Janet Napolitano Accused of Running a 'Female-Run Frat House' [Politics]

One of New York's top immigration officials is suing Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for creating a "female-run 'frat house'" (apparently sorority sisters aren't aggressive enough?) by promoting female friends, one of whom allegedly sexually harassed male staffers.

James Hayes, a special agent in charge of New York City Investigations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says Napolitano promoted Dora Schriro, the current head of Washington DC's Department of Correction, instead of himself, the better candidate. (According to him, at least.) Schriro previously served as director of the Arizona Department of Corrections under Napolitano. Also, certain news publications like to insinuate that Napolitano and Schriro were lovers, because some people are homophobes.

But the more scandalous allegations concern Suzanne Barr, the chief of staff for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The suit accuses Barr of moving "the entire contents of the offices of three employees, including name plates, computers and telephones, to the men's bathroom at ICE headquarters," as well as stealing a male staffer's BlackBerry and texting his female supervisor to tell her he "had a crush on [her] and fantasized about her." Uh, maybe Mean Girls would've been a more appropriate metaphor? Hayes also says Barr screamed at a male colleague using "sexually humiliating language" and once asked a male ICE agent to have oral sex with her.

ICE Director of Public Affairs Brian Hale wouldn't comment on the suit and a Department of Correction spokesman has denied claims that Schriro was promoted for unfair reasons. Haye's allegations are bizarre, but seem too detailed to be completely false; it'll be interesting to see how this one turns out.

Lawsuit alleges Janet Napolitano sexism [Politico]

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Sandra Fluke Says If We Like Covered Wagons and No Electricity, We Should Vote for Romney [Politics]

On Wednesday, Georgetown grad Sandra Fluke introduced President Barack Obama at a campaign rally in Denver focused on women's reproductive rights. Fluke, who unfortunately has the ignominious media epithet "the woman Rush Limbaugh called a 'slut,'" told her audience that, if they wanted to go backwards in time to when novacane wasn't a thing yet and surgeons were judged by how many limbs they could saw off in a minute, they should go ahead and vote for Mittens come November.

She accused Romney of wanting to wind back the clock on women's health issues, or at least not being strong enough to stand up to those who would actively legislate against women's reproductive freedom:

[Obama] defended my right to speak without being attacked," Fluke said. "Mr. Romney could only say those weren't the words he would have chosen. Well, Mr. Romney, you're not going to be the candidate we choose.

Fluke added that a Romney presidency would unravel "the rights that generations of women have fought for," and that the only campaign promises he'd made to women so far were "dangerous promises to take us backward." All this talk about time travel is starting to make me think that Mittens has a DeLorean sitting in a garage in the Caymans, and that, if elected, he'll start taking us on field trips back to the Jurassic period, which sounds cool but who knows what havoc even the slightest misstep could wreak on our present? No, a Mittens presidency would definitely constitute a severe threat to the delicate time-space continuum.

Sandra Fluke upbraids Romney [Politco]

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Kirsten Gillibrand Really Must Insist that More Women Run for Office [Politics]

On Tuesday, the Washington Post featured a profile on Democratic New York State Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who is taking time out of her reelection bid (she's expected to win by a 2 to 1 margin, so it's nbd) to personally ensure that, after the next election cycle, she can look forward to seeing more women waiting patiently in the Capitol Hill cafeteria line for tater-tots.

There are are currently just 17 women serving in the Senate, and a mere 75 in the House of Representatives, glaring minorities that do not sit well with Gillibrand. If both the House and Senate were more evenly proportioned, she recently told a donor conference, "We would not be debating contraception. We would be debating the economy, small business, jobs, national security - everything but." Gillibrand has been helping to raise money for three different prospective female candidates, each of which would face a GOP incumbent. Former Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack will challenge Rep. Steve King (R.) in Iowa; Iraq veteran Tammy Duckworth will face Rep Joe Walsh (R.) in Illinois for control of the Chicago suburbs district; and former Orlando police chief Val Dennings will seek to unseat Rep. Daniel Webster from his unexpurgated dictionary throne.

