James dismisses a suggestion he’s considered a long shot and believes he was called by God to run for office.

“That doesn’t mean God says, ‘You’re going to win, Craig,’” he said. “But I would far rather have done this than let God down and not do what he had called me to do.”

Just as, in the wake of the policy “reversal” and the resignation of Komen vice president Karen Handel, the anti-Planned Parenthood crowd is accusing Komen of bowing to pressure from the left, now the actual left is vowing to make sure Komen doesn’t bow to pressure from the right, asking the foundation to promise it will not cut funding to Planned Parenthood after next year. So much vowing and bowing. Makes me want to watch a Kung Fu movie.

A source with direct knowledge of decision-making at Komen’s headquarters in Dallas said the grant-making criteria were adopted with the deliberate intention of targeting Planned Parenthood. The criteria’s impact on Planned Parenthood and its status as the focus of government investigations were highlighted in a memo distributed to Komen affiliates in December.

According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions, a driving force behind the move was Handel, who was hired by Komen last year as vice president for public policy after losing a campaign for governor in Georgia in which she stressed her anti-abortion views and frequently denounced Planned Parenthood.

In it, in addition to declaring that he’s a “militant atheist,” he decries the GOP presidential hopefuls, especially Gov. Rick Perry:

He went on to say that he has been “disgusted, amazed, stunned” by candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination, such as Rick Santorum or Michele Bachmann, who have been openly hostile to gay rights.

“But they disgusted me less than candidates like Rick Perry, who made that ridiculous advert wearing ‘the Brokeback jacket’, and I think pretend to be homophobic just to win votes.”

You remember the ad he’s talking about, right?

(H/T: DMN Trail Blazers blog)

But if you look closer, with an eye for semantics, you can zero in one specific phrase, as many did after the news broke: ” … continue to fund existing grants.” The key word, of course, is existing. In the Dallas Morning News story, it says the statement goes on to say that Planned Parenthood would be eligible under the revised criteria to apply for future grants.

But holdonacottonpickinminute. Didn’t just today Komen officials say that Planned Parenthood wasn’t disqualified because of a congressional investigation after all, but because it didn’t offer mammograms in house?

Wouldn’t that mean that Planned Parenthood should still be DQ’d? Or at the very least be ineligible for future grants?

According to Kathleen Parker, who called Nancy Brinker today, Komen is holding fast to its new soon-to-be rule that they fund facilities that offer mammograms on site.  Says Parker:

“The news on Komen is that they are only tweaking their new rule about not funding organizations under investigation to mean ‘criminal’ investigation. Otherwise their position is the same. Yes, Planned Parenthood can now apply for funding, but this doesn’t mean they will get it. Those grants already in place will play out on schedule. I spoke to Nancy Brinker this afternoon and her goal remains as announced – to adjust her grant-funding system so that monies go directly to facilities that provide mammograms rather than through third parties, such as Planned Parenthood. Essentially nothing is changed, and certainly this does not constitute a reversal as so many media outlets have so hastily reported.”

Komen … says it cut-off Planned Parenthood because of a newly adopted foundation rule prohibiting it from funding any group that is under formal investigation by a government body. (Planned Parenthood is being investigated by Rep. Cliff Stearns, an anti-abortion Florida Republican, who says he is trying to learn if the group spent public money to provide abortions.) But three sources with direct knowledge of the Komen decision-making process told me that the rule was adopted in order to create an excuse to cut-off Planned Parenthood.

Was replaced by this ad:

Meanwhile Nancy Brinker posted a YouTube defense of the Komen Foundation’s policy change. Though, of course, she doesn’t say a word about Planned Parenthood:

Cecile is the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and in this profile in the New Yorker, published in November (after the “investigation” was launched, but before SGKC withdrew funding), she attributes most of her organization’s most recent problems to the Tea Party-dominated mid-term elections in 2010.

Her theory: “when those guys can’t figure out what to do about jobs, and they can’t, their first target is women.” Another quote from the same story sums up how a lot of now former SGKC donors feel: “The fury over Planned Parenthood is two political passions—opposition to abortion and opposition to government programs for the poor—acting as one.”