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UPDATED: Sessions hammered for comment on women, health care  

Memo to Dallas Republican Rep. Pete Sessions: Think twice before making comparisons.

Sessions, who famously compared his own party to the Taliban, is taking heat from liberal groups and Democrats for a comment reportedly made last week in a debate over higher health insurance premiums that women pay.

Asked why that should be, Sessions replied: "Well, we're all different. Why should a smoker pay more?"

As with the Taliban comment, there's an argument buried in there somewhere, about whether, for instance, higher premiums are justified because of, for instance, childbirth costs. We'll leave that to the experts. But Sessions, as leader of the National Republican Congressional Committee, is a huge political target. And Democrats sense the GOP is exacerbating its problem with large numbers of women's voters. So you can bet this one will be echoed quite a bit throughout the health care debate.

UPDATE: Sessions spokeswoman Emily Davis has responded, accusing "liberal partisans" of offering "peddled fabrications." Davis writes:

At no time during the exchange did Mr. Sessions use the word "woman" or "women." In fact, only Democrats brought up gender in the discussion. Neither Mr. Sessions nor any Democrat made any connection between women and smokers.

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