How can Kirk praise Palin's candidacy?

Recently, a group of over 100 women joined me in signing a letter expressing our profound disappointment with Rep. Kirk's effusive praise of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Just one month after he cast a vote against equal pay for equal work, his strong support for Palin demonstrates his true lack of interest in standing up for the values of the women in 10th District.

Soon after John McCain announced that he had chosen Palin to be his vice presidential nominee, Kirk praised her candidacy, saying that he was "encouraged" by her candidacy and that she is a "reformer."

To the women of the 10th District, there is nothing encouraging about Palin's extremely conservative, anti-feminist political views, including her opposition to a woman's right to choose even in the cases of incest and rape, equal pay for equal work and any form of gun control. Nor is it encouraging or reforming to learn about her support for abstinence-only sex education, teaching creationism in our schools, her denial of global warming.

Just as I am dismayed by her extreme positions on the issues, I am also offended by the patronizing and cynical view that because she is a woman, she will automatically earn support from women.

While some of us supported Hillary Clinton's candidacy for president and believed that her election would be a victory for women across the country, Palin's slim qualifications and radical right-wing views would only set back the causes we hold dear.

Once again, Congressman Kirk, your support for Palin shows you are more concerned with supporting the Republican Party and continuing with more of the same disastrous policies of the last eight years than standing up for women.

Karen Fujisawa

Winnetka