Virginia House of Delegates Speaker William Howell and two of his lieutenants are calling on the state Republican Party’s treasurer to resign over his use of a slang term for female genitalia in a Facebook discussion about a female GOP legislator.
“The comments made recently by Bob FitzSimmonds are offensive and have no place in mainstream society or our political discourse,” reads a statement issued by Howell, Majority Leader Kirk Cox of Colonial Heights and Fairfax County Del. Tim Hugo.
“These comments are not representative of the House Republican Caucus or the Republican Party of Virginia,” continued the statement issued Thursday. “They do not reflect our values or principles and they are deeply inconsistent with the tone and tenor we believe is appropriate for public debate.”
Of course, Fitzsimmonds is just one of many, many Virginia Republicans who have made misogynistic and otherwise bigoted (e.g., homophobic) remarks. For instance, Sen. Stephen Martin (R) earlier this week called women “the child’s host (some refer to them as mothers),” while raging against pro-choice advocates as “very sick people.” When are Republicans going to denounce HIM or call on HIM to resign?!?
Let’s also not forget that House Speaker Howell himself had this little incident, in which he demeaned ProgressVA head Anna Scholl as apparently not being smart enough to understand anything but “little enough words.” Finally, we haven’t even mentioned the actual policies Republicans push with regards to women’s health and reproductive freedom, most of which seem to be aimed at wildly unhelpful things like defunding Planned Parenthood, requiring intrusive and medically unnecessary ultrasounds, selectively harassing women’s health clinics, and keeping poor women and their kids from gaining access to high-quality and affordable health care. Hence, the “war on women” phrase, which Republicans get so indignant about, probably because they know they have no substantive response to it, and also because it kills them politically. And yes, they richly deserve to be hurt politically for this extremist, anti-women lunacy.
P.S. The sad thing is, Fitzsimmonds’ comments (and Martin’s, and Howell’s towards Anna Scholl, and so many others) actually ARE “representative of the House Republican Caucus or the Republican Party of Virginia” and actually DO “reflect {their} values or principles.”
UPDATE: RPV Chair Pat Mullins, who has never seemed bothered by all sorts of offensive remarks (e.g., by Ken Cuccinelli, EW Jackson, Mark Obenshain, etc, etc, etc.) has commented and revealed the REAL reason why top Republicans are calling for Fitzsimmonds to resign — because his remarks “give the media and Democrats an excuse to talk about anything other than the impact of their disastrous policies on our Commonwealth and country.” Hahahahaha.
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