You know, I barely even care about the hypocrisy of Republicans running on Family Values platitudes and then bonking each other. It's their personal problem and a problem for their stupid base voters who are motivated by that drivel. The Vance McAllister (R-LA) kissing episode, though, has captured the imagination of the public. The Christian Science Monitor asks Will voters forgive transgression (+ video). "On Tuesday, McAllister’s office announced that Peacock was no longer in his employ, and that the congressman planned to stay in office and run for reelection to a full two-year term in November. Will his apparent transgression hurt him with voters, making this effort an uphill climb? Possibly not. In polls voters usually say they are less bothered by political extramarital incidents than by out-and-out monetary corruption… The married father of five," they wrote yesterday, "was allegedly caught on surveillance tape kissing a staff member who was not his wife, and that tape has now been leaked to the world at large." Allegedly?McAllister is demanding Boehner tell the FBI to find out who leaked the video. Meanwhile, the cuckold husband, Heath Peacock, has been having his 10 minutes of fame too:
“I’m just freaking devastated by the whole deal, man. I loved my wife so much. I cannot believe this. I cannot freaking believe it. I feel like I’m going to wake up here in a minute and this is all going to be a bad nightmare,” Heath Peacock told CNN Tuesday.…“He has wrecked my life,” Peacock, 34, said of McAllister. “We’re headed for divorce.”Heath and Melissa Peacock have been married for six years and have a 6-year-old son.“It was just a kiss, that was all it was, but it embarrassed me and my family,” Heath Peacock said. “This guy has turned my life upside down." …Heath Peacock noted that “he’s apologized to everyone in the world except me.”…"I know his beliefs. When he ran one of his commercials, he said ‘I need your prayers,’ and I asked, ‘When did you get religious?’ He said, ‘When I needed votes,’” Peacock recalled. “He broke out the religious card and he’s about the most non-religious person I know.”
I feel bad for the guy. His pain is real and his life will probably never be the same. He should study zen. As for public policy, that's an entirely different matter. I have only one real problem with this whole thing. Mrs. Peacock wasn't some hooker McAllister and the Duck Dynasty guys hired for an orgy, like the hookers David Vitter hired for years and years and years before finally being caught, forgiven and reelected. No, Mrs. Peacock was a government employee, like McAllister, and he is her supervisor and her livelihood-- and the well-being of her family-- were dependent on his good will. There's not even a House ethics rule against this kind of abuse.
The unfolding McAllister episode is reminiscent of a 2010 incident involving then-Rep. John Souder, R-Ind., who resigned after admitting to an affair with a staffer in his own district office. After Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, then one of Souder's colleagues in the House, learned of the affair, he reported it to the House Committee on Ethics. Speaker John Boehner followed up with a letter to the committee concerning the affair and told Souder to resign.
That's what conservatives in general, and Republicans in particular, don't understand about these cases. The hypocrisy bullshit and the religious nonsense is what it is. A man in a position of power over an employee having his way with her… that's what needs to be dealt with effectively by society. And it goes deeper and won't get solved until the underlying patriarchal misogyny gets addressed:
“I’m a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That’s what kind of man I am. You’re just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It’s science.” -Ron Burgundy, Anchorman
See, conservatives aren't always anti-science! Dana Milbank's OpEd in the Washington Post actually did address the underlying problems, at least in terms of why the Republican Part has a perpetual "woman problem." On Tuesday, he wrote "This was not the way Republican leaders had planned to observe Equal Pay Day." That whole McAllister thing made them look like a bunch of pigs again. "It takes chutzpah to observe Equal Pay Day by sacking the low-wage employee you’ve been snogging."
Thus did Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, find himself fielding a question about McAllister at a news conference that was meant to highlight the party’s pro-women efforts. “I’m glad he issued an apology,” Cantor said, reserving further judgment on whether the kissing congressman, who has been in office for less than five months, should quit.Republicans aren’t responsible for McAllister any more than Democrats are to blame for Anthony Weiner’s weirdness. But for Republicans, who have a big disadvantage among unmarried women, this reinforces a perception. The Democrats’ accusation of a GOP “war on women” sticks not because of what Democrats say but because of what Republicans do-- and the big problems aren’t personal pratfalls but rather public policy.In his news conference, Cantor repeatedly called on Democrats to “put the politics aside” and talk with Republicans about “things that we can do together, things that disproportionately impact women, without playing politics.”In the Senate, where Democrats were daring Republicans to vote against equal-pay legislation, Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who is likely to face a female Democratic challenger in November, told Democrats to drop “all the show votes.”Democrats are indeed making partisan attempts to embarrass Republicans on issues important to women. The coordinated actions being taken, including President Obama’s signing of executive orders Tuesday to expose pay disparities by gender among federal contractors, are largely symbolic. The disparity is stubborn. According to the American Enterprise Institute, the 229 women who work in the White House are paid 88 cents on the dollar compared with the 232 men who do, a finding not disputed by the administration.But when one side complains that the other is “playing politics,” it’s a safe bet that those doing the complaining are losing. Cantor and McConnell don’t seem to grasp that the war-on-women accusations aren’t made in a vacuum; they gain traction because of proposals Republicans are advancing.Consider Paul Ryan’s budget, which the House is debating this week. Among those functions of government the Republican congressman from Wisconsin would cut, many disproportionately benefit women, according to the National Women’s Law Center.For example, Medicaid (about 70 percent of adult recipients are women), food stamps (63 percent of adult recipients are women) and Pell grants (62 percent) would be cut. Then there are programs in categories that would face cuts Ryan hasn’t specified: Supplemental Security Income (two-thirds of the poor and elderly recipients are women), welfare (85 percent of adult recipients are women), housing vouchers (82 percent of recipient households headed by women), child-care assistance (75 percent female-headed households) and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program.By contrast, government payments that go disproportionately to men-- active-duty military and veterans-- are relatively untouched. The highest earners, who are disproportionately male, benefit most under Ryan’s tax proposal, while those receiving low-income tax credits, often families headed by women, would fare poorly.
Yesterday Senate Democrats were unable to break the Republican filibuster of Paycheck Fairness. Although all the Democrats voted yes, every single Republican opposed it-- including fake moderates like Susan Collins (R-ME), Dean Heller (R-NV), Rob Portman (R-OH), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Mark Kirk (R-IL)-- and it failed 53-44, far from the 60 votes needed. Harry Reid: "For reasons known only to them, Senate Republicans don’t seem to be interested in closing wage gaps for working women."
