Equal Pay - What a Difference Fourteen Days Can Make

Yesterday, equal pay for equal work went down in flames in the Senate; and it was the Republicans who wielded the flamethrower--again.

what eye thynk:   Two dates, fourteen days apart...
1.    On September 1, we celebrated Labor Day. Over that holiday weekend, the GOP began a publicity blitz to call attention to their supposed support of equal pay for equal work for women.  They have no record on which to base this claim; but that didn't seem to bother them in the least. (Who needs facts when you possess Olympics calibre chutzpah?)

As their November campaigns heat up, Senators and Representatives were in their home districts over the holiday weekend where Republicans spent a great deal of time talking of their support for women's issues.   To solidify their party's campaign fueled message on women's pay, GOP National Committee press aide Kirsten Kukowski tweeted:

Who is this "All" of whom Ms. Kukowski speaks?  Well, there is...

•  Representative Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Washington) talking to CNN: "Republicans and I support equal pay for equal work.  (Voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act)
• Representative Lynn Jenkins (R-Kansas) at a press conference earlier this year:"Please allow me to set the record straight.  We strongly support equal pay for equal work."  At the same time, she explained that "Many ladies I know feel like they are being used as pawns (by the Democrats) and find it condescending." (Voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.)
• Campaign spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: " As a father of three daughters, fair pay for women is more than a talking point for Senator McConnell.  It's something he's worked to achieve his entire career." (Mr. McConnell voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and filibustered the Paycheck Fairness Act.)

For the record, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which Congress passed in 2009, received a grand total of 7, that's s-e-v-e-n, Republican "yea" votes--4 in the Senate and 3 in the House.

I really would have thought "All" meant more than seven.  I'll admit, I'm a little disappointed in that number.   It makes me wonder about that "support"...

2.    On September 15, just fourteen days after the GOP bragged and tweeted of their advocacy for equal pay, Senate Republicans filibustered the Paycheck Fairness Act--for the FOURTH time!  Not one Republican voted in favor...not one.  

In a statement earlier this year, Ms. Kukowski told CNN that Republicans are "tired of having the Democrats go out there and make assertions and assumptions about what Republicans believe, when actually it's completely inaccurate." 

"Completely inaccurate?"  Really? We are supposed to believe that a total of seven votes for the Lilly Ledbetter Act and four filibusters against the Paycheck Fairness Act are evidence of the GOP's support for equal pay? Am I missing something here?

Mitch McConnell calls the Democrat's repeated calls for pay parity a "bizarre obsession."

Republicans have convinced themselves that what they say is more important than how they actually vote in Washington; that they need only repeat the Party-mantra loudly and often enough and women will forget those pesky "nay" votes and, based on a pants-on-fire, party-sponsored tweet,  rush to support them in November.

 In short, the GOP continues to believe that women voters are stupid.  Now that is a "bizarre obsession."