New York Democrat Rep. Kathleen Rice tries (and fails) to cry sexism in committee – Washington Examiner
Congressional sexism is becoming cliche and Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., is just the latest to cry misogyny.
During a committee hearing to discuss morale at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (of all things), the New York Democrat asked the witnesses overly broad questions, ran over her time by more than a minute, and then complained when Chairman Ron Estes, R-Kan., interrupted what was sure to be an anti-Trump tirade.
"Day in the life," Rice tweeted after the exchange. "Worth noting there are men from both parties who don't act like this. So we've got that going for us, which is nice." Because you know, Republicans are chauvinists by default.
Except no, no they're not.
Attacks against old man Republicans from old woman Democrats, like this fake sexist-Estes narrative, aren't just baseless. They're boring. Watching the entire exchange, not the edited version blasted out by Rice's office, shows the laziness of the charge.
First, Estes didn't cut Rice off. He reminded her that her time had expired. Estes didn't censor Rice's rant. He cut her off to recognize Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, who is also a woman and who is just as critical of the current administration as Rice.
That wasn't some sort of power move designed to silence women. It was regular order.
"I value following the committee rules," Estes told me after the exchange went down and hysteria was blowing up. A good natured Kansan who's been in Washington for less than four months, he says he just wanted to be sure "that everyone has an opportunity to speak."
Rice wanted an opportunity for a viral moment, much like that of Sen. Elizabeth Warren. That Massachusetts Democrat was made a martyr when she was ruled out of order on the Senate floor by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. And ever since then, every lady lawmaker now seems to need a viral clip chronicling her struggle with the man.
Most notably, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., increased her stock by claiming that she was silenced first by a GOP colleague and later by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. Oddly enough though, as my colleague Emily Jahinsky noted, sexism isn't bipartisan.
No one cries patriarchy, for instance, when screaming male protestors shut down Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Apparently, it's okay to tell a woman to sit down and shut up in Trump's America so long as she's a Republican.
And that's why Rice's martyr-mongering is so obnoxious. There was no real offense, just another attempt to cry foul and win points. But if Rice plans on shattering glass ceilings by playing victim she should at least find a more convincing villain than Estes.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
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New York Democrat Rep. Kathleen Rice tries (and fails) to cry sexism in committee - Washington Examiner