Today's Blogs

Ledbetter Blues

Bloggers are denouncing Republicans’ attack on the equal-pay bill, bracing themselves for Jeremiah Wright’s latest TV appearance, and giggling at Wesley Snipes’ friends.

Ledbetter blues: Senate Republicans on Wednesday successfully filibustered to block consideration of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would have made it easier for employees to sue for pay discrimination, in response to a 2007 Supreme Court decision that ruled employees have a narrow window of time to sue. Democrats were four votes shy of the 60 needed to institute cloture and end the debate.

Jessica Grose of Jezebel—who says Lilly Ledbetter “got totally screwed by the Supreme Court” and is now “being screwed by the Senate”—depresses herself further by reminding readers of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s dissenting opinion in the Supreme Court case, in which Ginsberg recounted Ledbetter’s testimony about the pervasive discrimination she faced while an executive at Goodyear.

But ReasonableCitizen looks at the free-market implications of such legislation. “The premise is that people should receive equal pay for equal work. Sounds fair, but what if you are willing to work for less money than others? Should you be able to ‘sell’ your economic advantage to win a job? Isn’t that what fair markets are about? Isn’t that exactly how an average wage is established? … Is it permissible for the interviewee to ask for less money than what others make to fulfill an economic need for themselves? I think so.”

At the Plank, the New Republic’s Josh Patashnik criticizes Republicans for what he calls “a pretty clear abuse of the filibuster,” saying, “the filibuster appropriately allows for intense minorities to block major legislation, but the key word is intense. Republicans: You not only oppose this bill, but oppose it with such conviction, and view its defeat as such a critical priority, that it merits a cloture vote? Really?”

Bloggers had particularly scathing words for Sen. John McCain, who skipped the vote to keep campaigning, for saying that, while he is “all in favor of pay equity for women,” the bill would “[open] us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems.”

Kyle E. Moore from Comments From Left Field insists that lawsuits are crucial tools of justice for average Americans and shouldn’t be demonized as “frivolous.” “And why shouldn’t women be allowed to sue their employers for pay discrimination?” he asks. “What, are we supposed to ask them nicely to please pay women what they deserve?” Kia Franklin at TortDeform adds, “To make matters worse, this bill is not a radical new law. McCain is essentially saying that a modest bill that simply restores the state of the law prior to July 2007, when the Supreme Court had it’s Supreme Corp hat on, steps on the toes of big business.”

The Moderate Voice’s Damozel jumped on McCain’s comments that women “need the education and training” to close the wage gap. “Inequality in pay for the same work is a completely different problem from the lack of marketable skills,” she seethes. “Or is he just saying, in a back-handed sort of way, that maybe female employees in general really aren’t as good as male employees?” Morra Aarons at techPresident is calling on women to take up MomsRising.org’s suggestion and send their résumés to McCain. “I think we should ask Meghan McCain to send her resume in too,” Aarons writes. “I don’t think her Dad would want the Blogette to earn less than a Blog-him.”

Read more about the Senate’s vote on the Fair Pay Act. Slate’s XX Factor discusses the bill.

Jeremiah has a bullhorn: Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor, will be interviewed by Bill Moyers Friday on PBS. Bloggers are reacting to excerpts of the interview already circulating on the Internet.

Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times neatly sums up the prevailing opinion: “Fresh material from Wright – no matter how well-intended – is not what Obama needs.” Tom Bevan at Real Clear Politics echoes the thought and looks toward the election: “Undecided superdelegates who are weighing Obama’s electability in November will surely find no comfort in seeing Rev. Wright’s face all over the airwaves for the next week or so.”

Conservative Rob at Say Anything singles out a particularly damning quote from the Moyers interview, in which Wright claims that when Obama has “a political event, he goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician.” Rob drily notes that this is “[n]ot a great thing to say about a guy who is trying to campaign on his authenticity.”

Wright claims in the interview that the troublesome quotes from his sermons were taken out of context. At Hot Air, conservative Ed Morrissey looks at the transcripts of those sermons and concludes: “[Guess] what? The context makes it look just as bad.” Calling Wright “a conspiracist, a demagogue, and at heart someone who doesn’t much like America,” Morrissey says that, “[far] from absolving Obama, the context once again forces Obama to answer for the company he keeps.”

On the flip side, an exasperated jazzyjay at Daily Kos implores white people to “GROW UP.”  He writes, “America cannot demand that Barack, or Dr. Wright, or the Black community, or the Black church or our faith traditions, and all of who we are and all of who he is to turn ourselves inside out and become some milk-toast white-washed, shadow of ourselves to keep from annoying you with who we are.”

Read more reactions to Wright’s PBS interview. 

Snipes get slammered: Actor Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday for willfully failing to file tax returns.

TigerHawk, who feels that Snipes got off easy, found it interesting that “the flower and chivalry of Hollywood turned out en masse” to appeal to the judge for leniency. Noting the “left-wing” credentials of such Snipes supporters as Denzel Washington and Woody Harrelson, Tigerhawk proclaims himself fascinated “that these and other almost certainly ‘progressive’ Hollywood types publicly argue for leniency for a rich man who evaded his taxes.”

Meanwhile, less high-minded bloggers are having a field day with Washington’s and Harrelson’s oddly effusive character reference letters, which have been posted by the Smoking Gun. “Justice is blind I guess,” writesBestWeekEver’s Alex Blagg, “but still, how could they not have been moved by Woody’s harrowing tale of his experience with racism on the set of Goldie Hawn’s 1987 film Wildcats.”

Read more opinions on Wesley Snipes’ sentencing.