The Monday fundraiser cobbled together over $100,000 for all three women and, despite prevailing Republican sentiment in all three contended districts, the challengers seem to be keeping pace with the incumbents, an underdog narrative, notes the WaPo, that should be familiar to Gillibrand considering she originally defeated a Republican incumbent from a conservative House district in New York State. Now, however, Gillibrand is quickly becoming a prominent face in the Democratic party, having notched the third-largest fundraising total ($14 million) in the whole party. Her opponent, Wendy Long, has raised a mere $113,000 by comparison.

It's this bursting political war chest that has allowed Gillibrand to focus more on helping other women break into a stubbornly male-dominated Capitol Hill, and to that end, Gillibrand has created a program and PAC, each of which are called "Off the Sidelines." The effort to help women secure positions of power extends beyond the political sphere — Gillibrand wants to see women ascend the corporate ladder as well. In a recent interview Gillibrand laid out her goals for "Off the Sidelines":

I want to make it a call to action - asking women first and foremost to vote; second, being an advocate on the issues they care about; third, holding their lawmakers accountable on their priorities; and then hoping to get a few more to run.

Though Gillibrand isn't the only female politician hoping to open up some more opportunities for women (Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Sen. Patty Murray are also engaged in the effort), some see Gillibrand as the next Hillary, viewing her work with "Off the Sidelines" as being more primarily concerned with strengthening her political future, with vaulting women into positions of power a fortunate (and necessary) side effect of that self-interested undertaking. Gillibrand insists, however, that she's doing all this work to help fill the House and Senate ranks with more women, to encourage women who are considering a political bid to simply go for it. That initial reluctance to run for political office, according to Gillibrand, might account for a the gender disparity in Congress:

Most men - I don't want to say that - many men will say, ‘Of course I can do it.' It's the first thing out of their mouths. But a woman will always doubt herself," she said. "It's more in our nature to be questioning. Can this be done? Will I make a difference? That's one of the things you have to address up front - yes, you can do it.

Hopefully, Gillibrand's profile continues to rise so that her work with Off the Sidelines garners more attention and helps make our representative government a little more, um, representative of the population it...represents. Dammit.

Gillibrand works to elect more women [WaPo]

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Doddering Republican Billionaire Announces that Women Are World's Third Most Beautiful Creatures [Politics]

Foster Friess just can't stop saying stupid shit. Earlier this year, the big Santorum backer told a horrified Andrea Mitchell that back in his day, women didn't need birth control pills because "the gals" kept an aspirin between their knees (in other news, Foster Friess has never had sex with a woman while her legs were together, which is both possible and hot, which makes me feel kind of bad for Foster Friess's wife — but I digress). But if you thought Friess would be a One Hit Wonder on the Can You Believe This Ridiculous Crap? charts, relax — he's announced that he thinks women are beautiful creatures — but not as beautiful as deer or swans.

The proclamation came as Friess was traipsing around an Aspen, Colorado convention for Republican governors and the super wealthy assholes who like to give money to them, and here's the entirety of the context in which it occurred, per NBC —

NBC News intersected Friess as he walked with other donors from the lobby of an Aspen hotel to a nearby restaurant.

He wore a white straw-style cowboy hat and paused to ask directions of locals.

A group of women pointed him in the right direction.

"Women are God's most beautiful creatures," he said as they walked away. "After the white-tailed deer and the swan."

So the context is: there is no context. Foster Friess really wanted to let NBC know that not only does he classify women as "creatures," he'd also really love to fuck a deer.

Guys like Foster Friess don't realize that they don't sound like a young Hugh Hefner or Timothy Dalton's cheesy interpretation of James Bond when they say stuff like that; they sound like dirty old men in long term care facilities trying to grab nurses' asses.

[NBC]

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