I haven't blogged much about the brouhaha going on in California with the Governator on one side and the educational establishment on the other. For one thing, I think keeping up with the whole saga would be full-time job in and of itself, with Arnold taking on the sacred Proposition 98 and tackling the thorny issue of merit pay. Not surprisingly, a group of educators have formed to protest the Governor's wide-ranging reforms.
And some of Arnold's critics are sounding pretty whiny:
Could Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) have another "woman problem" on his hands? Schwarzenegger made headlines in recent months by deriding political opponents as "girlie men" and ridiculing a group of nurses at a women's conference. Now, an effort to paint the state's teachers as little more than a balky special interest group has angered many critics, who have begun to question why constituencies dominated by women have been subjected to such tough talk.
"He behaves like an arrogant patriarch with respect to women's occupations," said Rose Ann De Moro, executive director of the California Nurses Association. "Nurses, teachers, home health workers — it's vulgar how he's run roughshod over them. He's arrogant, and he's a bully."
Wow, they're great spokeswomen for female-dominated fields. Are we supposed to conclude from all this that women can't be expected to take tough talk, at any time? Tough talk like the following?
In December, a small group of nurses gathered at a state women's conference to protest Schwarzenegger's decision to side with hospitals and delay changes to the state's nurse-to-patient ratio. With Shriver in the audience, Schwarzenegger responded to the protesters by saying, "The special interests don't like me in Sacramento because I am always kicking their butts."
Yeah, that's really...evil. And demeaning. Or something. Obviously, women should be expected to cringe and fold when faced with such violent language.
Last week, some 300 nurses and their supporters disrupted a movie premiere in Sacramento, booing Schwarzenegger as he posed with actors Vince Vaughn and The Rock. "A mass movement is developing, and it's fascinating to see women coming together," DeMoro of the nurses union said.
Uh, is it a surprise to DeMoro that women can congregate and protest? Are we supposed to be amazed about this? And are we supposed to be impressed that their "coming together" was nothing more than a public ruckus? Are we supposed to mistake that for an intelligent rebuttal to the Governor's criticisms?
Thank God at least one woman in the article makes an intelligent statement:
"To say that women voters perceive Arnold Schwarzenegger as a bully because he's taking on a reform agenda belittles women," said Karen Hanretty, a spokeswoman for the California Republican Party.
"This is not about any individual profession. It's about exposing organized labor unions who have used their influence and set policies that have created multibillion-dollar deficits both statewide and nationally."
C'mon, ladies. If Sarah Connor had been such a wimp, the Terminator might still be out there terrorizing LA.
Posted by kswygert at February 23, 2005 08:06 PM