It’s probably not smart political strategy for a male politician to make misogynistic comments about his female challenger a few weeks before his recall election. But that’s exactly what Republican Senator Scott Fitzgerald did on Saturday. According to Clay Barbour, Wisconsin State Journal, Fitzgerald had this to say about his opponent:
For the record, Fitzgerald said he doesn’t buy Compas’ Pollyanna image. He knows some people are painting the race as a David-vs.-Goliath contest. But Fitzgerald said he thinks her husband is one of the main forces behind her campaign, as well as unions and protest groups.
“I don’t for one minute believe she is the organizing force behind this whole thing,” he said.
Seriously?!
But, true to form, Lori Compas, after recovering from the initial shock of those ridiculous statements, responded with dignity, grace, and fire:
“That is pretty insulting, but it does seem in keeping with his general views on women,” she said. “He doesn’t seem to have a lot of respect for them. That’s OK; he can keep underestimating me.”
Compas said that if Fitzgerald really doubts she is a serious candidate, he should accept her invitation to debate. “I have challenged him to five debates,” she said. “If he thinks I can’t handle myself, he should come out and face me.”
Dear Wisconsin GOP: It’s 2102, and women VOTE
I didn’t realize we jumped into the future. But I do agree with this post generally as much of a negative nancy I am.
Oops-thanks for catching that typo! 🙂
I have Multiple Sclerosis, and my hands and fingers have been numb for the last 3 years. Normally I type very slowly and triple-check my work, but I was so upset by Fitz’s statements that I didn’t do it this time. 🙂
I had no idea about the MS, Lisa.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for everything that you contribute around here, as well as up in Waukesha. I’m uplifted by your purity of spirit, by your always honorable intentions, and by your irrepressibly, irresistably pleasant personality.
Every time that I have the impulse to get snarky, I now find myself thinking, “How would Lisa put this?” Thank you for that, as well as everything else.
You’re a remarkable human being. Hands down, the nicest person I’ve ever met online.
Zuma,
Thank you so much for your kind comments-I REALLY appreciate it! 🙂
Lisa
Fitzgerald is correct not to take this person seriously and it would be wrong to waste toime debating someone who is not a viable candidate. All it would do is legitimize a fring candidate.
John, you clearly don’t live in the 13th Senate District, or you would have already seen the tireless efforts of the Compas campaign. But leaving my subjective opinion aside, let’s look at some numbers. In the 2010 election, the incumbent Fitzgerald defeated his opponent by 38%. The Democratic challenger, Dwayne Block, received 19,232 votes.
In the recent primary, Lori Compas received 21,246 votes, or more than 2000 more than Block received in the last general. Also, recent polling shows Compas 14% behind Fitzgerald. And that was before Scotty opened his big fat mouth.
Viable? Care to rethink?
Come to think of it, there IS a “fringe” candidate in the Compas-Fitzjackass race:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/13/1088386/-Mother-s-Day-Misogyny-WI-State-Senator-Scott-Fitzgerald
Or a “fring” candidate, as John likes to put it.
Lori Compas, a fringe candidate, John? I think not. A force of nature maybe. But, a fringe candidate? Hardly, John, all of your wingnut wishful thinking and hollow bluster to the contrary, notwithstanding.
Scott Fitzgerald is facing recall because Lori Compass, as a concerned citizen, said, “Enough is enough”, and successfully spearheaded the recall petition effort against him where no one thought it even remotely possible.
Fitzgerald doesn’t want to debate Lori Compas for several reasons.
He doesn’t want to debate her because she is intelligent, articulate, and tells it like it is.
He doesn’t want to debate her because he is nothing more than an inarticulate, often incoherent, partisan bully (http://www.bloggingblue.com/scott-fitzgerald-rambles/) who couldn’t debate his way out of a paper bag. She is the polar opposite.
Fitzgerald doesn’t want to debate Lori Compass because, in the one “debate” that they’ve had, to date, she kicked his ass: http://www.blogging blue.com/scott-fitzgerald/
Fitzgerald’s “cover story”, and that of worried supporters like you, is that she is a fringe candidate, one not to be taken seriously. The reality, however, is that, in plain and simple terms, he is afraid to debate her, and with good reason.
Corrected Paragraph 6:
Fitzgerald doesn’t want to debate Lori Compass because, in the one “debate” that they’ve had, to date, she kicked his ass: http://www.bloggingblue.com/scott-fitzgerald/
For a point of reference, Fitzgerald did debate Dwayne Block in 2010. Its probably right that he do it against Compas.
“Probably” right, Jeff?
Fitzgerald’s running away from a debate with Lori Compas is strictly a political calculation. He risks looking like the coward that he is, but at least he doesn’t get his ass handed to him by Lori in a debate.
Supporters like John don’t really help Fitzgerald’s cause much by trying to suggest that an honorable and down-to-earth candidate like Lori Compas is a “fringe” candidate, with whom Fitzgerald should not engage in honest debate.
