Monday, June 14, 2010

Sontany Issues Non-Apology Apology in Skirtgate

Posted by on Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 12:41 PM

How would Marilyn Monroe vote on family issues?
  • How would Marilyn Monroe vote on family issues?
Under fire from the state Republican Party, Rep. Janis Sontany has just made one of those standard "if I offended anyone" non-apologies for the burgeoning scandal that our colleague J.R. Lind already has dubbed "Skirtgate."

At a Democratic gathering over the weekend, Sontany said of women Republican state lawmakers: "You have to lift their skirts to find out if they are women. You sure can't find out by how they vote!" State GOP chairman Chris Devaney quickly issued a press release calling her comment "inappropriate and disrespectful" and demanding that various Democrats denounce Sontany.

In her office down the hall from the gritty Legislative Plaza press room, we found Sontany sitting glumly at her desk and wishing we wouldn't ask her about any of this. "I would just as soon see this not have all the legs that apparently it's going to take," she says. "I guess it's a slow news day."

She says she made her wiseacre remark about Rep. Debra Maggart because the Democrats were talking about how one of Maggart's counties, Sumner, is the only one in the state without pre-kindergarten classes.

"I think they think it's glorified daycare," Sontany tells Pith. "I would think that women should care at least as much [as men] about family issues, and I would consider that a family issue."

But Sontany adds: "That was a glib, off-the-cuff remark that I made that I really wish I had not done. It was not one of my better thought-out statements and I did not mean it to offend. If I have offended anyone, I'm certainly sorry that I did."

OK, but what do we do about the horrifying images that Sontany has implanted in our brains of Republican women in the legislature hiking up their skirts?

Update: Michelle Malkin is outraged. "When liberals can’t handle GOP women, they infantilize, sexualize, demonize, and dehumanize them." Also at RedState: "Democrats hate women."

Comments (17)

Showing 1-17 of 17

Add a comment

 
Subscribe to this thread:
Showing 1-17 of 17

Add a comment

Top Topics in
Pith in the Wind

Legislature (72)


Politics (54)


Phillips (39)


Education (36)


Law and Order (24)


Around Town (22)


Media (20)


Crazy Crap (15)


Breaking News (13)


Sports (13)


All contents © 1995-2013 City Press LLC, 210 12th Ave. S., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37203. (615) 244-7989.
All rights reserved. No part of this service may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of City Press LLC,
except that an individual may download and/or forward articles via email to a reasonable number of recipients for personal, non-commercial purposes.
Powered by Foundation