Earlier this week, Democrats in Washington State took advantage of a Republican senator who happens to be a nursing mother in order to take control of the Senate to vote on a bill that was not on the schedule, Warner Todd Huston reported at Breitbart.com Friday.
When State Sen. Janea Holmquist Newbry (R-Moses Lake) stepped off the floor to feed her nursing baby, Democrats wasted no time in taking over the chamber to vote on a bill that would limit toll revenue on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
When Newbry left, Huston said, Democrats held a one-vote majority in the Senate.
As soon as she left, Democrat Sen. David Frockt moved to take advantage of the majority, apparently assuming that Lt. Governor Brad Owen, a Democrat, would put them over the top. Newbry, however, returned just in time to defeat the effort.
But the move upset Republicans.
"I think it is shameful for them to make her choose between being on the floor and voting and nursing her child. This caucus, which presents itself as being the caucus of families, would willingly drive a wedge between a mother and her infant?" said Republican Senator Ann Rivers. "I think that is shameful. Just shameful. And deeply disappointing."
Rivers recalled a 1993 incident in which Republicans criticized a Democrat for bringing a baby on the floor of the House.
“The interesting thing is,” she said, "that almost 20 years ago to the day the Democrats had attacked Republicans for being against women and I thought we’d gotten beyond that attitude, but I guess not.”
Newbry declined to comment on the issue, Washington State Wire said, adding that Democrats claimed they did not know why she left the chamber, an explanation that left Republicans "dumbfounded."
Senate Majority Floor Leader Joe Fain (R-Covington) said Democrats apologized to Holmquist Newbry after the attempted takeover.
"I am heartened by that," he said.
But Huston called it an "example of Democrats' hypocrisy in regards to the 'war on women' meme."
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