Ocasio-Cortez’s tear-down of Yoho is best TV in years

Oh, it’s a rare and beautiful day when the best, most rousing, pointed and important speech is brought to you by C-SPAN.

Remember when “The West Wing’s” President Bartlet launched a line-by-line teardown of Leviticus after some conservative talk show host referred to homosexuality as an “abomination” because that’s what it was called in the Bible? Of course you do.

And now you’ll remember the day Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez, D-N.Y., speaking from the House floor, systematically dismembered Rep. Ted Yoho, RFla., for thinking it’s OK to publicly call a woman a “f— bitch” if she’s doing something you do not want her to do.

I certainly do not want to impugn AOC’s sincerity by using the term “Emmy-worthy” (and with Emmy nominations being announced today, she wouldn’t be eligible for this year anyway), but if that scene had been an episode of “Madam Secretary,” or “The West Wing” or even “Scandal,” it would have been a shoo-in for a nod.

The “something” that Yoho did not want AOC to do was to suggest, as she had earlier, that New York City’s recent crime spike could be due, in part, to unemployment and economic uncertainty. For the record, this is not a revolutionary idea — there are decades’ worth of studies that suggest a strong relationship between poverty and all manner of crime.

Yoho took it upon himself to confront her on the Capitol steps, in front of reporters, and call her disgusting, crazy and dangerous. Then, as he began to walk away, a “f— bitch.”

After the incident was reported in The Hill, Yoho “apologized” for speaking to AOC in such “an abrupt” way but he denied using that last phrase — he claims he said “bullshit” as a description of her policies — because “having been married for 42 years with two daughters, I am very cognizant of my language.” If his remarks had been “misunderstood,” he added, he was sorry for that too.

That’s politics too, but of a very different sort, which is why AOC made a 10-minute speech about the incident before the House on Thursday.

That’s gender politics, and affects every woman in America — all of whom, as AOC said, have had to deal with those words, or words like them “in some form, some way, some shape at some point in our lives.”

That a congressman would use those words in public is a bit shocking — though given the language our president regularly uses, not to mention all those years of “Veep” and its liberal use of governmental vulgarity, maybe not as shocking as it should be.

Neither was AOC’s refusal to let it stand — you slap, she slaps back. But her speech was not about slapping back, at least not on a personal level. It wasn’t about Yoho disrespecting her politics or her title. It was about a woman refusing to accept words that, as she said, amount to “harassment” and “verbal abuse.”

The words Yoho reportedly chose — not just the profanity but the “crazy,” and “dangerous” — could have been plucked from a textbook on sexism. To exclude women from power and debate by insisting that a woman’s beliefs, should they contradict a man’s, stem not from an opposing viewpoint or a different life experience but from mental illness and/or a hateful need to thwart that man in some way.

You don’t have a different opinion; you’re just being a bitch.

Women have been trying to reclaim that word for years, and in some circumstances, it has managed to shed the weight of history. But as a response to apolitical disagreement, it remains a term of dismissal and attempted degradation.

That’s what AOC couldn’t let stand — not the words but the disdain. And she didn’t stop there; she calmly and methodically informed Yoho, and anyone unclear on the subject, that being married to a woman, and/or fathering daughters, is not proof that he is fair-minded.

“I will not stay up late at night waiting for an apology from a man who has no remorse over … using abusive language towards women,” AOC said. “But what I do have issue with is using women, ‘our wives and daughters,’ as shields and excuses for poor behavior.

“Having a daughter does not make a man decent. Having a wife does not make a decent man. Treating people with dignity and respect is what makes a decent man. And when a decent man messes up, as we all are bound to do, he does apologize. Not to save face. Not to win a vote. He apologizes, genuinely, to repair and acknowledge the harm done, so that we can all move on.”

Wouldn’t that be nice? To think that this statement would settle the matter, and then we could all just move on?

Yes, it would. But these days, even a brief moment of clarity and conviction seems pretty good too.