballyhoo, Republicans hurried to the House floor "to get to work on what it is they actually work on, which is yet another Republican anti-abortion bill."

For Republicans, Thursday's work day was all about trying to pass an expedited anti-abortion bill that, as a result of its being placed on a legislative fast-track, needed a two-thirds majority to pass. When it didn't, and Democrats voted it down, Republican devoted the rest of their day to crafting an non-expedited version of the same bill, one that could pass with a simple majority.

This bill, Republican leadership conceded, would probably fail as well, but, said Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), "I think we're doing the right thing strategically" by forcing Democrats to vote against it.

"So, we know it will fail," said Maddow, "but we like making Democrats vote on abortion anyway. It just feels good. Also, it passes the time! Jobs, jobs, jobs!"

Watch the clip, embedded via MSNBC, below:

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