Hoekstra's Jab At Women

Republican candidate for Senate in Michigan, Pete Hoekstra, displayed his true feelings about women in the workplace. He called the law signed by President Obama that ensures equal pay for women a nuisance.

He was asked at a campaign event yesterday whether he would try to make it a priority to repeal the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. His response was very timely considering all the recent talk of the Republican War on Women.

"Will, you know, will repealing it be a priority? If you came back and said, you know, that's really the thing that's hurting my business the most. My guess is there are other things that we can do that have a higher priority in terms of what I, what I believe might need to be done. I think you know we need to create -- that thing is a nuisance. It shouldn't be the law."

If paying your employees fairly and not discriminating based on gender is really hurting your business and you can't handle it, perhaps you shouldn't be in business. It is absolutely ridiculous that this sort of talk is happening in 2012. And maybe the most appalling thing about it is that it is happening by candidates for national office. These are not Bill and Steve at the local bar, but a candidate representing one of the two major parties for the upper house of the United States Congress. It has no place in the public discourse and ought to be mocked at every turn. If the Democrats do not sweep the woman’s demographic in these elections I will be shocked.

Truly, if that does not happen it will be because people are not paying attention, but that won't be surprising. The Democratic party can easily harness the War on Women as a jab at Republicans. If they don't they are leaving points on the field. I think the Republicans are seeing this and are trying to combat this, laughably to be sure, by asserting that the Democrats are the one's waging a war on women. I think I'll address how ridiculous that is another time...