Senator Richard Burr may be a gift that keeps on giving. Interrupt me again! I don't think California's new Senator Kamala Harris, a prosecutor in her former life, liked being interrupted by Burr when she was questioning Rod Rosenstein yesterday. Interrupting is rude, peremptory and tacky. Burr soon found out he was viral in the worst possible way. His rudeness was rewarded with a social media firestorm.
Tweet power
Nowadays the fashion is not to report. You just embed tweets and people can see firestorms for themselves. This was done so well in the following account I can happily not inundate you with tweets.
To see them click on the embed. Voila.
.@SenKamalaHarris will NOT pardon the manterruption, thank you very much. https://t.co/DCPEURc4C5
— POPSUGAR News (@popsugarnews) June 7, 2017
My thanks to Gavin Newsom, California's probable next governor, for the heads up.
Manterruption goes viral too
In addition to Kamala Harris getting a lot of notice and Burr a lot of grief, the word "manterruption" is now properly launched to describe what we men do with impunity. It goes along with patriarchy, abuse, and enslavement. (Of course, none of this applies to Trump followers who are squeaky clean in their dealings with women.)
As the article concludes, "we're letting Harris's refusal to be deterred serve as a reminder that, no, we don't have to pardon manterruptions.
Burrs of the world, take note."
Good news
The good news from my point of view is that this hearing, aimed at President Trump, will, in fact, serve as a showcase for Harris. I wish Gavin Newsom and Tulsi Gabbard were Senators for a day. I would like to see all three take a turn at what is going to be our Watergate moment.
It will not be Watergate unfortunately because Comey will not rise to the level of obstruction of justice in his declarations.
But it may have some unintended but welcome consequences.
History made in seconds
You will see from the video of Burr's interruption that this is not merely misogyny but also GOP -- using GOP as an adjective suggesting gross, overbearing and pusillanimous.
History gets made in such exchanges. My guess is that this will be a defining moment in the history of the Senate.
The energy around this moment has to do with getting rid of the GOP and Trump and restoring some serious governance to the nation's capitol.
Partisanship
If you detect a tone of partisanship, be my guest. But note that had Kamala been a Republican and Burr a Democrat, the same viral reality might well have ensued. These days social media are an equal opportunity arbiter of decent conduct despite what the chorus of internet nay-sayers tell us.
