If you’re going spew male privilege all over the place, could you please choose a different target? Because this time you chose that most loathsome of right-wing nutjobs, Michele Bachmann. Goddamnit, I was so conflicted, I practically turned inside out when I read this:
A heated political debate and charges of sexism erupted on Philadelphia talk radio Wednesday when Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pennsylvania, told Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, to “act like a lady.”
Specter began to respond to Bachmann’s claim that Scott Brown’s special election victory in Massachusetts was a repudiation of the Obama administration’s policies [and] Bachmann interjected – to the clear frustration of the longtime Senator.
“Now wait a minute, I’ll stop and you can talk,” he said. “I’ll treat you like a lady, so act like one.”
“I am a lady,” Bachmann retorted.
She again interrupted Specter later in the interview. And again, Specter told her to “act like a lady.” Bachmann one more time confirmed that she is a lady.
“Well I think you are too, that’s why I’m treating you like one,” Specter said. “But just don’t interrupt me.”
The worst part? The Republicans can justifiably–if hypocritically–cry sexism:
“Instead of belittling his female colleagues, Arlen Specter should take his own advice and act like a gentleman,” said NRSC spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson Marchand. She said that the five-term Senator would be held accountable by women in his state “if he makes it to the General Election in November.”
Politico’s Glenn Thrush writes:
Bachmann is hardly a beloved figure in Democratic circles. But how many liberal women, whom Specter badly needs to defeat front-running Pat Toomey, would appreciate being told to “act like a lady” by a male debate partner?
Not this liberal woman. Then again, I’m registered to vote in New York. Those of you registered in Pennsylvania, feel free to weigh in.
DO NOT MAKE ME DEFEND MICHELE BACHMANN, SPECTER.
I worked out all of my ambivalence about this during the first couple of months of the Palinization of the Republican party. Now I have no problem siding against Specter. I’m not defending anything Bachmann has ever said or done, just telling another privileged dude to STFU. And I’ve decided that Republicans’ blatant hypocrisy is but an opportunity in disguise. It will catch up with them later. Probably on late night Comedy Central.
Tell it to Anita Hill, asshat!
What a fucking Asshole. It’s like picking the lesser of the two evils!
At this juncture I would like to recall being a young Pennsylvania schoolgirl on a school trip to Washington. We got a meeting with Senator Specter, for which my mother had prepared me well. I slammed him with questions about his despicable behavior at the Anita Hill hearings (I really did not even know what these were but was just repeating my mom’s talking points) and he got super irritated and cut us off early. My secretly conservative teacher was NOT AMUSED. But this fucker hasn’t changed a bit. What is he, like 80? I’m not trying to be ageist, but this senior Pennsylvanian needs to fucking retire. If you need to change parties just to keep your job, it’s time to move the fuck on.
This is totally gross. Michele Bachmann doesn’t need to act like a lady, she needs to act like a sane human being.
Guess I’d comment that .. IF THEY EXIST .. ‘ladies’ have every right to interrupt, ‘gentleman’ have every to ask ‘please let me finish?’ (instead of a derogatory term). And vice versa. Now if politicians would work together …
JD, you are my hero for asking him those Anita Hill questions! He’s been a sexist asshole for a long time…
Thought 1: As JD says, Specter is basically a dinosaur. I’m sure in his mind he said nothing objectionable because that would have been a totally reasonable thing to say in like 1924.
Thought 2: I have already resolved to vote for Joe Sestak, Specter’s dem opponent in the primary. If Sestak loses the primary…I don’t know. By that point, our political system may have gone too far in its path to catastrophic failure to even worry about it (any of the Harpies want to do a post about the corporate personhood decision and how it means we’re all fucked?).
YES, thebewilderness and JD!
Specter is so full of himself that reality never gets a chance to enter his brain. How about addressing the substance of what Bachmann says and not her loathsome but typical-of-the-right behavior?
This has been a hellish news week. I feel like I’ve been sucker-punched. We thought this would turn around a year ago, and now…we’re worried about hurting the Cosmo Boy’s feelings by taking a vote on the initiative Obama has staked his (rapidly diminishing) reputation on. And just to ice the toxic waste cake, SCOTUS, otherwise known as the wholly owned subsidiary of the right/male/white/corporate cabal in this country, has just put the last nail in the coffin for the First Amendment.
I’ve never felt such despair. Never.
“any of the Harpies want to do a post about the corporate personhood decision and how it means we’re all fucked?”
Perhaps, but, like MM, I haven’t really gotten past the “despair” part. And the “welp, time to move to Denmark!” part. I haven’t quite wrapped my head around all of the ramifications yet.
I hear you, MM, but I have to say, I felt a hell of a lot more despair when George Bush was president.
But then we had the hope that we could get him out of office one day, and then it would all turn around. Now it’s our turn and…we are driving ourselves off the cliff as fast as we can go. I feel like there are no more options for us, at least in the short term.
Still, we have no choice but to keep fighting. Despair isn’t a reason to quit, and I know that. It just makes the effort harder.
The only person who gets to tell me to “act like a lady” is my mom (who has probably said this phrase about 10,678 times in my life).
As for this dust-up, I’m just going to say that Michelle Bachmann’s public statements disgust me, and so does this directive from Arlen Specter. You can dislike someone and still think another person is being unforgivably rude to them.
To hell with both of them, says this lady.
I have to be honest – I find Michelle Bachmann far more offensive than this trivial comment from an old white guy stuck in the 1960′s. If you are going to dish on Spector, far better comments exist. My dad is an old white guy – and pretty progressive I might add – but he is old school and he would probably say the same thing. It is about manners and letting another person speak without being interrupted. I’m not defending Spector, but it’s kind of like the Harry Reid Negro comment. Just minds from the past making comments that aren’t meant to be offensive, but are to minds of the present. My mom probably would say the same thing – would that be sexist? And again – Michelle Bachmann – now she’s a reason to get riled! http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=Michele_Bachmann
My mom would say the same thing–would that be sexist?
Yes.
No one here would argue that Bachmann is less than loathesome.
But.
What Specter meant by emphasizing Bachmann’s lady-ness was that “ladies” are supposed to shut up and listen to men talk.
“Please quit interrupting” is the appropriate way to deal with overtalkers; reminding them that they are to be deferential because of their sex is straight-up sexism. Even if your mama says it.
This Arlen guy is digustingly sad. I just cant believe that this old sexist gasbag is still in politics.
Anyway, you know what they say about “ladies” they never make history.