The story really hasn’t changed much over the last five days.  Sure, Komen has given over a nonapology apology, failing to admit to their underhanded political manueverings.  And they say that Planned Parenthood will still be eligible for grants in the future, though I’m interested to see if they follow through on that pledge.  They have squandered their trust, after all.  As I noted on Thursday, Elizabeth Thompson, and perhaps especially Vice President Karen Handel, were responsible for an unprecedented destruction of the Komen brand.  Today’s news?  It appears that Karen Handel has decided she has not done enough as yet to destroy the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. 

Karen Handel is resigning.  That is necessary for Komen to cure itself, and surely Komen must also come clean about its deceptions in order to regain the trust of donors.  Handel’s resignation letter, available from several sources online, such as at The New Civil Rights Movement, gives much insight into the backroom manueverings at Komen, but clearly with her own PR spin.  All that’s going to do is further alienate those already offended by Komen’s actions.  Handel’s press conference later today will only exacerbate the matter.  And Komen sits on its hands all the while. 

What’s the real takeaway here?  Karen Handel will further damage the Komen brand, and seemingly willfully.  As indicated at this column in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and in Handel’s resignation letter, Karen Handel has refused severance pay from Komen, which almost certainly would have required that she not spill her guts in public. 

The self-congratulatory spin Karen Handel gives in her resignation letter throws both Komen President Elizabeth Thompson and Komen CEO Nancy Brinker under the bus, showing that the excuses they have given for the Susan G, Komen for the Cure Foundation’s actions have been all lies and spin.  That’s Handel’s first action in further damaging the Komen brand.  Today Handel will hold a press conference where she will surely show more clearly how all the PR spin laid out by Komen over the last week has been a tapestry of lies.  More damage to the Komen brand and to the organization to which Handel claims reverence.  And I GUARANTEE Karen Handel will be appearing on FoxNews, that most political of outlets, tonight, where she will likely claim that none of this was political at all. 

Nancy Brinker needs a new strategy here, and that is to own up to everything, and to commit to a program of doubling its outreach to the underserved women served by the Planned Parenthood grant.  Brinker claims she is working to learn from mistakes, but she needs to be proactive with more than words on a website.  That’s the only way out of this mess.  Komen won’t take this route if they continue to rely on Ari Fleischer for advice, that’s for sure.

Let’s make sure we have this straight.  Komen, the organization that has succeeded in fetishizing the color pink to such an extent that it reaps benefits from the sales of pink guns and pink shotgun shells (THAT’S healthy!), has betrayed corporate sponsors and donors by making a politically-based decision to defund Planned Parenthood under the cover of claiming they merely meant to defund organizations “under investigation.”  So, did they defund Penn State?  Evidently the investigations at Penn State aren’t politically motivated enough for Komen to go after that grant. 

What has betraying those sponsors and donors wrought?  The Susan G. Komen brand is dragging in the mud, and the reason for that is entirely on the shoulders of those at the Susan G. Komen Foundation who made the decisions to cause this crisis.  The pink ribbon is very dirty now.  Who is hurt?  Certainly the women Komen could have helped, whether through screenings or cancer research, are harmed by the decisions of the executives and board of the Susan G. Komen Foundation.  Those who donated to Komen, whether through corporate sponsorship or through participating in a “Race for the Cure,” (this expensive litigation by Komen does NOTHING towards a “cure.“)are also harmed, because they will never know now whether the funds they donated will be subject to political maneuverings.  That’s the real problem here. 

So, what’s the “Cure” that will save the Susan G. Komen Foundation?  Get rid of the incompetents.  It seems obvious now, based on this investigative piece in The Atlantic, that the President of the Susan B. Komen Foundation, Elizabeth Thompson, and the Vice President, Karen Handel, are directly responsible for this crisis and for the severe damage to the Susan G. Komen brand.  That’s serious incompetence. 

People donate to an nonprofit organization because of trust that the organization will do good, not based on political reasons, but based on the best science out there.  Elizabeth Thompson and Karen Handel have damaged the Komen brand to such an extent it is hard to grasp whether Komen will ever recover the trust that they will follow such a standard of nonpartisanship.  They have created more harm than ever has been created within the Komen organization, and demonstrably, more harm than has hit any major nonprofit in the United States.  I can only recall one controversy as large to hit a major nonprofit in the US in my lifetime, and that was when the American Red Cross suffered distrust over their stewardship of the blood supply back in the 1990′s.  How did the Red Cross handle that crisis?  They cleaned house at the top.  That’s what the Susan G. Komen Foundation needs to do.  Elizabeth Thompson and Karen Handel need to go, as they were intimately involved in directing this decision, which is threatening to completely destroy the Komen brand.  And Nancy Brinker, who is listening to her PR folks waaaaaay too much, needs to stand up and assure the donors to the Komen Foundation that politics will never get in the way of fighting breast cancer ever again.  Ever again.  Cancer does not work along political lines, and neither should fighting cancer.

Fat chance any of that will happen.  So redirect your dollars, folks.  The American Cancer Society does good work, as does Planned Parenthood, in protecting women’s lives, and there’s not any political agenda within either of those groups besides the protection of women’s lives.

“The Susan G. Komen foundation should not be political,” my aunt told me on Thursday afternoon. “People, including myself, have stood behind them for years and now they’ve turned their backs on these women for political reasons, “she said.

She finds the timing of the cuts to Planned Parenthood “suspicious” because of the relatively recent installment of Karen Handel, who ran for Governor of Georgia in 2010 on an anti-Planned Parenthood platform, as the charity’s new vice president. Auntie doesn’t believe the rationale provided for the cuts.

As Laura Bassett for the Huffington Post reports:

“Komen spokeswoman Leslie Aun said earlier that the cutoff results from the charity’s newly adopted criteria barring grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. According to the organization, this applies to Planned Parenthood since it’s the focus of an inquiry, launched by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), seeking to determine whether public money was improperly spent on abortions. “

Seriously?

Luckily, it’s obvious that, like my aunt, others aren’t buying that thinly veiled excuse, either, and they’re taking action.

In fact, Planned Parenthood received $640,000 in the 24 hours after the announcement from donors clearly upset by SGK’s decision, as reported by the Washington Post on Thursday afternoon. Planned Parenthood has used the donations to create a Breast Health Emergency Fund, to assist those  affected by the loss of the Komen grants.

As much as it pains me that the Susan G. Komen foundation seemingly caved to  pressure by “pro-life” groups and politicians, it warms my heart to know that my fellow Americans are smart enough to see through its actions, strong enough to stand up and speak out against them, and kind enough to assist women in need.

Screenings save lives

In addition to the listening sessions noted above, you can also register to be a part of a virtual listening session from the comfort of your own home.

There are many who think the refusal of Obama and the Dem Party leadership to fight for a public option in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was the single biggest factor that led to the shellacking we got in November 2010, and I share that view.

Now Democrats in California are poised to make the same mistake as we head toward November 2012. And given the size of California and the scrutiny they’ll be under from progressives all over the country, next Tuesdays vote might well have national ramifications.

You can almost hear Peter, Paul and Mary singing, with a slight change in lyrics. ” Where have all the Democrats gone, long time passing…….. when will they ever learn, when will they eeeever learn.”