He didn’t mention her by name, but it was clear that the president was singling out Michigan Republican Terri Lynn Land for special scorn in a speech blasting Republicans in Texas, Wednesday night. Land is running against Rep. Gary Peters for Michigan’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat.
…according to the White House press pool report from the Democratic fundraiser in Houston, he expressed his frustration with “Republican obstructionism” on a number of issues, including equal pay, and mentioned “a GOP Senate candidate in Michigan, not by name, who defended the gender gap in pay as a result of women’s choices.”
Democrats are ridiculing Land for comments she made at a 2010 Senior Women’s Club event. She was telling a story from her time as county clerk, supervising a staff that was 85 percent female.
In the full speech, Land explains that United Auto Workers union always negotiates for more money and raises, remarking, “They’re a little male organization, have you ever noticed that? A little heavy on that. Well, we all like to be paid more and that’s great, but the reality is that women have a different lifestyle. They have kids. They have to take them to get dentist appointments, doctors appointments, all those kinds of things. And they’re more interested in flexibility in a job than pay.”
Land was making the obvious point that some women prefer shorter work hours (and therefore less pay) because it gives them more flexibility in their daily lives. But despite the fact that there is already an Equal Pay law on the books since 1963, Democrats want to pass a law with further mandates that would result in fewer choices, less flexibility and lower wages for both men and women.
Land’s campaign responded to the president’s mud-slinging with a statement condemning his “shameful political attacks.”
“President Obama fails to address his own shortcomings as both a male employer and a male politician. According to his own math, the President doesn’t even pay the women on his staff equally. And also, he endorsed Congressman Peters, another male politician who pays the women he employs even less — just 67 cents for every dollar a man makes.
The President was in Michigan just a few days ago, and he could have met and had a real discussion about not only women and flexibility in the workplace, but also about women losing their doctors because of ObamaCare, families spending too much time trying to find good-paying jobs, and families having to pay more to put food on their tables, gas in their tanks, and send their kids to college.
Mr. President, if you want to have a real discussion about women, I’d love to introduce you to Melissa from Troy who switched jobs so that she could have more flexibility, or the Davert family in Bay County who lost their health plan because of ObamaCare.
Until then, I’d politely suggest that you focus your efforts on getting our economy going so that women truly have the opportunity to be successful and provide for their families.”