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Today at the Democratic National Convention, Women’s eNews hosted a panel on pushing a “pro-women agenda” in Congress, as part of the SeaChange Ideas Forum. One of the speakers at the event was Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Democratic Vice Chair of the bipartisan Women’s Caucus.

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Schakowsky blasted the Bush administration’s record on women’s issues, calling his tenure “anti-women” from day one. In particular, she criticized a current Bush administration memo that “defines several widely used contraception methods as abortion and protects the right of medical providers to refuse to offer them.” From her remarks:

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This administration isn’t just anti-abortion. When it comes down to it, they’re really anti-sex, anti-women, in each possible way. Imagine not being able tell someone about contraception. That is a rule that in the United States of America that the president has proposed. We need a change, my sisters, we really do. They’re after us, they’re after our bodies, they’re after controlling our lives.

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ThinkProgress spoke with Schakowsky afterward about the record of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on women’s rights, especially in light of his comments in July that he’s committed to “equal opportunity in each aspect of our society.” Schakowsky told ThinkProgress that McCain would “completely” continue the “anti-women” policies of President Bush:

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He’s always been against reproductive rights for women. He’s not for equal pay, he did not support Lilly Ledbetter and the work that we’re trying to do to get equal pay. He never supported the Family and Medical Leave Act in Congress. So there’s no evidence. … He’s not with us.

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McCain actually skipped the vote on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in April, which would have made it easier for “women and other workers to pursue pay discrimination claims.” He said that if he’d been there, he would have voted against it because he believes women simply need more “education and training.” In the past, he has also made a joke about how much women love to be raped.

Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich last shared a byline in the summer of 1992, a time when it was novel to report on the party conventions as scripted spectacle. "Meticulous Kabuki dramas," they called them—a notion now so conventional as to invite helplessly absurd utterances from the television personalities who serve as the drama's chorus. On Monday—with Caroline Kennedy approaching the Democrats' podium in Denver and the news having been reiterated 500 times that Uncle Teddy was in town—Alan Colmes found it appropriate to state, "We're going to go right to the stage right now. ... We will show a video and then a surprise speech by Ted Kennedy."

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In 2001 and 2003, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) opposed President Bush’s tax cuts, arguing that he couldn’t “in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us.” But since then, McCain has ditched his concern about policies tilted towards the wealthy and now wants to double Bush’s tax cuts.

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Analyzing McCain’s shifts on taxes this day, the Wall Street Journal’s Martin Vaughan writes that “an apt description” for McCain’s tax proposals would be to state “that the wealthy would benefit most.” In fact, as the Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards points out, McCain’s proposals are aimed at the wealthy “even more so than Bush’s”:

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McCain’s apparent bent towards deeper tax cuts at the higher end of the income scale in his current campaign proposals surprised many who recall his rejection of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts.

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“McCain’s proposals this year are consistently pretty supply-side, even more so than Bush’s were,” said Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute.

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Earlier this year, the non-partisan Tax Policy Center found that McCain’s economic plan “would primarily benefit those with very high incomes.” In fact, under McCain’s plan, John and Cindy McCain would get a $300,000 tax break while middle class Americans would save only $319. The McCains save $60,016 more under McCain’s tax plan than under Bush’s.

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In their more candid moments, McCain’s supporters admit that he is doubling down on Bush’s tax policies. In May, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) said that McCain’s “tax policies” would “be in effect a third Bush term.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told ABC News in June that McCain’s policies would “totally” be an “extension” and “enhancement” of Bush’s.

In current weeks, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign has showered praise on Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), in an effort to court female voters. Yesterday, Carly Fiorina said, “Hillary Clinton wasn’t respected to the extent she had earned,” adding, “John McCain has long honored and respected Hillary Clinton.”

