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Wednesday, October 26, 2005

MT-Sen: Connie Burns a Retrograde Sexist

Man, I am just having too much fun today - fun in the nerdy political junkie blogger sense. Conrad Burns (best known for being a cousin of klepto-plutocrat C. Montogomery Burns) has taken a page from the Rick Santorum playbook in his latest attempt at voter outreach. Just read and enjoy watching a sitting senator shoot himself in the foot so badly:

Sen. Conrad Burns' off-the-cuff remarks have gotten him in trouble in the past.

He once called Arabs "rag heads," later apologizing for the comment. Another time, the Montana Republican commented on how challenging it is to live with so many blacks in Washington.

Now, two Northwest Airlines flight attendants say Burns offended them recently when he told one of the women she could stay at home and be a mother if she lost her job to outsourcing.

"He's still living in the '50s," said Karen McElvaney, who is raising two young children in Atlanta while working for Northwest. "If I could stay home, I certainly would love to stay with my kids."

Burns, who is up for re-election next year, said Tuesday morning he did not recall the conversation. He later said through a spokesman that he remembered speaking to the flight attendants but never told one she could stay home with her children.

McElvaney said she approached the lawmaker with her concerns about outsourcing during a Sept. 25 flight from Great Falls to Minneapolis. When McElvaney asked what she would do if she lost her job, Burns replied she could stay home and be a mother, she said.

McElvaney did not reply.

But Kari Johnke-Henzler, a flight attendant from Minneapolis, who listened to the exchange, said she told Burns what both she and McElvaney were thinking: "I am a mother. However, I need to support my family."

The two women, both longtime Northwest employees, said many families can no longer rely solely on a husband's income.

McElvaney repeated the story to another Northwest flight attendant, Jaime Drain, who has a penchant for writing letters to public officials.

"Before you sit in judgment and make such ignorant statements, you really should stop and remember that we don't all live in a Leave it to Beaver world," Drain wrote in a Sept. 28 letter to Burns. "Perhaps it's time for you, Senator Burns, to retire and stay home since it's obvious to me that you have absolutely no concept of what it's like to be a middle-class average working American living in the modern world."

Damn straight, Ms. Drain. Connie can go hang out with Wally, June and the Beave. The rest of us living in the real world can help boot him out of office.

Posted at 01:04 PM in 2006 Elections - Senate, Montana | Technorati

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Comments

Is this story getting any play in MT?

Posted by: chuckles at October 27, 2005 08:50 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment