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Snakes Under A Desk: CT Lawmaker Makes Lewd Remark To Teen Ambassador
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 1, 2013
Modified Mar 1, 2013
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By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 1, 2013
Modified Mar 1, 2013
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The Connecticut Republican Party is calling for the resignation of a Connecticut Democrat who made an ill-advised remark to a 17-year-old girl who testified during a state committee hearing. The teen was trying to convince lawmakers that the Connecticut Science Center ambassador program should continue because it had helped her overcome shyness and fear of snakes. Then State Rep. Ernest Hewett said, "If you’re bashful I got a snake sitting under my desk here."
You can listen to a recording of the February 20 hearing below (Hewett's remarks come at the very end) and there is definite tittering. But he was stripped of his title and extra salary as deputy speaker, which his fellow Democrats think was an appropriate punishment. One said, "I think he is paying a big price by losing his assignment as deputy speaker. He is embarrassed obviously, he is clearly remorseful and he has apologized to everyone."
Hewett told the Connecticut Post he didn't mean for it to be innuendo—instead, it was "the kind of crazy analogies I use to try to make a point. Like, sometimes I'll tell someone, 'If you believe that, then I have an acre of land in the Everglades to sell you.' …It came out the wrong way. …It had nothing to do with sex, in my mind, but I can understand how people would think that by hearing it."
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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