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Interviewed on Fox News after Clinton’s speech last night, Fiorina stated Clinton had been “dissed in the way that she was treated” and that McCain knows that women “anticipate to be respected”:

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nFIORINA: Women do feel that Hillary Clinton was dissed. Women feel that Hillary Clinton was dissed in the way that she was treated as she ran her campaign. Women feel she was dissed in not being seriously considered for the vice presidency. … And I think now women are very attuned to the fact that they anticipate to be respected. And John McCain will work for every single woman’s vote. And that’s a sign of respect.

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Watch it:

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It is particularly unfitting for the McCain campaign to speak about being respectful to Clinton, as he and his surrogates have a history of making offensive, crude, and vulgar comments towards her:

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n– Her problem is she’s Hillary Clinton. And some women, by the way, are named [bitch], and it’s accurate. — McCain adviser Alex Castellanos, [5/21/08]

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– Q: “How do we beat the bitch [Clinton]?” McCAIN: “That’s an excellent question.” [11/13/07]

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– “Why is Chelsea Clinton so unsightly? Because her father is Janet Reno.” [1998]

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…And to women in general:

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n– “Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die?” [1986]

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– McCain reportedly told his wife Cindy that she “plasters on the makeup like a trollop,” then addressed her with an insulting and derogatory word. [1992]

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– Said women need more “training and education” instead of fair pay legislation. [4/23/08]

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Not only has McCain been personally disrespectful to women, but his policy proposals actively undermine them. As Elizabeth Edwards has noted, McCain’s dogmatic adherence to the individual health care market disproportionately hurts women, who are forced to pay more for coverage. McCain opposed the Ledbetter Act, which would have made it easier for women to pursue pay discrimination suits.

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Read more on McCain’s policies toward women in yesterday’s Progress Report.

Yesterday, Sen. John McCain promoted his veterans private health care “plastic card” in a speech to the American Legion. Though he insisted the “card isn’t intended to either replace the VA or privatize veterans’ health care,” veterans groups aren’t buying it. AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars all argue McCain’s scheme may undermine the VA.

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This day ThinkProgress spoke to Paul Reickhoff, Executive Director and Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, at the Democratic National Convention. When we asked him what he thought of McCain’s private health card plan, Reickhoff slammed McCain for blocking funding for the VA:

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Basically each major veterans group is opposed to it so far, so I think that pretty much states it all. We’ve got to come up with a comprehensive solution to VA health care, and that starts with VA funding. Sen. McCain has consistently voted against expansion of VA funding. So if he states the VA’s not working, it’s in part because he hasn’t funded it properly. … A lot of vets groups are going to push back against the card because it might be on the path toward privatization. So we’ve got to really make the VA as strong as it can be, and that should be our priority.

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Despite his repeated claims to the contrary, McCain’s record on veterans health funding is disappointing to say the least:

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– Voted AGAINST providing $430 million to the VA for outpatient care “and treatment for veterans,” one of only 13 senators to do so. [4/26/06]

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– Voted AGAINST increasing VA funding by $1.5 billion by closing corporate loopholes. [3/14/06]

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– Voted AGAINST increasing VA funding by $1.8 billion by ending “abusive tax loopholes.” [3/10/04]

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McCain can try to convince veterans groups that he opposes privatization, but considering his disdain for government-sponsored health care, it’s no surprise he wants to put veterans health into the hands of private business.

The Hill reports that the Obama campaign has, at times, been “tightening the reins on campaign speeches and stressing that speakers accentuate a rags-to-riches theme.” Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) had one line redacted from his speech, which suggested some conservatives need to serve time in prison. The original line read: “They’re asking for another four years — in a just world, they’d get 10 to 20.”

Reuters reports that Barack Obama will deliver his Thursday night acceptance speech before an “elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple”:

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Conservatives are mocking the stage as a “temple of Obama.” Ed Morrissey writes, “That this scales heights of presumptuousness can hardly be refuted.” One anonymous McCain adviser quipped, “Is this from the Onion?” No, but it might be inspired by the stage at the 2008 Virginia Republican Convention:

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Watch some video highlights of Virginia conservatives presumptuously talking before Greek columns:

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Former Sen. George Allen delivered the keynote before the Greek columns. Watch here and here.