If the same amount of people vote in that Senate race as they did in 2010, and Compas gets the same voters to vote for her as they did on May 8, Lori would need to pick up around 35% of the 35,000 people who did not vote in the primary. You don’t think that’s acheivable, especially after they way that Fatzy has embarrassed himself and denigrated pretty much anyone other than an old white male authoritarian?
Fatzy better worry, he’s in big trouble. And he’s helping to sink Walker in the process.
I know it’s fun to see a conspiracy around every corner, but I don’t see the misogyny in Fitzgerald’s statement. He didn’t say that Compas didn’t organize her own campaign because she’s a woman. It may be de riguer to have every action fit into the prism of your pre-conceived notions but on this one, you’re off base.
You, sir, are an idiot [Phil – cue that Simpsons clip of Krusty The Clown], a myopic, clueless potentially sexist, idiot.
Look, just because wingnuts like you trade in “pre-conceived notions”, it doesn’t mean that everyone does.
Re-read, assuming you read it in the first place, what the Wisconsin State Journal article had to say about it:
Clay Barbour, Wisconsin StateJournal: “For the record, Fitzgerald said he doesn’t buy Compas’ Pollyanna image. He knows some people are painting the race as a David-vs.-Goliath contest. But Fitzgerald said he thinks her husband is one of the main forces behind her campaign, as well as unions and protest groups.
‘I don’t for one minute believe she is the organizing force behind this whole thing,’ [Fitzgerald] said.”
If you don’t see, much less understand the significance of, the misogyny with which that statement is infused, as every other sentient creature on the face of the planet below the age of 80 does, well, then, you, sir, ARE an idiot.
Ok, read it again…where is the misogyny? Impressive that you are able to deduce so much about me from one statement. Your powers of observation are so laser-like. I love how a disagreement makes me a “myopic, clueless,potentially sexist idiot.” That certainly is one way to silence dissention. Not a very effective one, however.
Hush now, Rod. Everything’s going to be ohhh-tay.
Anyway, Rod, here’s the thing. Figuring out that you are “a myopic, clueless, potentially sexist idiot” based upon what you’ve had to say here is no more complex than adding one and one. Just common sense and basic “math” skills, my misguided wingnut brother.
I will say this, though. At first, I thought your problem was just myopia and cluelessness. Seeing your latest comment, however, I’m beginning to think that I was wrong in saying that you were also only “potentially” sexist.
If you need someone to explain the misogyny dripping from Big [Fat-Ass] Fitz’s statements about Lori Compas, ask your wife or girlfriend [or, as I suspect is probably the case with you, your ex-wife or your ex-girlfriend], your mother, your sister, your daughter, the stripper from whom you just got a lap dance, or any woman walking down the street, to explain it to you. I don’t have any more time to waste explaining the obvious to you.
“[1950s, t]ime of your life, huh, kid?” [h/t to Guido in “Risky Business”]
Anyway, Rod, thanks for playing “Myopic Clueless [‘I don’t get it. What was SO bad about the first half of the 20th Century?’] Sexist Idiot”.
Host: Don Pardo, what parting gifts do we have for Rod?
Don Pardo: Well, first up, we have a DVD of season one of “Mad Men”. Second, a subscription to Hustler Magazine. And, last, but not least, a name change to Ward Cleaver or Don Draper.
The world has changed, Rod. You should try to keep up.
I won’t dignify all of your responses with comments, suffice to say your assumptions are as wrong as your political bent. Just so I understand the world view according to Zuma, if Compas was a man and Fitzgerald suggested that it was his wife who was directing the campaign, would that also be sexist? Or does it only come into play the other way way around. I find this all so illuminating as the women I associate with are strong-willed, independent-thinking women who feel no need to hide behind a facade of persecution everytime something doesn’t go their way.
@ Rod-iculous who wrote, in pertinent part :
“I find this all so illuminating as the women I associate with are strong-willed, independent-thinking women who feel no need to hide behind a facade of persecution everytime [sic] something doesn’t go their way.”
First of all, Rod, since you strike me as entirely unenlightened, I doubt that you find much all that “illuminating”.
Second, Lori Compas isn’t “. . .hid[ing] behind a facade of persecution [because] something [hasn’t] gone her way.” She is simply stating the obvious. The rest of us are just acknowledging that she’s right in her analysis. That you can’t do the same despite all of the “independent-thinking women” with whom you purport to “associate” says more about you than anyone else.
In event, little homey, there is a difference in how women are treated in the world, whether you want to admit it or not. With each new attempt by Teapublicans/conservatives to take us back to the 1950s, with each new front which they open up in their “War On Women”, we are all reminded of that. Well, maybe not you, but the rest of us are.
Everyone knows that Fitzgerald was trying to demean Lori Compas. He’s desperate, and he’s flailing about in an effort to appeal to the misogynists among us. That you don’t see it, or continue to disingenuously claim that you don’t, doesn’t change that fundamental fact.
Nor does it change the fact that your opinion means bupkis.
We’re done here, fool.