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In 2009, Governor Jim Doyle signed the indoor smoking ban. Republicans ranted and railed, predicting wide spread closure of bars and restaurants and general state-wide chaos. (This has since been proved completely false, of course – restaurant and bar business is actually up.) One of the chief purveyors of that rant was State Rep. Bill Kramer. It was one of his main points in a Doyle attack speech delivered to the Waukesha Kiwanis Club, of which I was the president at the time.



As president, it was not my job to invite speakers, but it was my job to open the meetings, deliver club news, and welcome the speakers. I did so politely, even when they were there to talk about things I disagreed with – a courtesy that was extended among all members. We had conservative and liberal members, and we worked together to raise money for charity and learn about our community.



Kramer’s speech was the usual political presentation – they’re wrong, we’re right, etc. Nothing newsworthy there. But he got especially agitated about the smoking ban. He was red-face and nearly hysterical, telling us that this was just the worst thing to happen to small business in the history of the state and that “mom and pop taverns” would be forced to close because nobody would go out if they couldn’t smoke.



I raised my hand, and told him that as an asthma sufferer I was looking forward to being able to go to any restaurant, without worrying about smoke. I asked about the employees who are forced to inhale smoke all day or night, etc. He just stared at me. I think that he thought since he was in Waukesha he wouldn’t be challenged on anything. Finally, he told me that it was people like me who hated freedom, that if I didn’t like smoke I should stay home, and that when we had massive job loss because of all the businesses closing it would be the fault of people like me.



But that isn’t the point of this story. What happened at the end of the meeting is.



As I left the meeting, Kramer followed me into the parking lot and yelled to me as I got to my car. He got within inches of my face and started yelling about the smoking ban again, and telling me that I needed to listen to him so he could “educate” me about it. I was shocked. I was the president of the organization he had been invited to speak to and he was screaming at me in the parking lot. I thought he was going to hit me. It got so bad that one of the male members of the club came over and pulled him away from me. When I got in my car I was trembling.



Bill Kramer is a misogynist. I am convinced that is what is at the root of his sexual assault and harassment problems. He cannot handle a woman being his equal, much less his superior. It is why he touched Kelda Roys inappropriately, so she was put in her place, and why he attempted to turn professional staffers into sexual playthings. Does he have even one respectful, healthy relationship with a woman?



Even after this so-called “intensive treatment” from which he was just released, he told a police officer that he didn’t remember fondling one of his victims, but may not have because she had “doctor-enhanced breasts” and he likes natural ones. Seriously.

Republicans have a women problem. And it’s not just the current birth control issue – where prominent party leaders have claimed that women only need birth control because they are “unable to keep their libidos in check” or that the number of birth control pills a woman takes is somehow related to the number of times she has sex – a laughable falsehood that only underscores the complete lack of understanding of female biology.



Republicans have a women problem because despite the gains made by women in their own party they continue to vote people like Bill Kramer into leadership positions. Speaker Robin Vos is doing the right thing now, and he needs to stand firm in words and action. This kind of misogyny has no place in modern society.



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