Republicans say Sen. Gillibrand should have spoken up during U.S. Airways incident

From Capitol Confidential, Times-Union blog:

This didn’t take long: The GOP is going after not only Chuck Schumer but his protege Kirsten Gillibrand over the now-famous Sunday incident in which Schumer referred to a US Airways flight attendant as a “bitch” when she told him to turn off his cell phone.

Schumer has already apologized. Republican Senate Campaign Communications Director Brian Walsh is now taking Gillibrand to task for failing to condemn her fellow Democratic senator for the presumably sexist remark.

Walsh cites a report in which Gillibrand spokesman Matt Canter downplayed the incident.

“It is the kind of interaction you see on planes all the time,” Canter told Politico. “The senators were on the phone and turned off their phones when they were asked. Sen. Schumer has already said that he should not have used that word and says he regrets it. There is nothing more to add.”

That, Walsh contends, doesn’t cut it. “For a politician who claims to have a ‘family first’ agenda and who claims to fight for women’s rights, Kirsten Gillibrand’s silence is stunning. It appears clear that when push comes to shove, she’s far more worried about offending her political mentor, Chuck Schumer, than standing up for women in the workplace. It’s our hope that those women’s rights organizations that have already endorsed her campaign for the Senate will ask Kirsten Gillibrand why she believes it’s acceptable to call a female flight attendant a ‘bitch.’”