Sometimes women in the U. S. Senate say the darndest things.
Diane Sawyer recently interviewed all twenty distaff members of the new Senate, the largest number of women ever to serve in that august body.
…in no uncertain terms, “If we were in charge of the Senate and of the administration…we would have a budget deal by now.”
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) said this to Sawyer and was joined in laughter by 19 of her female peers, who will all be members of the incoming 113th Congress.
Sawyer asked the senators if they all agreed with Collins’ sentiments on their superior negotiating abilities and was greeted with a resounding “yes.”
Collins’ statements were also echoed by her Democrat colleague, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO). McCaskill said she believes women are “less confrontational and more collaborative” by nature, and that having females in charge would lead to a quicker compromise. Collins agreed, saying, “What I find is with all due deference to, deference to our male colleagues, that women’s styles tend to be more collaborative.”
And what a budget deal we’d have—nearly all these women are Democrats. Does Senator Susan Collins have a secret desire to be eaten alive by her “collaborative” sisters on the other side of the aisle? And just a query: Was Rep. Nancy Pelosi standing behind the door when the collaborative genes were passed out?
I also think that these remarks could be interpreted as seeing the budget deal solely in terms of personality. Why can't Mitch McConnell be more like a woman!
Allapundit, who has seen the video, comments amusingly:
[T]his is worth watching if only to see McCaskill mouth a bit of ancient biological determinism that would have set the left off on a two-day screech bender had she been a Republican man. I think the clip’s worst sin is how cloying it is: Diane Sawyer decided to bring the women of the Senate together to talk about capital-w Women, so naturally some self-serving CW about capital-w Women must get said.
Thank you, Susan Collins, for handling the easy lay-up. I’d like to hear more from her and McC about why compromise is a virtue in itself (especially since the fiscal cliff is a product of bipartisan compromise) and how standing firm because you’re committed to your economic beliefs is really just a form of male pigheadedness.
Don’t you hate how men refuse to ask for directions when they’re lost? And how they whine when you ask them to concede on billions of new taxes on small businesses?