The sign at the Tea Party rally “No Pubic Option” could be how the Republicans took up the war on family planning.

Just a misspelled sign during a demonstration against health care reform?

Honestly it could be a rallying cry for sexual abstinence as well, something our public funds under George W. Bush were paying to promote.

As stupid as the whole thing sounds, it probably offers a better explanation about what Republicans are doing. Certainly the truth – at least as we know it – doesn’t make sense.

Why alienate all women to get your version of the budget passed?

Then there is Senator John (Pinocchio) Kyl, the number 2 Republican in the Senate, who attacked family planning on the Senate floor with a whopper: “If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that’s well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does,” he said.

A little whopper might be 5% considering that it is only 3% of abortion related.

Probably escaping notice was Senator David Vitters’ and Representative Mike Pence of Indiana’s claim that abortion is 98% of Planned Parenthood funding.

All three (above) are labeled “Ninety + Percent-ers,” except Vitter’s wife who is commenting on David’s excursion with prostitutes (a few years have passed), this while David is looking contrite.

But Kyl’s (upper right) response to criticism of his false statement got notice when a Kyl staffer said, “It was not intended to be a factual statement.”

Such a sophomoric statement, of course, was especially noted by comedian Stephen Colbert, who often looks for his material in the halls of Congress, a great deal of it from Republicans like Senator Kyl and Senator Vitters.

“John Kyl has a vestigial tail and it’s not where you think it would be. It’s why he doesn’t wear a tank top.”

“That was not intended to be a factual statement,” Stephen Colbert said.

But he goes on.

Ninety-seven percent of the almost 4 million services each year are for contraception, cancer screening and prevention, pregnancy tests, and the such, Fox and Friends began in a recent show.

In a lampoon of this Fox and Friends show, in which they reported that there is no need for family services because there is a trusted place where they are provided, Colbert went on a tear.

“There is a trusted place for a Pap Smear or a breast exam,” says a Colbert staffer. “It is Walgreens.”

“Look for the stirrups near the pharmacy section,” Stephen says. “But there are even services for colonoscopies. I get my annual exam at the photo center, where I swallow a water-proof camera and pass it at the coffee aisle.”

“This is not intended to be a factual statement,“ he said.

A week ago, the Republicans threatened to close down the government if family planning funds were not deleted from 2011 spending. Suddenly after the Democrats and Obama agree to cut almost 39 billion from the budget, Republicans dropped the family planning condition.

The next chapter – in a few short weeks — might provide more material for comedians.

But more ominously, a world of hurt could befall Americans if we default on our debt.