Maddow's Bizarre Theory: Newt Responsible For Catholic Outrage On Healthcare

During last night's closing comments from Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC show, the liberal icon offered a strange postulation as to why the Obamacare contraception mandate has become such a hot topic.

It's all because of Newt Gingrich's plans to get Romney talking about religion.

This is not an interpretation of what Ms. Maddow said, those are her words:

This decision was made by the Administration in the middle of last month, more than two weeks ago, without a giant political controversy swirling around it right away.

Did the MSNBC host miss the almost immediate reaction from Catholics on January 20th? Did she not hear about the response from the Vatican? Was Rachel Maddow busy with other stories while some of her channel co-hosts also talked about the problem with government forcing a religious group to violate key tenets of their faith?

She continued to lay out her theory:

After it already happened, Newt Gingrich started bringing it up, after the fact, and I think it reflects a two-part calculation on his part. Number one, I think Mr. Gingrich is desperate enough to stay in the Presidential race, that he's decided that he is the one to be lecturing the country on what it's like to be a good Catholic. It's kind of remarkable given that Newt Gingrich is perhaps more famous for his adultery than anything else about him.

The addition of the word "perhaps" in that last statement allows Maddow to smear Gingrich and avoid giving him credit for any accomplishments in his career. One wonders if she would say the same about former President Bill Clinton.

Maddow continued with her second point:

But I think he also wanted to draw Mitt Romney into this thing. Just as Newt Gingrich knows exactly what he's doing when he calls the first African-American President, the "Food Stamp President" -- I think he knows exactly what nerve he's hitting when he says that. I think he also knows what nerve he's hitting when he draws the man who is the first major party candidate who's Mormon into discussion of religious values.

Ms. Maddow seemed to believe that, but for Newt, the topic would have been moot. And that the real reason Newt has brought this up is to get Romney to talk about religion?  But is there not enough discussion of Romney's religion already? Curious.

She also claims that the endless discussion of the Obamacare contraception mandate gives Newt ammunition to "box Romney in" because:

...he did not exempt Catholic hospitals from having to provide emergency contraception to rape victims. And so, Newt Gingrich has got Mitt Romney talking about religion on the stump every day and he's nailing him as a hypocrite who can't be trusted on the issue.

Watch the clip of the, dare I say it, conspiracy theory below: