Wisconsin Tea Party Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) got a wake up call that his condescending attitude towards women is going to need major revision today when the first woman Senator from Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin (D), snapped back at his attempt at a put down, saying she will be able to understand the federal budget without Senator Johnson explaining it to her.
In an Associated Press interview on Wednesday, Johnson said he hoped he would be able to work with Baldwin in the Senate -- as soon as he explained the "facts" of the budget to her.
"Hopefully I can sit down and lay out for her my best understanding of the federal budget because they're simply the facts," he said. "Hopefully she'll agree with what the facts are and work toward common sense solutions."
"I was a double major in college in mathematics and political science, and I served for six years on the House Budget Committee in my first six years in the House," Baldwin responded in an interview with The Huffington Post on Friday.
"And I am very confident that when proposals come before the U.S. Senate, I will be able to evaluate them as to how they benefit or harm middle-class Wisconsinites. A yardstick of 'does it create jobs,' 'does it lower the deficit' and 'does it help grow the middle class' is an important one. I'm quite confident that I have those abilities," she added.
We can expect knuckle dragging retrogrades like Ron Johnson are going to have some more bubble-bursting moments as they get help adjusting to the 21st century which seems to have snuck up upon them by surprise.
It's fun to see Senator Tammy Baldwin give those Tea Party folks "learning opportunities" even before getting to Washington.
5:00 PM PT: Maybe some of you recent readers can help us decide if you think Sen. Ron Johnson did this as a deliberate putdown, or by accident? And, which would be the greater sign of stupidity?
Caseynm noted in a comment: "Sad and scary part is, the 20th Century is still sneaking up on these teabaggers....Jeebus."
To which I replied" "Yes, and actually the way the century rounded off I was cutting them about 30 or 40 years of slack, only because when I first wrote the 1960s snuck up on them too fast, it seem confusing.
Heck I was born in the 1956 and I grew up in a generation where all men and women, needed to do a lot of learning, cultueral awareness raising, sensitivity training, and learning. But, how does someone get beyond the late 1970s, or 1980s without knowing that it's not going to work to tell an adult woman in public, and in the media, that "you are going to sit her down and explain how a budget works, and maybe if she concentrates enough to get it, you might just grace her with the opportunity to work you you." And, a woman who has just won election to one of the most powerful offices in the world?
How much "sensitivity" does it take to know that's not going to end well? So, I still can't tell whether folks think he did this as an intentional put down, or if it was an accident.