Female officeholders: Pennsylvania's political paucity

Politically speaking, the Year of the Woman has come and gone – twice by some accounts – but it hasn’t left too many residuals in the Keystone State.

The most recent tallies by the Pennsylvania Center for Women in Politics are pretty depressing, to say the least. So as we celebrate Women’s History Month, let’s examine women’s political present and presence in Pennsylvania:

In 67 counties across this Commonwealth, only Monroe County has 80 to 100 percent female representation on a county council. Who knew that the Poconos were so progressive?

Chester, Blair, Sullivan and Philadelphia county government boards have 40 to 79 percent female representation.  

Almost half of this state has no female representation on that level.

As roughly 51 percent of the population, you’d be hard pressed to find a Pennsylvania community without women. So the fact that so many communities function without elected female voices is archaic, if not straight disturbing.

And that dearth of power isn’t just on the local level, or in the party assailed as least inclusive.

The roar of women in the General Assembly? Largely comes from Elephants, not Donkeys, since 59 percent of the General Assembly’s female members is Republican. Still, it’s hard to get but so excited when there’re just 42 women trying to make hay in a body of 253 members.

U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz:
The lone female voice for
Pennsylvania in D.C.

The Congressional delegation numbers are pitiful; U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz is the lone female of that 21-member posse. We send a frat, and one woman, to represent us in D.C. Those odds wouldn’t please too many college administrators, yet this state is apparently content with that ratio.

There’s a case to be made for increased numbers of women in elected office, beyond stereotypes of them creating more “nurturing” environments or bringing intensified focus to “women’s issues” like health care and education.

Face it, any issue that impacts families undoubtedly will be a “woman’s issue.” And some female politicians can be as overly aggressive – and stupid about it – as any dude.

But on the whole, new research finds that those women who do commit to public service tend to be more effective lawmakers overall.

The rub is that getting them elected is still about as hard as sneaking out of the house across creaky floorboards – a fact politically-minded women in a state ranked 42 out of 50 for its percentage of female officeholders know intimately. 

GOP contenders play King of the Hill

The respect President Obama has been getting from the other side of the aisle lately is enough to make you check the calendar to see if we were still on Valentine’s Day. Nope. That was two weeks ago.

Apparently so too is all the big talk about how Obama's re-election would deflate like a balloon in a pin warehouse, replaced with seemingly coordinated heartfelt confessions from Republican camps. 
From former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) to Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) to Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), potential 2012 opponents have been offering Obama praise on, of all things, his political prowess.

Even hardcore partisan like Karl Rove had to acknowledge the president’s favorability.

On Meet the Press last Sunday, Barbour said, “The president is one of the greatest politicians in the history of the United States.”

Huckabee recently conceded that, “The people that are sitting around saying, ‘He [Obama]’s definitely going to be a one-term president. It’s going to be easy to take him out,’ they’re obviously political illiterates – political idiots, let me be blunt.”

And Christie, the non-presidential candidate some hope to draft for the gig, analyzed it in his typical style, “[Obama] proved he could win once, so that’s one more time than anybody else who has run.”

Photo credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP

Out:    Obama-as-Jimmy-Carter talk.
In:       Obama-would-be-tough-to-beat speak.

Read:  Send money, Ma!

Meanwhile, Obama’s tightening his trash talk, ready to prove that he can “throw those ‘bows” on the blacktop or from the Oval Office.

With the surefire bet of GOP union-busting looking a little shakier, the new tactic seems to ante up the ego jackpot for the man (or woman) attempting to boot Obama from the White House.

Prove your gonads! Etch your glory in history! Take down THIS president! 

Chatter aside, smart money is still on the president. And for now, so is the public. For now.

Band on the run – Democratic state lawmakers bust a move, take budget standoffs to new heights

Enough with legislators on the lam already.

This tactic sparked imaginations in 2003 when Democratic state legislators in Texas bolted amid redistricting shenanigans practiced by former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay (now a convicted felon) and his cronies in Austin. They prevented a quorum by hiding out in Oklahoma, stalling measures in the capital in hopes of blocking the action.

Throughout the Midwest these days, this seems to be the protest move of choice in a fight over the right of collective bargaining for public sector unions.

