Terri Lynn Land’s latest effort to remind she doesn’t support pay equity for women – a video titled “Really?” – is getting torn to shreds across the country. First it was David Nir at Daily Kos:
My only response: Man. This kind of guffawing rejoinder to substantive policy criticisms is truly pathetic. Anyone swayed by this kind of “argument” is almost certainly already very hostile to Democrats—the sort of conservative who declares, “There’s no ‘War on Women’ because Monica Lewinsky!” It’s hard to imagine this ad will persuade anyone persuadable, but the fact that Land’s even put it out suggests she thinks this topic makes her vulnerable.
Then it was Lauren Rankin at Talking Points Memo who showed just how anti-women lady Republicans can be:
It’s true — Land is a woman, and it’s also true that Rep. Gary Peters is not a woman. But her argument that being a woman means she better understands and represents women falls apart when we begin to look at her record.At the end of 2013, Michigan passed an egregious law banning private insurance companies from covering abortion care and forced women to purchase an additional insurance rider if they ever wanted abortion care coverage. Pushed through by the Republican-dominated legislature, the law has been criticized as “a new front in the GOP’s clueless ‘war on women’ and dubbed the “Rape Insurance” bill because it contained no exception for rape or incest.
So where was Land on this anti-woman bill? Nowhere. Silent. She said absolutely nothing other than “government shouldn’t pay for abortions.”
This should come as no surprise, since Land is vehemently anti-choice. She has stated publicly that she believes abortion should be legal only to save the life of the mother, with no mention of rape, incest, or maternal or fetal health.
What’s more, her website features a page “Working for Women” that features three bullet points of her pro-woman platform. Never mind that two of them are literally identical, as it seems no one bothered to copy edit or proofread her public website.
Closer to home, Susan Demas eviscerates Land’s outrageous assertion that being a woman somehow ensures that every position she has is going to be pro-women. In a deliciously snarky piece Demas writes:
“I’m not going to hide behind the fact that I’m a woman to get special treatment.And I don’t think U.S. Senate candidates should, either.
We need to have vigorous policy debates on everything — equal pay, abortion, Crimea and unemployment.
I’m not in favor of giving either Terri Lynn Land or Gary Peters a pass on any issue — and neither should voters.
The Michigan Democratic Party is rolling out a series of videos showing professional women pushing back on Land’s insulting video. The first has all of the women making statements including Florine Mark, president and CEO of the largest franchise of Weight Watchers International. Following that will be videos with each of the women individually. Here are the first two:
You can watch all of the videos as they are released at MichiganDems.com/really.
The best one so far, though, has to be this one from Planned Parenthood Action Fund as part of their “Women are Watching” campaign. It starts with text saying “For over 1/3 of Terri Lynn Land’s new ad, nothing happens. Kind of like her record of looking out for women. No accomplishments for protecting women’s health. But plenty of work to restrict it.” As the video rolls, more facts about Land’s anti-women history are shown as clips from Land’s “Really?” video play behind it bathed in pink and showing her doing nothing. It’s genius. Really.
Here’s Lori Lamerand, President of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan:
We’re not fooled by Terri Lynn Land’s ad and Michigan voters won’t be either. The reality is that as Michigan’s Secretary of State and as our state’s Republican National Committeewoman, Land has stood by while out-of-touch politicians attempt to chip away at access to safe and legal abortion and birth control for Michigan women. These are issues important to Michigan women and our families and we won’t sit by while Land tries to hide from the facts.That’s why we’re proud to support Representative Gary Peters in his campaign for U.S. Senate. Senator Peters fights for all women and families, and fights for the issues that matter to women’s health. He recognizes that sitting silently on the sidelines is not an option and will defend a woman’s freedom to make decisions about her reproductive health, without government intrusion.
And Cecile Richards, president, Planned Parenthood Action Fund:
We’ve seen unprecedented attacks on women’s health in recent years — and we need champions in the U.S. Senate who will stand like a brick wall against these attacks, rather than politicians like Terri Lynn Land who will stand by and let them happen. Voters deserve to know the truth about Terri Lynn Land’s record on women’s health and rights and snide campaign ads won’t cut it.Voters pay attention to where the candidates stand on women’s health issues, and no candidate will be able to win without a plurality of women. That’s why we’ve launched Women are Watching — to give women — and the millions of men who support women’s health — a place to share their energy and important information regarding what’s at stake in the upcoming election.
Back in February I wrote that Land’s campaign was crashing and burning before she even made a public appearance. Now that we are starting to see more of Land, albeit mostly via her campaign videos, it’s getting even worse. Ironically, if Land had been making public appearances all along instead of hiding from the public, it’s quite possible that nobody would have dragged out her statement from 2010 that women want job “flexibility”, not equal pay. It was that statement that led to all of this and it’s the reason that, instead of playing offense after the Koch brothers spending several million dollars on her behalf, she’s playing defense and having to issue statements like, “I support women having access to mammograms and the pill.”
Because, given what little we know about her and given how little she’s actually done to help women in her career, that’s not at all a given.
