There's not enough pink in the world to cover up Southerland's sexism.
Rep. Steve Southerland, the Florida Republican who
gained infamy with his men-only fundraising ("tell the misses not to wait up") and
lame defense of his men-only fundraising ("Listen: Has Gwen Graham ever been to a lingerie shower? Ask her.") is still explaining, badly, his record. In particular, his vote against the Violence Against Women Act. Here's his story: he was
blindsided by the bill when it landed on the House floor from the Senate. And because he didn't have time to read it, he voted against it.
In a sit-down with the editorial board of the Tallahassee Democrat last week, Southerland suggested the scheduling of the vote was a "political maneuver," and said he voted 'no' because "I'm not going to allow a topic of such great importance be hijacked over someone wanting to score political points." […]
During his meeting with the Tallahassee Democrat, Southerland noted that he had twice before voted to reauthorize VAWA, but that the Senate version of the law came down for a vote in the House with no warning. He decried this as a "political maneuver."
"The bill that was put on the floor, the last VAWA vote, came straight from the Senate, was thrown on the floor. It was a surprise, it wasn't given to us in a—there was no forecast that that bill was coming," he said.
No warning at all! Except the whole part about the Senate having passed it and that being
kind of a big news story because of the conflict between the House Republicans' version of the bill, which didn't protect Native-American women or women in same-sex couples or undocumented women, and there had been
kind of a big fight between the House and the Senate over their competing versions of the bill for almost a year.
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Other than that, it's a totally plausible excuse for voting against one of the most popular and important pieces of legislation for the protection of women.