First, to the chagrin of some, the Democratic minority of the Wisconsin’s state senate hot-foot it out of town for “undisclosed locations,” though most clues point to Illinois.

Now, it’s the vocal – and equally fleet-footed – Democratic minority of Indiana’s legislature, also Illinois-bound. Maybe that’s because the state is credited with originating the tactic back in the 1840s.

While the travel and tourism bureau for the Land of Lincoln is probably tickled by this latest influx of lawmakers light and in flight, the need for such antics is lame.

Guessing the Democratic Wisconsin state senators want to avoid a repeat of what happened in the state House in the wee Friday hours, when the Republican majority bum-rushed  the vote.  They might be slowing the wheel, but they still look like punks unable to outfox their opponents. That prowess is what separates pols from pretenders – not frequent Amtrak miles.

It’s time someone played grown up and learned to actually negotiate and legislate. The latest winner-takes-all mentality sends the wrong message about our democracy to those observing our politics, be they young people domestically or overseas. Besides, even “upper hands” can look weak when “leaders” like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are outed for seeking power more so than any purported taxpayer savings.

As a nation, it’s mighty hard to argue against hardliners in Iran when Madison and Indianapolis seem to be vying for best-dictator-enabled-regime-impersonators-in-a-real-life-drama.

Heaven forbid Pennsylvania lawmakers start getting the bright idea of following suit. Illinois is already crowded, and New York, New Jersey and Delaware probably have extradition treaties in place. That leaves West Virginia, which would probably give most Pennsylvania Dems pause and make them stay in place for a while longer.

At least for now, newbie Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is bypassing this page from an apparent Republican National Committee blueprint to soften the field in 2012. Wisconsin and Indiana look like carbon copies: proclaim fiscal crises, try like hell to finally topple Democratic-leaning unions, claim moral high ground due to “the will of the people,” point to election results as inoculating proof.

GOP lawmakers in California,Idaho and Tennessee are trying it, and they won’t be the last. As state budget woes crash into the presidential campaign season, expect to hear this refrain more frequently – especially in areas where big union voter turnout could make the difference for President Obama.

California Assemblyman Allan Mansoor (R-Costa Mesa) told the Associated Press that "it's very hard to rein things in under the current process. Pensions are out of control. They have to be brought back in line with the private sector."

For those of you keeping score at home, the average private-sector pension is a fat zero, but kinder outfits may contribute to a 401(k) plan – at least they might have before this most recent economic downturn.

Maybe we can quarantine this outbreak of bait and switch union-busting lawmaking to stem the infection, and start revoking driver’s licenses of lawmakers, as a backup, lest this flight fever flow nationwide.

While entertaining and certainly a change in how we run government, it’s not one we want to believe in. Or deserve.

Keystone of Intolerance

The joke is that Pennsylvania is Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Alabama in between. Sometimes it’s hard to dispute such characterizations in looking back at last week, where much of the South as awash in celebration over the “bars and stars” – and some in the Keystone State are part of the hoopla.

Confederate forces invaded southern Pennsylvania during the war; some areas, like York, just rolled over. Gettysburg, a one-time bloodbath of soldiers from both sides, has its own swath of Confederate celebrants amid the area’s history buffs. This proud sprinkling claims the righteousness of our infamous insurrection and some are among the Sons of Confederate Veterans. 

These ardent believers characterize the Civil War as “the preservation of liberty and freedom," "the motivating factor in the South's decision to fight the Second American Revolution.”

That freedom line is always worth a chuckle, considering that one of the factors for waging the insurgency was to retain the right to enslave others. 

It's hard to see the "heritage" and not hate, given who often give claim to the Confederate flag, just like it’s hard to look at people in those uniforms without thinking of “strange fruit swinging from the trees,” lashed backs or other miseries of black ancestors so summarily dismissed during these celebrations. Added salt for these wounds is the proliferation of Confederate revisionist history about the era. Unrepentant horrors visited upon a people equal to hate for many.

So the fact that this political swing state has a healthy number of folks waxing romantic about preserving a system that insisted on keeping human beings as chattel in chains – “states rights” – serves as an apt backdrop for the latest findings from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Nationwide, hate groups have topped 1,000 this year – including neo-Confederates.

