FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Congress could pass health care reform if the men were "sent home." So says Democratic Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter from New Hampshire.
In a town hall type meeting this weekend here's what she said to the voters:
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"We go to the ladies room, the Republican women and the Democratic women, and we just roll our eyes at what's being said out there. And the Republican women said when we were fighting over the health care bill, if we sent the men home we could get it done this week."
Shea-Porter added that she wasn't trying to "diss" the men in Congress, but that females understand how to care for relatives and that they could find "common ground there." The congresswoman suggests that Maine's two women senators - Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins - "work very well together."
Critics are slamming Shea-Porter, calling her comments "bizarre, sexist and arrogant" - along with "divisive, uninformed and totally embarrassing." They say opposition to health care has nothing to do with gender.
A group of Republican women members of Congress came out with a statement that the conversations this congresswoman "claims to be referencing have never taken place with any of us."
Never mind that. Now that the Democrats have lost their super-majority in the Senate, health care reform - which seemed within their reach just a few weeks ago - is now slipping away.
The Democrats are trying to figure out other ways - any way - to get the measure passed. Time to think outside the box.
Here’s my question to you: Would health care reform be better off with women in charge?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Ken from New Jersey writes:
We already have a woman in charge, Pelosi. We also have a woman in charge of health and human services, we have a woman secretary of state, woman homeland security secretary, woman secretary of labor, women EPA chief, etc. Women are everywhere in government so what is the point. Competent is what matters.
Josh from Burbank, California writes:
If a man were to have made the same statement about women, we would never hear the end of it. So, why is this OK? And, no, it would not be better off, but I also don’t think it would be worse off. Everyone needs to put their heads together to figure this out. No ONE person has the answer.
Joanne from St. Louis writes:
Maybe, but I am more interested in seeing women in charge of all foreign policy worldwide.
Alan from Charlotte, North Carolina writes:
At this point, putting 5-year-old children in charge would be a vast improvement.
Paolo writes:
Just about anything would be better off with women in charge, and this coming from a "macho" male.
Ryan from Illinois writes:
Jack, I'm all for it as the Congress en masse has painted itself into a corner. Plus, these proceedings could be televised on C-Span, or The View.
Ken from California writes:
Sure, as long as they are not Democrats or Republicans.