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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / The War On Women / Talkin’ to Lilly Ledbetter

Talkin’ to Lilly Ledbetter

by DougJ|  April 13, 201210:29 pm| 44 Comments

This post is in: The War On Women

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These are actually good points (even if they’re being made by Ruth Marcus):

Take, for example, the issue of equal pay. The first legislation that Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Act, which reversed a 2007 Supreme Court decision that made it harder for women to bring lawsuits about pay discrimination. (The court said that Ledbetter had waited too long to complain that she had consistently received smaller raises than her male counterparts, even though she hadn’t known of the pay disparity.)

[….]

What is Romney’s view? Asked about it this week, his campaign at first demurred, then issued an unenlightening statement affirming Romney’s dedication to “pay equity.” Well, duh. No modern candidate is going to announce that he — or she — supports unequal pay for equal work. But given that only five Republican senators voted for the Ledbetter law — the four female GOP members and Arlen Specter, who was soon to be an ex-Republican — it’s fair to ask Romney’s view. Pay disparities, and disputes over what, if any, legislative measures should be taken to address them, aren’t disappearing any time soon.

Likewise, what is Romney’s view on the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which established domestic violence and stalking as federal crimes, and provided funding for services for victims? Republicans in Congress are holding up reauthorization of the measure because of protections it would add for undocumented immigrants and gay men and lesbians. Asked about the issue four years ago, Romney drew a blank. “I’m not familiar with the act,” he said during an “Ask Mitt Anything” forum in New Hampshire. This might be a good time to bone up on it.

Equal pay, adequate legal protection, and access to reproductive rights are too important to be subsumed by some idiotic Politico/Halperin dust-up about an obscure “Democratic strategist”.

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Reader Interactions

44Comments

  1. 1.

    lacp

    April 13, 2012 at 10:35 pm

    They’re obviously not too important to Politico/Halperin, are they?

  2. 2.

    David Koch

    April 13, 2012 at 10:37 pm

    Equal pay, adequate legal protection, and access to reproductive rights are too important

    That’s why I’m voting for Ron Paul.

  3. 3.

    dedc79

    April 13, 2012 at 10:42 pm

    showin pictures on the wall, whisperin in the hall?
    (was it a van morrison reference?)

  4. 4.

    General Stuck

    April 13, 2012 at 10:42 pm

    What is Romney’s view? Asked about it this week, his campaign at first demurred, then issued an unenlightening statement affirming Romney’s dedication to “pay equity.” Well, duh.

    Only a small example of the impossible position a republican will have in this general election, with a base that will not look kindly on their candidate even appearing to take a dem position on the issues. Especially one who is already mistrusted to be a fair weather wingnut. And Romney will need the swing vote to win against an incumbent. He got away with chunking the red wingnut meat in the primary, though most conservatives saw through the ploy, but enough didn’t to let him eek out the nomination over a gaggle of has been clowns. He will still likely get 45 percent of the vote, but getting the rest to a majority is going to take some metaphysical contortions on the big policy issues, especially the social ones. And a piss pot full of Morning Joe Halperin slathering.

  5. 5.

    DougJ, Head of Infidelity

    April 13, 2012 at 10:43 pm

    @dedc79:

    Yes!

  6. 6.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 13, 2012 at 10:44 pm

    Romney is a conservative right now so his hands are kinda tied.

  7. 7.

    R Johnston

    April 13, 2012 at 10:46 pm

    If I took the first legislation that Obama signed as representative of all the legislation that Obama signed I’d be an idiot. The first legislation he signed was good. It was mostly downhill, with significant variation, from there. None of which is to say that President McCain would have been better, but all of which is to say that Obama’s a center-right compromising fucknut who sometimes gets things right, usually gets things wrong, but always gets things better than any Republican would.

  8. 8.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    April 13, 2012 at 10:50 pm

    @R Johnston: GTFO. No, I mean it, get the fuck out. It is so fuckin’ tiring seeing the “oh, he’s such a disappointment” crowd.

  9. 9.

    Jean

    April 13, 2012 at 10:53 pm

    What I don’t understand is how Obama can sign the LIly Ledbetter Act into law, and Scott Walker in WI repeals it. How can a state repeal a fed law? What am I missing?

  10. 10.

    ruemara

    April 13, 2012 at 10:55 pm

    @Jean: It wasn’t repealed at all. The Federal law is on the books, the State version has been repealed. Court case, I’m sure, hijinks will ensue. Sue being the operative word.

  11. 11.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 13, 2012 at 10:56 pm

    @Jean:

    What am I missing?

    Google?

  12. 12.

    John Weiss

    April 13, 2012 at 11:00 pm

    @Jean: Federal law takes precedence over state law. This has been settled for a long time.

    Scott Walker is a clown. A very ugly clown.

  13. 13.

    R Johnston

    April 13, 2012 at 11:01 pm

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): Who said Obama’s disappointing? He’s exactly what I expected. He’s a University of Chicago law professor who is not a right-wing lunatic relative to other University of Chicago law professors but is still a University of Chicago law professor who thinks the welfare state is negotiable, that the imperial presidency is hunky dory, and that wingnut lunatics can be negotiated with.

  14. 14.

    Redshift

    April 13, 2012 at 11:02 pm

    To be fair, as Romney has said before, if he told people his actual positions before the election, they might not vote for him.

  15. 15.

    General Stuck

    April 13, 2012 at 11:05 pm

    who thinks the welfare state is negotiable,

    Which could explain why, after he left Harvard to become a community organizer, as a stealth move to gut the social safety net, later on as POTUS.

  16. 16.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 13, 2012 at 11:05 pm

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): HOWARD RODHAM KUCINICH WOULD HAVE SIGNED ALL THE LEGISLATION CONGRESS DIDN”T PASS!

    WITH PURPLE INK!

  17. 17.

    Lex

    April 13, 2012 at 11:06 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Actually, @JSF, Jean makes a good point. Marcus is quoted above as saying, “Well, duh. No modern candidate is going to announce that he — or she — supports unequal pay for equal work.” And yet one pretty prominent GOP candidate, Scott Walker, has done just that, a fact that escaped the notice of both Marcus and her editors.

    Of course, we’ve recently seen that she isn’t even knowledgeable about her own beat, the Supreme Court, so it’s no surprise this got past her. Shouldn’t have gotten past her editors, though.

  18. 18.

    TooManyJens

    April 13, 2012 at 11:11 pm

    @General Stuck:

    Which could explain why, after he left Harvard to become a community organizer, as a stealth move to gut the social safety net

    He was just lulling us into a false sense of security. Ask the NRA; they know how that plan works.

  19. 19.

    suzanne

    April 13, 2012 at 11:14 pm

    @David Koch: Ron Paul is anti-choice, dumbass.

  20. 20.

    GuanoFaucet

    April 13, 2012 at 11:16 pm

    @R Johnston:

    Oh, for fuck’s sake.

  21. 21.

    the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady)

    April 13, 2012 at 11:17 pm

    @GuanoFaucet:

    This.

  22. 22.

    Valdivia

    April 13, 2012 at 11:19 pm

    Imagine that Politico’s Roger Simon tweeted that he bet no one had ever heard of the Lilly Ledbetter law until this week. These people have no idea of what Obma signed into law at all do they?

  23. 23.

    Baud

    April 13, 2012 at 11:20 pm

    @R Johnston:

    welfare state is negotiable

    Everything is negotiable.

    that the imperial presidency is hunky dory,

    He’s only taking what Congress is ceding to him.

    and that wingnut lunatics can be negotiate with.

    They have to be negotiated with because they won the last election.

  24. 24.

    suzanne

    April 13, 2012 at 11:22 pm

    @GuanoFaucet: That is one of the badassiest names EVAR.

  25. 25.

    handy

    April 13, 2012 at 11:23 pm

    @suzanne:

    As a lifelong liberal Democrat party voter I join Mike KayDavid Koch in his support of the Republican candidate this fall. I am deeply concerned about the political tone, also observed by the wise political analyst David Brooks, most recently the disrespects to mothers everywhere by party chairman Hilary Rosen. We must send a message to those radical elements in Washington that are out of step with Heartland America.

  26. 26.

    Anya

    April 13, 2012 at 11:25 pm

    @R Johnston: <:-)

  27. 27.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    April 13, 2012 at 11:30 pm

    @suzanne: “David Koch” is a troll.

  28. 28.

    Chuck Butcher

    April 13, 2012 at 11:32 pm

    @General Stuck:

    he left Harvard to become a community organizer

    I’m pretty bad at mind reading and people who’ve tried it on me have pretty much gotten it badly wrong. I do not pretend to know what goes on inside the President’s head, what I do have is what he and Congress have managed to do or not do and what he’s said about himself. I think that by Nov he’ll have his hands full with Mittens regardless of what is going on right now.

    I think what the Democrats managed as outcomes in the first two years sucked and I thought their ’10 campaign sucked and the fact that the GOP is cretinously stupid doesn’t has no effect on that. I can’t think of a single reason I should act satisfied and not state that there are better ways to do things. Yes, I thought Obama was a better choice than Clinton and still do, for all that means.

  29. 29.

    lacp

    April 13, 2012 at 11:45 pm

    So….a post that started off pointing out that media morons are pursuing non-stories instead of focusing on things that actually affect how people live their lives in this country….

    …..has degenerated – like so many do – into “Obama is the suckiest president ever in the history of suck,” “No, FOADIAF,motherfucker, he’s the best thing since sprouted-grain bread with a dash of WashingtonJeffersonLincolnRoosevelt thrown in,” “Asshole, I’ve voted for him twenty-five eleven times in the last week, so I’m more progressive than you and I still think he sucks like a Hoover…” and bla bla bla (well, OK, if we’re going to be technical, the President is only half-bla).

    Jesus. It’s like a college-dorm bull session by four-year-olds.

  30. 30.

    eemom

    April 13, 2012 at 11:46 pm

    These are actually good points (even if they’re being made by Ruth Marcus)

    query: does a “point” made by a simpering sycophantic know-nothing emmessemm twat make any “good”?

  31. 31.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 13, 2012 at 11:48 pm

    @lacp: Sadly, it’s too late in the evening to finally solve this eternal conundrum for once and all.

  32. 32.

    Hill Dweller

    April 13, 2012 at 11:51 pm

    The undeniable fact is Obama faced the most obstructionist Senate minority in the history of the Senate. They filibustered everything, and brought the confirmation process to a complete halt. In the middle of the worst economic meltdown since the great depression, those nihilists decided to burn the house down.

    The most f’d up thing about it all is the republicans actually benefited from it politically. The worthless goddamned media are enablers, who stood by while it all happened.

    That said, Obama made mistakes(and paid for them) and was too cautious, but, on balance. he did a decent job with a horrendous hand.

  33. 33.

    General Stuck

    April 13, 2012 at 11:57 pm

    @Chuck Butcher:

    I can’t think of a single reason I should act satisfied and not state that there are better ways to do things.

    I think Obama is the best president in my lifetime, bar none. And that his first term has been extraordinarily productive, though not perfect, under extreme partisanship of the opposing party. And I look forward to another 4 years of same.

  34. 34.

    David Koch

    April 14, 2012 at 12:02 am

    @suzanne:

    Ron Paul is anti-choice, dumbass.

    So what. If you want choice, then hold an aspirin between your knees.

    Paul/Cenk 2012!

  35. 35.

    Jean

    April 14, 2012 at 12:02 am

    Regarding Ledbetter and the bill in Wisconsin: Both have to do with legal suits, not with equal pay for equal work. What Walker did was remove the ability to sue in circuit court over wage discrimination. He removed one of the routes for recourse in wage disputes. He repealed a 2009 law in WI. Of course, the Republicans argue it’s all about JOB CREATION.

    What it does is make it harder to seek damages because you’d have to file in federal court, which is time consuming and thus a deterrence from filing. In effect, Walker weakened Ledbetter in the state.

  36. 36.

    GuanoFaucet

    April 14, 2012 at 12:02 am

    @Chuck Butcher:

    I’m pretty bad at mind reading and people who’ve tried it on me have pretty much gotten it badly wrong.

    I’m going to go out on a limb here, and guess that they all thought you were really fucking astute.

  37. 37.

    AxelFoley

    April 14, 2012 at 12:23 am

    @R Johnston:

    If I took the first legislation that Obama signed as representative of all the legislation that Obama signed I’d be an idiot. The first legislation he signed was good. It was mostly downhill, with significant variation, from there. None of which is to say that President McCain would have been better, but all of which is to say that Obama’s a center-right compromising fucknut who sometimes gets things right, usually gets things wrong, but always gets things better than any Republican would.

    LOL

    STFU, douche.

  38. 38.

    gwangung

    April 14, 2012 at 12:35 am

    @R Johnston: You are correlating. That’s OK. You are ascribing causation. Which is not.

  39. 39.

    Chuck Butcher

    April 14, 2012 at 1:35 am

    @GuanoFaucet:
    I suppose I could take the nom de plume as indicative of something…

  40. 40.

    kay

    April 14, 2012 at 7:53 am

    I love the lecturing tone of that column.

    Who, exactly, is Marcus talking to?

    Obama and Axelrod woke up in the morning and 5000 paid pundits had gone insane over what one paid pundit said to another news personality.

    WTF were Obama and Axelrod supposed to do?

    Seat a round-table on wage disparity?

    When the political media wants to talk about “issues” we’ll talk about issues. They don’t want to, because it’s too hard.

    This was a wholly pundit-created controversy. As usual, they were talking to and about each other.

    She got Ledbetter wrong, too. The main issue there was how wage disparity affects retirement income. That’s why the case was so egregious.

  41. 41.

    kay

    April 14, 2012 at 8:06 am

    It’s just so predictable. It’s like dealing with an addict who is using.
    Political media go absolutely insane, on a tear, a bender, and then they wake up hungover and blame everyone else.
    I could plot their behavior on a fucking graph.
    We’ll get these lectures for 2 days, on the seriousness of the issues and then they’ll pick up again like this never happened.
    I don’t even mind the benders. What I mind are the lectures post-bender.
    The public were going along, doing what we do when the babbling millionaire’s created this controversy. How are we at fault for their excess?
    I had nothing to do with it.

  42. 42.

    xian

    April 14, 2012 at 9:14 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: they would have passed more progressive legislation because BULLY PULPIT SHUT UP THATS WHY

  43. 43.

    xian

    April 14, 2012 at 9:17 am

    @eemom: having a pseudo-feminine handle is your cover for using a word like “twat” as a slur? you know, rage isn’t a political philosophy.

  44. 44.

    R Johnston

    April 14, 2012 at 11:20 am

    Wow. The Obama defensiveness is strong in this thread.

    Obama’s record is very clearly center right. That’s a lot better than right, far-right, or wackadoodle conservative, but it’s not good.

    Deal, folks.

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