Repulican Rape Hypocrisy

Thank you for your patience, readers, and I'm sorry that I've been gone for so long. I moved in October from Washington State to Missouri, and am finally settling in enough to feel comfortable.

Seantor Al Franken recently won his first victory in the Senate, but to me it is a victory that highlights both the trouble with partisanship in our system, and the hypocrisy
inherent in the current incarnation of the republican party.

Franken's bill, the first that he introduced in the Senate, would prevent the government from awarding contracts to companies that “restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” This is largely based on a 2005 case of a woman working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad who was raped by several male co-workers. When she tried to report this, she was locked in a shipping container for 24 hours with no food, drink or bed and then told that, if she left Baghdad, she would be out of a job. When she tried to sue Halliburton for this, a stipulation in her contract was pointed out that stated that she couldn't… instead she had to resolve it through mediation. Franken's bill passed 68-30.

Why would 30 senators vote against such a common-sense seeming piece of legislation? I'll answer that with a simple statement… all thirty were republicans. There are, as near as I can tell, two possible reasons for this. One is that they voted against it simply because it was introduced by a high-profile democrat, which is bullshit. The other is that, if they voted for this, it would piss off their corporate overlords, which is BULLSHIT!

One senator gave, as his reasoning, that the government should not base granting of contracts on alleged malfeasance. You know, like how the republicans are trying to get Acorn's contract pulled because a fake hooker and her fake pimp got advice from an Acorn worker on how to fake-break the law. Oops.

Another said that the government shouldn't interfere in how a private company treats its employees. First off, the government interferes in how private companies treat their employees ALL THE TIME! Child labor laws, workplace safety laws, minimum wage laws, overtime laws, the five-day work week… you name it. When I was a cab driver, I had a stack of government-mandated laws that I had to follow, and not one of these laws interfered with my ability to make a living. Secondly, this is not a case of government interfering with how Halliburton treats its employees, it is simply a statement that, if they continue in this fashion, they won't be able to get any more government contracts.

In an attempt at balance here, I went out to find comments by republican apologists on this issue, and I'd like to address what I found here.

The primary argument was that perhaps the bill was loaded with pork or worded in such a way to achieve some other nefarious goal, like the vote in Seattle several years ago that purported to ban smoking within 25 feet of public doorways, but actually banned smoking inside any public building such as bars and restaurants. Sadly, I was unable to find the text of the bill online. If anyone else can, please post it in comments. All I can say is that, until the republicans quit blocking democratic attempts to limit or eliminate pork spending in laws, that is going to be a fact of our system. And I have yet to find anyone who can state with certainty that this is the case. Also, NO senators who voted against this bill gave this as their reason.

For the record, for those who wish to use this vote as the basis for THEIR future votes, here are the thirty senators who voted against this bill. Alexander (R-TN), Barrasso (R-WY), Bond (R-MO), Brownback (R-KS), Bunning (R-KY), Burr (R-NC), Chambliss (R-GA), Coburn (R-OK), Cochran (R-MS), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Crapo (R-ID), DeMint (R-SC), Ensign (R-NV), Enzi (R-WY), Graham (R-SC), Gregg (R-NH), Inhofe (R-OK), Isakson (R-GA), Johanns (R-NE), Kyl (R-AZ), McCain (R-AZ), McConnell (R-KY), Risch (R-ID), Roberts (R-KS), Sessions (R-AL), Shelby (R-AL), Thune (R-SD), Vitter (R-LA), Wicker (R-MS). I recognize several of these as the partisan republican "usual suspects", including Brownback, Cornyn, Ensign, Graham, Inhofe, McCain, Sessions and Wicker.

Peace.

Rev. Randal