The chief backer of Rick Santorum's super PAC stunned MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell -- and much of the Twitterverse as well -- with an old-timey joke about what women should use for birth control.
"Back in my days they'd use Bayer aspirin for contraceptions," said millionaire conservative Foster Friess. "The gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly."
Get it, ladies? Just keep your knees locked at all times. Hahaha. It works for "contraceptions," and even contraception.
Yeah. Mitchell wasn't amused, either.
"Excuse me. I'm just trying to catch my breath from that, Mr. Friess, frankly," she said after a pause, before changing the subject.
Friess' comments aren't likely to help Santorum overcome the frequent impression that he holds antiquated views about a great many things.
In a recently unearthed 2006 interview, the Republican presidential contender said that contraception "hurts women." (That's the quote that has circulated most widely, though it came as he was trying to make the wider -- and perhaps equally inflammatory -- argument that birth control allows sex outside of marriage, which is harmful to women and all society.)
The former Pennsylvania senator also recently suggested that women shouldn't be in combat because men could become overly emotional if they saw them harmed.
(Also: It would be hard for them to fight with Bayer between their knees.)
Soon after Friess' comments, Bayer jokes abounded on Twitter.
"Democrats should get behind this aspirin-as-contraceptive idea. At long last, single-Bayer health care!" tweeted @delrayser.
"#nextGOPhearing," tweeted political satirist @LOLGOP. "Should pregnant women be allowed to wear shoes in the kitchen?"
