Democratic Diva

In addition to Kyl and McCain, I see the list contains upstanding moral beacons like John Ensign and David Vitter. Perhaps their slogan could be, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Frank:

I noticed that too. Yeah, a bill trying to limit sexual harrassment supported by John Ensign. You’d have thought the least he could do is sit this vote out.

It’s also worth noting that none of the four female Republican Senators (Snowe, Collins, Hutchison and Murkowsky) voted for it (they also abandoned their party in a group of four to vote for the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and if memory serves me they were either the only four Republican Senators or four of five to vote for that one.) I guess when it’s this bald and blatant even Lisa Murkowski has to realize what they really think about her.

I should have said OPPOSED by John Ensign.

What a ringing endorsement.

Eli, I’m really sad that there are only 4 Republican women in the U.S. Senate. And, this amendment goes far beyond limiting sexual harassment. I believe it’s to address the situation where a female employee of Haliburton was gang raped by several co-workers and is not able to take legal action about it.

Katie,

Thanks for clarifying.

The reason why there are only four female Republican Senators is the same reason why after the 2006 election the entire Democratic majority in the House was attributable to the much larger number of Democratic Congresswomen than Republican Congresswomen. It’s because the GOP is still largely an old boys network that women have to fight to succeed in against what is still a glass ceiling. The Democratic party is a lot better about offering support for women who want to run for office.

What I don’t get is how this (the Oklahoma abortion info publication law) isn’t a MASSIVE violation of HIPPA laws. I expect a Supreme Court case within a couple of years. The shame of it is all the women whose private medical information will be exposed between now and the court case(s). Oklahoma has some mighty small towns where I believe it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out who was who on the website list. What a joke!

Eli, you’re 100% right. In my state, the Dem Party has a program funded at the state party level to encourage women to run for local office, help promote them in their races, and help groom them for the next step up towards national office.

I think it’s a HIPAA violation too. You could easily identify a woman in a small community from that information, but it’s inappropriate in any case. I don’t see it holding up in court.

I find it amazing that a employment contract supersedes and overrides criminal law. There ought to be a law against drugging and raping someone; we’ve already got that one on the books that nabbed Roman Polanski–we should expand it to cover people whose employment contracts prohibit going to the police and pressing charges against the perpetrators.

I think Franken doesn’t go far enough. I’m sure there’s female loggers who are raped all the time and have to go to the company arbitrator, who probably goes hunting (or golfing) with the rapists anyways so the poor lady doesn’t stand a chance. Why should women who work for defense contractors get all the protections? Won’t someone think of the ladies on oil rig crews and grocery store produce clerks and miners and Congressional staffers who have to endure the humiliation of filing a claim of being being drugged, raped, and locked in a shipping container (or other confined quarters) through the arbitration process only to be shut down summarily?

Get Real, women in those situations are already protected against having to go to arbitration for rape and assault on the job. Even defense contractors stateside can’t force a rape victim to go to arbitration. Defense contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan carved out a unique exception for themselves. They made themselves above the law and

(hit post too soon)

Franken tried to do something about it.