McCain’s Compassion Tour (Collins / NYT)

By GAIL COLLINS
Published: April 26, 2008

... McCain’s special It’s Time for Action Tour was in the impoverished Kentucky town of Inez on Wednesday, so he was unable to make it to Washington to vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. This is the bill that would restore workers’ ability to go to court in cases of pay discrimination.

... McCain ... told the folks in Youngstown, Ohio — where most of the working single mothers cannot make it above the poverty line — that the answer to their problems is larger tax deductions ...

McCain made it clear that if he had been in Washington, he would have voted no because the bill “opens us up for lawsuits ...” ... True, ... there is no denying that a bill making it possible for people who have been discriminated against to go to court for redress would open somebody up to the possibility of a lawsuit.

McCain’s .... reaction does suggest that on his list of presidential priorities, the problems of working women come in somewhere behind the rising price of after-dinner mints ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/opinion/26collins.html?em&ex=1209355200&en=e6bdc99d0fee25a9&ei=5087