1 Writer's Block Plaza
Senator John McCain
241 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Fax: 202-228-2862
Dear Senator:
First, please excuse my intrusion. Since I am not a member of your Arizonian constituency, feel free to disregard my humble correspondence. However, since you are running as the Republican candidate for president, it might be conceivable that you would read and absorb my letter. In hopes of the later, I will continue with my praise of your most recent Senate actions.
This past week, the Senate was called to vote on a bill approved by the House and originally written by those whom you lovingly consider "your friends on the other side of the aisle." Before I address this bill, I'd like to point out that you should be a bit more careful, Mr. Seniorator. What I mean is, you use the address "my friends" in many different contexts, not all entirely amiable. Now, as a staunch supporter, I know that when you call Democrats "friends" you mean something different than when you call campaign contributors at your rallies "friends" (wink wink). But that's another story.
Back to the Bill. It was the Equal Pay Bill, also know as the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the name taken from the Supreme Court case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc. The bill was written--as I'm sure your copious hours of research into the bill informed you--as a correction to the Supreme Court's ruling that a worker should be limited to 180 days upon first instance of discriminatory pay practice by an employer based on sex, race, age, etc. Ledbetter, an employee of Goodyear, and her lawyers claimed that every time she received a pay check that was less than her male equals' salaries, it constituted discrimination. But you, dear Senator, and the Supreme Court (or at least those legal eagles: Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, & Thomas: the conservative bench clusterfuck, as I fondly call them) decided that if this woman had a gripe with her pay scale, she should have complained within 180 of being hired by Goodyear. If she was so conscientious about receiving equal pay, why didn't she snoop around the records of her fellow employees while she was still on her initial six-month probationary period upon hiring--you know, back when she was new, didn't have a rapport with her colleagues, and didn't know how much they made, and was barred from asking as a matter of company policy? If she got canned then and there for snooping, it wouldn't have blown up into an expensive and unfruitful extended legal battle now! Think of the time everyone could have saved and all the tires that could've been made with the money instead used to pay the lawyers! If she just married up and stopped futzing around with rubber and tires, we'd all be able to stick an extra wheel on or cars, and have as many rubber stamps as we wanted (which would SO come in handy once you're president!).
So again, I must applaud your decision not to vote on this bill, and instead campaign for contribution monies in some of the poorest sections of the country, like New Orleans; because let's face it, the best way to stop poverty, and specifically poverty among women and children, is going to their home town and asking for money for your campaign--not to sit in your leather senate seat and try to legislate away their problems! They need to carry a McCain FOR PRESIDENT banner to really combat their lower wages and discriminatory victimization. Like osmosis, our grand old party ideas of free market economies and free enterprise will seep into their ears, and allow the
I melted at your words when interviewed about the bill. You said: “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.” *Give me a moment while I collect myself, and re-congeal from the puddle of Republican glee I was just transported into by your eloquence.*
Okay. So the lawsuits, the legal battles, all this unnecessary stuff--you hit the nail right on the democrat's head. We don't want all these lawsuits! And this legislation would open it up, allowing women to sue whenever they actually find discrimination--not just those 180 days. They have long careers, so that would be absolute chaos! Of course, it might make people file suit without direct evidence in the first 180 days, just to cover their legal bases, so to speak...but I don't think that's likely. Who ever heard of courts being flooded with unwarranted law suits instead of well-researched, justifiable ones?
Besides, the heart of this issue, as you so rightly but your finger on, is not that women are receiving lower pay for equal work, it's that they don't know what they're doing (especially in comparison to men). In full disclosure, I'm a woman, and I can confirm that I don't know what I'm doing, even now, sitting here drafting this letter to you in praise for your work. I'd need more clues than a naked scavenger hunt to really understand your policy. But the other message that you told the press that made me liquefy was this one (in regard to the salary disparity between men and women):
“They [women] need the education and training, particularly since more and more women are heads of their households, as much or more than anybody else,...And it's hard for them to leave their families when they don't have somebody to take care of them....It's a vicious cycle that's affecting women, particularly in a part of the country like this, where mining is the mainstay; traditionally, women have not gone into that line of work, to say the least,”
*note: a single, translucent tear of pristine republican emotion runs down my cheek every time I read this, fomenting my soul with GOP solidarity. *
You see, you silly discriminatory-practices-lawsuit women, like Madame Ledbetter (her name is even criminal!)--you have it all wrong! Senator, you know where the problem needs to be nipped in the bud: Education. Women aren't getting paid less because they're women, it's because they're stupid, and can't perform tasks! All that sentimental stuff: yikes. It's surprising enough that women can even manage to form lawsuits, with all the hormones and familial concerns.
You said you saw the disparity in wages, and want to rectify it. Well, Senator, do I have an initiative for you! I say, you put women back in their traditional spot: the home, and more specifically, the kitchen. They seem to like taking care of their families, as you suggested in the quote above. Just eradicate hiring women in the
Best wishes to your campaign!
Your Ever-Ardent Political Fan and Future Bathroom Tryst,
M. Snowe
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