The Huffington Post reports that Karen Handel, vice president of the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure, was largely responsible for the organization’s since-reversed decision to stop awarding grants to Planned Parenthood Affiliates. Handel is known for having expressed her strongly anti-abortion views during her campaign for governor of Georgia. A source told the Huffington Post that “Karen Handel was the prime instigator of this effort, and she herself personally came up with the investigation criteria. She said, ‘if we just say it’s about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political.’”
Truthout also indicates that Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush’s former press secretary and a vocal critic of Planned Parenthood, was also involved in the Komen Foundation’s decision regarding Planned Parenthood. According to a source, Fleischer was involved in the hiring for Handel’s position and during the interviews, questioned candidates about how they would respond to an ongoing controversy surrounding the Komen Foundation’s relationship with Planned Parenthood.
Last week, representatives from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced that it would end its partnership with Planned Parenthood affiliates because the Komen foundation recently adopted a policy, which states that grants may not be given to organizations that are under investigation by local, state, or federal officials. Officials from the organization have since altered the Komen Foundation’s policies and reversed the organization’s decision not to award grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates, following much criticism from women’s rights supporters.
Huffington Post 2/6/12; Truthout 2/4/12
1 comment
Maren says:
Feb 8, 2012
The Truthout/ThinkProgress story by Judd Legum that you linked to doesn’t say Ari Fleischer was involved in hiring Karen Handel (“Senior Vice President for Public Policy” from April 2011 until she quit the other day). It says Ari Fleischer was interviewing candidates in December 2011 for the position “Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations” — because Komen knew that they would have a lot of ‘splaining (“Communications and External Relations”) to do once the news came out about their defunding of PP — something brought about over the previous 12 months by Karen Handel. (Karen Handel was brought on as a consultant to Komen in Jan 2011, and then as Sr VP for Public Policy in April 2011).
Now, I loathe Ari Fleischer — I’m not trying to say anything nice about him! — just trying to clarify that Judd Legum’s report does not say Ari Fleischer interviewed candidates for Handel’s job! Frankly, I doubt there were any other candidates interviewed for Handel’s job! Her predecessor, Jennifer Luray, was let go in the fall of 2010, with a large severance package, right after Karen Handel lost her bid to become the Republican candidate for Gov of Georgia. (Coincidence? I think not!) Then Handel quitely became an “advisor” in Jan 2011, and publicly “Sr VP for Public Policy” in April 2011.
Now, given that Ari Fleischer is a buddy of Nancy Brinker’s, he may have had Brinker’s ear with all kinds of recommendations, forever. (Or — maybe bringing Fleischer on board was Handel’s idea — who knows?) But what Judd Legum’s report says is that Fleischer interviewed candidates for a different position in Dec 2011.
After all, the article says: “Fleischer confirmed to ThinkProgress that he would receive a fee from Komen when the search is complete.” Obviously, this cannot refer to Karen Handel.