What on earth was the Virginia Senate Minority Leader, Tommy Norment (R), blabbering about yesterday? Check out the video, below, in which Norment – yes, the same guy who Edited a Yearbook “Filled with Racist Photos and Slurs”; who admitted to a relationship with a lobbyist in a leaked letter, and of course who butchered the word “chutzpah” – said the following (bolding added by me for emphasis), basically “mansplaining” to Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (the first female Speaker in Virginia history) how to do her job, and comparing her unfavorably to a series of white male Speakers. Charming, eh? Oh, also, what’s the “kitchen cabinet” comment all about?
“Uh, Mr. President, in my old age many of you have start to refer to me as Senator Creampuff, and I just want you to know how soft I really am getting. First of all, let me say the motions that I’ve made are not meant to be directly or indirectly critical of the senator from Hampton or the efforts of the senator from eastern Fairfax County. I do accept and appreciate the efforts that they have tried to make. My chagrin is more directed at the House of Delegates…What we do have [in the Senate] is we have years of stability, years of working with one another – even on contentious issues. And we’ve had experience on working our way through some of these organizational and parliamentary nightmares. Contrast that with where the House of Delegates is. They may have been frustrated that they have been out of authority for 20 years. And I know how it feels, because when the Republicans got a majority in the Senate, we had been in the wilderness for almost 100 years. So I understand their frustration. But they do not – they do not – have the experience and they have demonstrated, on making effective, efficient leadership. If you look back on previous leaders in the House of Delegates, no matter what party they were, that they had years of experience in how they worked through the legislative process. And they understood – whether it was Speaker Cox, Speaker Howell, Speaker Moss, Majority Leader Cranwell, Speaker Philpott – sometimes they recognized you just lead by leading and you do not lead by following a kitchen cabinet. So I appreciate the comments that are made and I would ask everyone to please vote against the [House] resolution.”
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