SENATE’S MOVE TO MUTE

Warren goes high to surpass old boys’ club

What’s the matter, guys? You can’t take a smart, tellit-like-it-is, in-your-face woman who says what she means and means what she says?

Many of us in Massachusetts, men and women alike, thank our lucky stars we have someone of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s courage and caliber out there fighting for us. We find comfort in knowing she is not afraid to ask the questions that no one else may have thought to ask — a woman who comes back at you arguing what she believes, no matter how hard the pushback or how rough the fight.

And we know there are many fights ahead.

How rude and insulting that the mostly Republican old boys’ club in the Senate resorted to an arcane rule tantamount to the old political “wink and nod,” sleight-of-hand to silence one of only a handful of women senators. How dare they tried to slap her on the wrist because she questioned a fellow senator.

Knowing our fearless senator, it was probably more likely she didn’t care about the rules of the Senate club when it came to standing up for her constituents. After all, that’s what we sent her to do — not play “patty-cake” with the boys in the club. So she refused to abide by the “seeno-evil, speak-no-evil” rules for Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee for attorney general.

Let’s face it, this is a man who deserved serious vetting for his atrocious civil and voting rights affronts. Warren wasn’t even using her own words, but rather those of the “Lion of the Senate,” Ted Kennedy. That got no pushback. So why did reading a letter by civil rights icon Coretta Scott King cause such a furor? Sounds a little like reverse discrimination on a number of fronts to me.

With every contentious action from the GOP — and there have been many — we can find solace in the few good people who step up to the plate in the face of the storm. New Sen. Kamala D. Harris is one. She came to Warren’s defense — a white woman and a black woman standing together.

Here in Boston, Gail Jackson-Blount, the newly installed African-American president of the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, and executive director Sarah Welsh also stood together and issued a statement saying the board stands strongly with Warren. They also admonished the Republican senators for attempting to silence Warren from doing the job she was sent to do.

As expected, Warren found another way to convey her message to the hundreds of thousands who admire and support her. I am reminded of Michelle Obama’s statement — “When they go low, we go high.”

Enough said.