Worst person in the world award (and some good news, too)

Today's award is a collective one, and it goes to the opponents of the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The bill, which just passed the House and is on its way to President Obama's desk (the President strongly supported it as Senator and invited Lily Ledbetter, the bill's namesake, to come on his pre-inaugural whistle-stop tour), makes it easier for women, minorities, and any other group that suffers wage discrimination to sue offending employers. The objections of the bill's opponents--primarily Republicans--are summed up in the above-linked New York Times article:

the legislation would gut the statute of limitations, encourage lawsuits and be a boon to trial lawyers. They also argued that employees could wait to file claims in hopes of reaping larger damage awards.

Um, excuse me? Are we really having this debate? Is this what the bill's opponents are positing as a reason for their stance: the potential for victims of wage discrimination--people who have systematically been stolen from and who likely have little knowledge of legal processes, let alone the intricacies of federal labor policy--to wait it out after an employer's offense to get more money in a lawsuit? Really? I'm pretty sure Ms Ledbetter, who was denied tens of thousands of dollars that she earned, would have been satisfied with the equal-day's pay that she deserved.

Thank goodness we have honest leaders to fight against these injustices. But just because we're under more hopeful leadership today, let us not forget that there are still some in power beholden to special interests to the extent that they would vote against legislation ensuring fundamental equality for your neighbor, your mother, your grandmother. And so today's worst persons in the world are the Nay voters on the Lebetter Act. Their last names follow below (access their online offices here):

Aderholt Akin Alexander Austria Bachmann Barrett (SC) Bartlett Barton (TX) Biggert Bilbray Bilirakis Bishop (UT) Blackburn Blunt Boehner Bonner Bono Mack Boozman Boren Boustany Boyd Brady (TX) Bright Broun (GA) Brown-Waite, Ginny Buchanan Burgess Burton (IN) Buyer Calvert Camp Campbell Cantor Cao Capito Carter Cassidy Castle Chaffetz Childers Coble Coffman (CO) Cole Conaway Crenshaw Culberson Davis (KY) Deal (GA) Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Dreier Duncan Ehlers Emerson Fallin Flake

Fleming Forbes Fortenberry Foxx Franks (AZ) Frelinghuysen Garrett (NJ) Gerlach Gingrey (GA) Gohmert Goodlatte Griffith Guthrie Hall (TX) Harper Hastings (WA) Heller Hensarling Herger Hoekstra Hunter Inglis Issa Jenkins Johnson (IL) Johnson, Sam Jordan (OH) King (IA) King (NY) Kingston Kirk Kline (MN) Lamborn Lance Latham LaTourette Latta Lee (NY) Lewis (CA) Linder LoBiondo Lucas Luetkemeyer Lummis Lungren, Daniel E. Mack Manzullo Marchant McCarthy (CA) McCaul McClintock McCotter McHenry McHugh McKeon McMorris Rodgers Mica

Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Moran (KS) Murphy, Tim Myrick Neugebauer Nunes Olson Paul Paulsen Pence Petri Pitts Platts Poe (TX) Posey Price (GA) Putnam Radanovich Rehberg Reichert Roe (TN) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Rooney Ros-Lehtinen Roskam Royce Ryan (WI) Scalise Schmidt Schock Sensenbrenner Sessions Shimkus Shuster Simpson Smith (NE) Smith (TX) Souder Stearns Sullivan Terry Thompson (PA) Thornberry Tiberi Turner Upton Walden Wamp Westmoreland Wilson (SC) Wittman Wolf Young (FL)