Credit: Walt Handelsman, Tribune Media Services

Pennsylvania’s share of this dubious list is 36 by the nonprofit’s tally – higher than Ohio, New York and West Virginia, but second in the region to New Jersey, which is home to 47 such groups. And there’s great variety of revulsion-inducing activities, from racist skinheads to neo-Nazis to anti-Muslim types to your garden-variety Klansmen.

For many of these members, black people should have never left chains – or African shores. And we won’t get into their love of Jews or other non-Christians.

Some would say the rise of a President Barack Obama has helped fuel resentment among white males stuck in a certain social class, the backbone of membership in such groups. SPLC reports that fringier elements from the conservative front – think “patriot” movements – have helped further frustrations that usually arise during economic downturns.

On the flip side, hate seems to be growing as an equal opportunity activity. At least nine of those identified groups are listed as radical black separatists, proving hate, like stupidity, comes in all colors.

GOP+election pledge for jobs = New abortion assaults

Ah, yes. How familiar is the bait-and-switch in politics.

Some people who voted for President Obama two years ago felt duped. They thought they were getting Superman, if not Super Negro, able to vanquish all partisanship from D.C. and unite this country with the wave of a lanky arm, because voters ushered him into office on a wave of "change."

Didn't happen.

Frustrated, people went back to the ballot box in 2010 for a fix. They felt a need to send a message, push for "faster" change. The economy was stalled. Everyone and his brother was getting a bailout, on their dime, no less. It was time to switch bums, bring in a new set of folks with new ideas.

U.S. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Speaker Boehner push
to restrict women's reproductive rights. Courtesy: Getty Images/Alex Wong

For some reason, otherwise rational people equated that with the chest-thumping Republican Party of today -- thinking it somehow different from the party of 2008, or 2004, or 2000, or 1996. This GOP would offer that "change." After all, they said jobs would be their number one priority.

We're seeing daily evidence of how that's working. Last October, U.S. Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), now Speaker of the House, thundered that, "Americans have been crystal clear about what they want: more jobs, less spending and a more open Congress that respects and abides by the Constitution,"

So on the GOP menu for creating jobs, decreasing spending, etc.? Limiting access to abortion. By the way, it's federally recognized and protected by the Constitution.

Make sense? Does it matter? Anti-abortion is a Republican default stance, and the party is going full throttle.

First, it was hackneyed grandstanding to "eliminate federal funding for abortions." Never mind that the Hyde Amendment has made that law since 1976.

Today, the House of Representatives voted to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funding. In case you need a refresher it's an agency that provides birth control, counseling and health services for men, teens and poor women, including abortion. That service, however, uses other funding streams. But that's not as sexy of a talking point and expect it to be glossed over.

Shocked? Don't be. It was laid out in the lovely manifesto of 2010, the GOP's Pledge to America. If you grew dazed by the rich pictures and rhetorical flourishes, just turn to page 6 for the blueprint of this latest legislative crusade, "We will permanently end taxpayer funding of abortion and codify the Hyde Amendment."

GOP leaders claimed that retaking the House was a mandate to do the people's business. To take a pulse of the "people's business," check a recent Gallup tally asking whether abortions should be legal under any circumstances, legal only under certain circumstances, or illegal in all circumstances. A rough 1 in 5 said it should be illegal under any circumstance; meanwhile, nearly 4 in 5 said it should be legal, even if only under certain circumstances. 
In fact, when asked the top problems facing the nation, abortion doesn't even make the list. 
Pretty clear evidence that it's not the most pressing issue for the American people. It's still the economy, stupid. Maybe with a Republican lens, jobs are created by banning abortions.

Southeast Pennsylvania has 14 Planned Parenthood health centers, plus four more that provide abortion services. Statewide, there are some 45 health centers, sometimes lifelines for women struggling without health coverage; 12 percent of Pennsylvania women are uninsured, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Maybe leaving women in the hands of shady clinics/chop shops and alleged doctors like Kermit Gosnell is the ultimate goal. Something like Scared Straight! Abortion Edition! Still misses the point about jobs, though.
Then again, maybe restricting funds to a proven agency that provides everything from lessons on preventing sexually transmitted diseases to prostate cancer screenings will halve the area's 9.4 percent jobless rate.

Doubt it.