Posted on 01/23/2017 2:53:32 PM PST by markomalley
The hometown newspaper for failed vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine is raising questions about his comments to Education Secretary-designate Betsy DeVos at her confirmation hearing last week.
In an editorial published Sunday, The Richmond Times-Dispatch accused the Senator from Virginia of sexism in his line of questioning for DeVos during the Jan. 17 confirmation hearing.
From the Times-Dispatch:
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine raked Betsy DeVos over the coals during the recent hearing over her nomination to head the Education Department. That’s fine: Asking tough questions is exactly what a good senator should do. …
But one of Kaine’s questions in particular seemed out of place:
“You and your husband spoke at a conference a number of years ago, and your husband said — this was not attributed to you, but you were together at the conference, if what I read is correct — ‘The church has been displaced by the public school as the center for activity, the center of what goes on in the community.’ Thomas Jefferson didn’t view public education as contrary to or competitive with church or religion. Do you?”
How curious.
The editorial, titled “DeVos Hearing raises question about Tim Kaine’s old-school views,” went on to explain why the comments reek of sexism.
Kaine has been in the public eye for more than two decades. His wife, Anne Holton — who has been both a judge and the head of Virginia’s Department of Education — has been in the public eye perhaps even longer, given that her father, Gov. Linwood Holton, transferred her to a public school in the wake of desegregation.
In all that time, we don’t recall a single instance in which Holton was asked to answer for her husband’s views (or vice versa). Nor should she have been.
After all, a woman does not stop being an independent person when she gets married. She still does her own thinking, and need not subordinate her opinions to those of her husband. In fact, it seems rather sexist to imply otherwise.
So why did Kaine?
Democrats in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions are now calling on chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander to convene a second hearing to grill DeVos further on her life-long advocacy work in education, though Lamar is resisting, The Washington Post reports.
Alexander’s aide told the news site Monday that DeVos, a champion of school choice, has already answered enough questions.
“Betsy DeVos has already met with each committee member in their offices, spent nearly an hour and a half longer in her Senate hearing than either of President Obama’s education secretaries, and is now answering 837 written questions — 1,397 including all the questions within a question — that Democrats have submitted for her to answer,” Alexander’s aide said. “That’s compared with the 81 questions — 109 including all questions within a question — Republicans submitted in writing to Obama’s two Secretaries of Education combined.”
The Michigan philanthropist millionaire is the chairwoman of American Federation for Children, one of the most effective school choice advocacy groups in the nation, as has helped to launch one of the most successful charter schools in Michigan – West Michigan Aviation Academy.
She’s expected to back President Donald Trump’s call to build a $20 billion block grant program to expand charter schools and other alternative educational options – such as private school vouchers.
At DeVos’ confirmation hearing last week she made it clear she plans promote school choice options, and also defended the need to do away with gun free zones that hamper efforts to protect students from intruders, animals or anything else.
It’s not sexism when the woman is a conservative.
/s
So why did Kaine? Because Satan, that’s why!
Kaine is truly a clown
Well, of course he’s a sexist. He’s a progressive, after all.
The picture you posted of Kane...reminds me of Jack Nicholas in “The Shining” when he’s breaking down the bathroom door to kill the girl saying, “Here’s Jonny!”
Something about Kane gives me the creeps.
And many rumors abounding on his sexual preference...not that there’s anything wrong with that.
[img]https://sp.yimg.com/ib/th?id=OIP.M23289727ca69e94937b98add32de6b50o0&pid=15.1[/img]
It could be because he’s creepy.
Timmie Sugar Kaine is creepy. Looks like a football bat.
I hear Kaine has never lost an election...
Add Schumer to the list of gutter slime playing games with President Trump’s nominees. I sure hope Schumer’s garbage gets aired.
Kaine may have once had the ‘never lost an election’ mantra, but no longer. He lost an election on November 8, 2016! A BIG ELECTION.
I never knew who Kaine was until he was Hillary’s pick for VP. There’s a lot of sleazy scumbags in DC but my goodness he is one of the worst.
(emphasis added) I'd say some sexism and some racism is mixed in there. How many questions did the Dems ask Zero before they certified he was eligible to even run as their candidate?
If VP were elected separately (by the people I mean) he would lost bigger than Hillary did. Pence ate his lunch at their debate. When it was suggested that he should run in 2020, the response was laughter.
Up for Senate reelection in 2018.....
That bastard is more creep than Joe Biden.....
The Richmond Times Dispatch is a Kaine ass kissing operation 24/7.
That this newspaper would dare to criticize its favorite son is a surprise..
Remember, the newspaper is owned by Kaine baby sitter Warren Buffett.
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