BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

Okay, so everyone is entitled to a rant once in a while and this is mine for July.  I haven’t been off on a tangent for some time, but John McCain has hit my hot button.

First of all, his latest negative ad is so ridiculous that he should be ashamed to have his name associated with it. 

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Of course, it reaches to the same depths that Senator Bob Corker dipped to in order to defeat Harold Ford for the senate seat from Tennessee in the last major election.  The limbo bar was just lowered again by the McCain campaign. 

As disgusting as the ad is…. even my 85 year old mother-in-law who has been known to vote for Republicans from time to time (most of the time) called me screeching at the top of her voice, saying that John McCain was as nasty an old man and as devious as Bob Corker.  That says something coming from her.  She lives in Bob Corker’s home town.  Anyway, let’s forget the Cindy McCain interview with her saying there would be no negative ads.  Let’s forget about the “high road” of the McCain campaign.  Let’s forget all the “holier than thou” talk of the Republican campaign.  Perhaps, that was the intention before the campaign realized that Barack Obama is a serious candidate.  Now that Obama has a slight lead in the polls it is safe to say that the McCain campaign seems to have taken the approach that the end justifies the means.  The Straight Talk Express just derailed again.

But, that isn’t my rant!  As a woman I am terribly disturbed by John McCain’s attitude toward women and women’s issues.  I have long suspected that he lacked the real mental acuity to be President.  Of course, George W. Bush lowered the bar on that issue, but all in all McCain doesn’t seem to be as sharp as “W.”  Let’s face it, for eight years we have known that “W” is a butter knife in a block of butcher knives.  In some cases, it has been downright embarrassing to watch him and listen to him… knowing that the rest of the world is watching the “leader of the free world” mispronounce common words and act like the school yard bully.

Now, we are faced with John McCain who may be slower and more embarrassing, as devious as “W,” and all that without Karl Rove running the show… as far as we know.

Let’s take the latest look at McCain on women’s issues.  Just get past the “amen” music and watch the first minute.

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“We have not done enough. And I’m committed to making sure that there’s equal pay for equal work. That there is equal opportunity in every aspect of our society. And that is my record and you can count on it.”
–John McCain, Town Hall meeting, Hudson, WI, July 11, 2008.

Did you see his nose grow?

According to the Washington Post… today… McCain claims to be for “equal pay” but opposes the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Bill.  Now that it is on the way to the Senate, we can rest assured that McCain will vote against it.

And, his reasoning is what?

Asked to provide support for the senator’s claim that he is committed to ensuring “equal pay for equal work,” the McCain campaign cited several pieces of legislation that he has supported including the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act of 1989, which prohibits discrimination against older workers, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993. However, none of these measures directly addresses the Ledbetter situation.

Does anyone else see that McCain’s reasoning makes no sense unless someone has discovered a way to rationally compare apples and oranges?  None of the acts he has supported had a thing to do with fair pay for women.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said that the Ledbetter would “flood our already over-burdened court system and burden employers, who will have no choice but to charge consumers more for goods and services in order to pay for the swarm of new lawsuits that will only serve to fatten the pockets of trial lawyers.”

Those trial lawyers may be women, John.  And to counter the bill, to offer his explanation of what is needed, McCain said

there were better ways to help women find higher paying jobs. “They need the education and training, particularly since more and more women are heads of their households,” he explained.

Ah… if we are doing the same job… the exact same tasks… wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume that McCain missed the point entirely!

Besides, as a woman, I wish to add that women are as educated as men.  We are no longer chattel, John.  Medical schools are at least 50-50 men and women, as are the law schools.  McCain makes the statement that women need to be better educated and better trained… with the former CEO of eBay on his staff?  Excuse me, John.  How does Meg feel about that?

Let me just say that as a woman with a professional degree from a major university, I remember sitting in a counselor’s office and being told that “because you are a woman you can expect to earn approximately $300 a week less than a man.”  That was in 1970, John.  I made dean’s list, John.  And, for all the hard work and the good grades, because of my sex I could expect to earn in 1970 a mere 70% of what men were earning with the same educational degrees.  Unfortunately, women are still earning only approximately seventy-seven cents to a dollar for our male counterparts.  And, John, you really expect those of us who fall into the category of educated professional women to vote for a man who graduated fifth from the bottom of his class?  Oh, please. 

So, Senator McCain, continue to vote for insurance companies to provide Viagra for the men, and to prohibit birth control as a covered prescription for women.  Continue to support Supreme Court justices that dictate what I can and cannot do with my own body.  And, please Mr. McCain, make damned sure that no matter how much education, training, and experience I have in the workplace, I will make only seventy-seven cents to your dollar.  (Up seven cents in 40 years!)

And, you expect my vote?  I don’t think so.