Another DEM chauvinist pig. What's wrong with these sicko liberals?
Moakley gets a Swift kick
By Tina Cassidy, Globe Staff, 09/15/99
Lieutenant Governor Jane M. Swift, with a Working Mother magazine tucked in her totebag as she left her office yesterday, blasted US Representative Joseph Moakley's ''inexcusable'' remarks about another top woman in the Cellucci administration.
A visibly irritated Swift said that Moakley should not have referred to Virginia Buckingham, the governor's chief of staff whom he has chosen to run the Massachusetts Port Authority, as a ''girl'' during an editorial board meeting Monday with the Boston Herald.
''I just think it's inappropriate for the dean of our congressional delegation to call an accomplished 34-year-old woman a girl,'' Swift said. ''I have a problem with it.''
Moakley declined interviews yesterday because he did ''not think it's worth going into any further,'' according to his spokeswoman, Karin Walser.
''It was a slip of the tongue, for which he apologized immediately,'' said Walser, adding that the 72-year-old South Boston Democrat is not a sexist. ''As soon as the words left his lips, he apologized. It was a misstatement. It wasn't some sort of policy declaration.''
Walser said that at Moakley's age he considers anyone in their early 30s ''a kid,'' be they man or woman.
Moakley, who is against any expansion at Logan Airport, told the paper he believes Buckingham does not have the experience to run that facility or the seaport.
''Governor [Paul] Cellucci is saying how important Logan is ... and he takes some girl sitting in the next office and puts her in charge,'' Moakley was quoted as saying. ''You should have the best you can get.''
Cellucci told the Associated Press: ''It sounds like Joe Moakley might be one of those men I was referring to a couple of weeks ago who are threatened by powerful women.''
Buckingham, on maternity leave, is expected to win unanimous appproval from the Massport board tomorrow to serve as executive director of the agency. She was not available for comment yesterday.
But Swift called the congressman's remarks ''surprising,'' ''inexcusable,'' and ''revealing,'' saying Moakley ''should be much better informed about the roles that women are playing in our society.''
''He should be picking up the phone and calling Virginia Buckingham and apologizing to her,'' Swift said.
When asked about Moakley's concerns over Buckingham's experience, Swift snapped: ''Unfortunately his rhetoric revealed it's not his major concern.''
This story ran on page C16 of the Boston Globe on 09/15/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
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