Internet gambling foe Arizona Republican Jon Kyl made quite the gaffe two weeks back during a senate hearing on health care reform and now he's making the rounds of YouTube...not to mention some creative television ads featuring his sound byte. 

Kyl was speaking in opposition of a proposal that would have required employers to include basic maternity care in the benefits package offered to employees.

Kyl says, "I don't need maternity care. So requiring that on my insurance policy is something that I don't need and will make the policy more expensive."

Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, for whom he made the remark, reminds Senator Kyl that "his mother DID". 

On Wednesday, some folks will be staging a protest at Kyl's Phoenix office in response to that comment.

The Democratic National Committee has now featured the Jon Kyl sound byte in an advertisement that paints the Senator as "backwards" and asks viewers to call letting him know that "Maternity Care is Not a Joke for Women". 

Comments appearing on the Arizona Central website included:

This shows a man's ignorance in the real world.

How about if I stated... I don't draw Social Security, Meals on Wheels, Food Stamps, Medicare, subsized bus tickets.. therefore I don't think I should pay for them. What if everyone just did that.

Where would this country be then??

Sorry NO slack for him. He's in the public eye. He pays the price for his own stupidity. Throw him under the bus with the other legislators who preferred to argue about guns in bars and firecrackers rather than the budget.

And another....

Sorry, E.J.  I agree with the "no slack" crowd. What Kyle said was not only dumb, it was completely out of bounds and typical of what comes out of GOP mouths in Congress these days. Kyl is in bed with big business, lobbyists and the power brokers, and does not give a hoot about the little guy/gal who elected him. Maybe next time, the electorate will get the message and send Kyl into a well deserved retirement.

And this....

No slack on that, E.J.  Specially because Kyl has been nothing but an obstructionist -- a puppet of the health insurance industry.....

.  Plus, he really picked the wrong topic.  Most women already know they are discriminated against at work and by insurance companies because they produce babies.  It is nothing they can help.

Kyl is chiefly responsible for passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) which put in place prohibition to stop some forms of online gambling.

Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher