John McCain Isn’t Qualified on Women’s Issues
16 July 2008 11:45 am by Taylor Marsh
BY TAYLOR MARSH
Is anyone surprised by this story? They shouldn’t be, no matter the denials.
Today in my interview with Carly Fiorina, she made a comment that John McCain
believes in federalism. It was a response, in part, to my persistance on why
John McCain has been absent or voted against women’s equal pay issues. When
it came to dealing with the issue of a woman’s civil rights, which includes
in part the right to privacy, Fiorina changed the subject. She wants women to
take McCain’s record in its entirety. But what can a woman do with her life
if her civil rights are violated from the start?
McCain’s recent response to
the question of health care and birth control was the most embarrassing moment
I’ve seen in presidential election politics. But it’s as
if the press is so embarrassed for John McCain that they don’t want to make
him look bad or any worse. Being pro-life, you’d think McCain and other Republicans like
him, including Fiorina, would be all for promoting and supporting birth control,
including through health insurance coverage that also includes poor women. But the mythical maverick is too afraid of the consequences. His base would go ballistic and he’s having enough trouble with them already. After
all, shouldn’t lowering abortions be our common goal? The truth is that when
it comes to women’s issues, whether it’s civil rights and privacy, or equal
pay, John McCain just doesn’t get it.
Hillary Clinton agrees:
“I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation,
as is typical of what’s being proposed by my friends on the other side of
the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems,” McCain
told reporters yesterday. “This is government playing a much, much greater
role in the business of a private enterprise system.”Democrats named the measure after Lilly Ledbetter, a supervisor at the Goodyear
Tire & Rubber Co.’s plant in Gadsden, Ala., who lost the Supreme Court
case. After working at the plant for 19 years, by the time she retired she
was making $6,500 less than the lowest-paid male supervisor.Several Democrats, including Clinton, criticized McCain for opposing
the bill. “Senator McCain has yet again fallen in line with President
Bush while middle-class families are falling by the wayside,” she said
in a statement after the Senate vote. “Women are earning less, but Senator
McCain is offering more of the same.”…
McCain is against equal pay for women because of lawsuits?
But misleading
voters by telling them falsehoods on the stump is even worse.
John McCain claimed today that he is determined to ensure “equal pay
for equal work.” But women’s groups were quick to point out that the
presumptive Republican nominee has announced his opposition to the Lilly Ledbetter
Fair Pay Act which seeks to do exactly that. The Arizona senator believes
that the measure would “only serve to fatten the pockets of trial lawyers.”
… Asked to provide support for the senator’s claim that he is committed
to ensuring “equal pay for equal work,” the McCain campaign cited
several pieces of legislation that he has supported including the Older Workers
Benefit Protection Act of 1989, which prohibits discrimination against older
workers, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Family Medical
Leave Act of 1993. However, none of these measures directly addresses the
Ledbetter situation.
If he supports equal pay, why has he voted against it? If he doesn’t like what’s being put forth on it, where’s his legislation? Answer: In all his years
in the Senate he has never made a single effort to put actions where his campaign
rhetoric is when it comes to a woman’s right to equal pay.
If McCain is trying to woo Hillary supporters, which he is, shouldn’t he start
by respecting our right to privacy and civil rights, as well as our equality for equal pay? If he can’t do that in the Senate, what makes anyone think he’ll do it as president?
