This is exactly what I want to see from the RNC: an adamant refusal to allow the Other Side to set the parameters of the fight.

Transcript below the fold.

THOMAS ROBERTS (MSNBC): …But is this the fact of the Republican Party or not? Because you say it’s a fiction and you don’t want to walk back the fact that, you know, the war on caterpillars, and that’s fine. But, how can you still say it’s a fiction when this truly exists and these laws – 90, spiking in 2011 – 90 different anti-abortion laws coming across the state legislatures, spiking in the country after the Republicans take back state legislatures and governorships. How do you say it’s a fiction?

REINCE PRIEBUS (RNC): You and I are never going to be on the same page as long as you believe that if you’re pro-life, you’re anti-women. And you and I are never going to be on same page because I happen to believe that life begins at conception and you don’t. So, since you don’t believe that…

[crosstalk]

ROBERTS: You can’t- This isn’t about what I believe or don’t believe. I’m asking you about the Republican National Committee and your leadership.

PRIEBUS: I don’t buy that because I don’t buy your argument. I happen to believe that you can be pro-women and pro-life. You don’t. That’s the problem, Thomas. And I’m going to go back to the most important issue in this country, the most important issue in this country is the economy. It’s the issue that you and President Obama don’t want to talk about because it’s an issue in regard to the economy that this president has been an absolute failure on. And as long as he has been a failure in the economy he’s going to lose the women vote in November, because he has not fulfilled the promises to the American people. And, that, my friend, is the most important issue facing women in this country.

ROBERTS: We shall see. Right now the gender gap is two-to-one with women under 50 in swing states right now leaning towards President Obama. Reince Priebus, chairman of the RNC, Reince, nice to see you.

PRIEBUS: Mmmhmm. Have a great day.

Excellent. Firm message control there, Reince Priebus. Now the RNC just needs to do this every single day until the election. Because the Democrats really, really do not want to talk about their incredibly poor economic record right now, for fairly obvious reasons. We have no reason to indulge them.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: I sincerely hope that there’s nobody out there actually stupid enough to believe that the Democratic party establishment has any intention of trying to push a ‘GOP war on women’ narrative for the next seven months. Actually, let me correct that: I hope that there’s nobody out there on my side who is actually that stupid. I have no problem with Democratic activists falling prey to that particular bit of idiocy.

PPS: Real quick, for anybody feeling the urge to start writing about how you hate the RNC and they’re all still awful so-and-sos… please consider your eventual goal first. To pick a suitably equal-opportunity obnoxious metaphor: if you punish a puppy for making messes on the carpet, that’s one thing. If you punish a puppy for going on the newspaper because of all the times in the past that it got away with making messes on the carpet, that’s another. The first is part of the process of training a dog; the second simply demonstrates that you shouldn’t actually have one.

In other words: “First, do no harm.”