Pelosi to pregnant rep: You can’t vote

You have got to be kidding me. A decorated war veteran who lost her legs, and is in the last stages of a high-risk pregnancy, has been denied a request to vote by proxy in the House Democratic Caucus leadership next week.

The denial wouldn’t be as laughable if the Democratic Party hadn’t spent the last decade waging a “war on women” campaign against Republicans. I don’t care that proxy voting isn’t allowed in the caucus. What kind of message is this sending to women who want to run for office?

Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) is expecting a baby next month. As every mother knows, the docs say “park it” in the last few weeks of pregnancy. No planes. No travel unless medically necessary. They say that even for tough-as-nails moms who lose both legs when their helicopter is shot down in the line of duty.

{mosads}What makes this boneheaded move even more galling is the fact that the female Democratic Steering and Police Committee co-chair, Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), says the denial is about setting a “precedent.” Gosh, we wouldn’t want to set a precedent that pregnant politicians who want to vote be given a voice, would we?

DeLauro’s spokeswoman: “Congresswoman DeLauro does not want to set a precedent. There are many meritorious situations where the argument could be made for a waiver, including Congresswoman Duckworth’s. The question is, how do you choose?”

That was a rhetorical question, right? Because if it wasn’t, I would say, you let a woman vote who, for medical reasons, can’t travel to D.C. in order to do her job. A job she was elected to do by the great citizens of Illinois.

National Journal reports the request to vote was read behind closed doors Thursday and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was among those who opposed it. This is the same Pelosi who swatted down a reporter’s question yesterday about whether it was time to step down from her leadership position by crying sexism. “It just is interesting, as a woman, to see how many times that question is asked of a woman, and how many times that question is never asked of Mitch McConnell.”

National Journal also reported that Democratic aides attribute the decision to block the proxy vote to “the tight intra-party race for the party’s top seat next session on the Energy and Commerce Committee.” Boxing gloves are on as Pelosi-backed Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) battles Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) for votes. Duckworth supports … you guessed it, Pallone.

In this case, the politics are irrelevant. If you are going to claim to be the Party of the Woman, then don’t wage war on one of your own.

Ashburn is an award-winning Washington-based reporter and TV analyst covering media and politics.