Democratic lawmaker: Shirkey will never change his attitude toward female colleagues

Tuesday night, I stopped at my legislative director Sara’s house to drop off something from the office. My staff has been working remotely throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, because the GOP majority in Lansing refuses to do anything to ensure their safety from either the virus or domestic terrorists.

As we quickly touched base on her porch in the cold, she asked if I had heard the latest controversy from Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake. Before I left the office, I had read a headline about him claiming the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at our nation's Capitol was a hoax, orchestrated by opponents of former President Donald Trump. I sighed and nodded, feeling too frustrated to elaborate. She went on to say that she was outraged that such statements were coming from the person who had the ability to write and enforce the Senate’s sexual harassment policy.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “What does that have to do with what he said?”

“He said he spanked the governor,” Sara said.

“What?!” I shouted, in a voice that I’m sure Sen. Shirkey would not hesitate to describe as shrill.

She proceeded to read me an excerpt from the article she was referencing, both of us disappointed that we were once again talking about the Senate Majority Leader’s misogyny, yet not even remotely surprised.

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When I got home, I found. that Sen. Shirkey had indeed described “spanking” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. He had insisted that the events in D.C. that left five people dead were staged. He had also discussed inviting the governor to a fistfight over her executive orders. His spokesperson, as usual, issued a statement with what passes for an apology from the Senate Majority Leader, but will ultimately not spur any change in his reprehensible behavior.

As I read, I thought about an interview I gave a couple of weeks ago. I had made mention on Twitter of an incident where Sen. Shirkey rubbed my shoulders and moved me out of his way just outside the House chamber. A reporter had reached out to discuss Shirkey's repeatedly inappropriate behavior and at one point asked, “Do you think he’ll learn?”

“No,” I answered quickly. “No. I don’t think he’ll ever learn.”

TMost of us would like to pretend this sort of behavior is rare. But that argument doesn’t hold water when someone who is supposed to be a leader and a role model exhibits it almost daily.

Sen. Shirkey is a caricature of a "man’s man," a callback to a time when it was assumed the highest compliment you could give a woman, even if she’d just delivered her first mid-pandemic State of the State, was to say she looked delightful; a time when no one balked if you casually mentioned figuratively physically assaulting a woman who was upsetting you; a time when a woman would be giddy at the thought of a state senator rubbing her shoulders, even if she was just attempting to do her job uninterrupted.

I stand by my assertion that Sen. Shirkey will never learn. The fact that we are having this conversation less than a month after the last time we had it demonstrates that. And if he won’t learn, then we need to stop trying to teach him.

He needs to be abandoned like the relic he is. He has repeatedly been rewarded with re-election and leadership positions that his behavior should disqualify him from. Sen. Shirkey needs to be stripped of his leadership title immediately. If he insists on clinging to misogynistic tropes and living in the past, then it is best if we leave him there.

Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia) represents Michigan's 19th District in the state House of Representatives.