February 14, 2004
Whatever do they put into the water in Kansas?
Even given that right-wingers in the Sunflower State have a history of doing things like trying to stuff evolution back into the box Darwin pulled it out of, this is a bit much.
"Wasn't it in the best interest of our country to give women the right to vote?" [Johnson County League of Women Voters co-president Delores] Furtado asked the senator.
"Not necessarily so," [State senator Kay] O'Connor said. [...]
Asked if she supports the 19th Amendment [which gave women the right to vote], the Republican lawmaker responded: "I'm an old-fashioned woman. Men should take care of women, and if men were taking care of women (today) we wouldn't have to vote.
"I'm sorry women have not been taken more care of," she said. "We have gotten the short end of the stick."
If the measure were up for ratification today, she said, she would not support it.
Via Pandagon.
Posted by Magpie at February 14, 2004 07:22 PM | TrackBackWhen did we slip back into the 18th Century?
Posted by: pessimist on February 14, 2004 08:10 PMAnd she's doing what, exactly, holding elected office? It's clear that women have made progress when one who's so obviously a hypocritical bonehead has managed to make it so far in the world.
Posted by: natasha on February 14, 2004 11:50 PMKay O'Connor represents Olathe, which is the stronghold of Christian conservativism in the county, and by the number of voters, the state.
There has been a 10-year civil war in Johnson County between the religious conservatives and the mainstream Republicans, who last held the governorship under Bill Graves.
Nonetheless, the mainstream voters poured into the polls in 2000 to defeat the anti-evolution state school board chair, Linda Holloway. And there has been significant crossover voting, as they re-elected Kansas's only Democratic congressman, Dennis Moore.
The good news: O'Connor has said she is not going to run again this year.
Posted by: G Newman on February 16, 2004 02:18 AM