Today, the Florida state House leaders told Rep. Scott Randolph to Talk to the Hand. No, no no -- they said that it was undecorous to mention body parts on the floor of the House.
Specifically, the forbidden word is uterus.
One wonders if this were some Through the Looking Glass version of the Groucho Marx talk show where a duck sinks to eye level if the player mentions the secret word, except that if you're a Democrat and mention the secret word, you're chastised by the Speaker of the House.
I have only one thing to say before explaining more (with apologies to Samantha Bee): I came from a uterus and am thus a Uterus-American.
As Barbara Morrill noted in her mid-day open-thread notes, Rep. Randolph was speaking on the bill that would prohibit union payroll dues deductions and talking about how the proponents of the bill often advocated less regulation, unless it was regulation of those they disliked or disdained. So Randolph wondered if Republicans would be pro-choice if his wife Susannah Lindberg Randolph could incorporate her uterus. Obviously, the teenaged pages have never heard the U word, and it's the type of medical term that easily offends visitors in the galleries, and so Rep. Randolph was chastised.
This isn't the first time Randolph has used vivid language to try to wake the conscience of his fellow lawmakers. Last year at the end of the legislative session, he argued against a bill that would mandate ultrasounds before abortions, talking about his and Lindberg Randolph's painful experience with a pregnancy that went awry and the inconsistency of so-called "small-government" legislators who ...
want government so small that it can fit under someone's bedroom door; and members, this year you are showing that you want government so small that it could fit between a woman's leg and into her uterus.
There's that word again: uterus. Last year I donated to Randolph's legislative campaign though I live far from him because he stood up for the right thing, eloquently and on principle. I will continue to do so, and if you live in Florida (and even if you don't!) I hope you will, too.