A few years ago, when the U.S. Senate was considering the nomination of Jeff Sessions as attorney general under Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren started reading into the record some comments that impugned the character of the nominee.

In particular, she quoted from a letter written by Coretta Scott King that accused Sessions of trying to prevent Black citizens from voting.

Then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell interrupted her, citing Rule 19 of the Code of Conduct which prevented any senator from imputing, to any other senator, conduct unbecoming.

Warren objected, demanded the right to continue reading into the record, and was allowed to finish. But the media did what the media always does, and completely misrepresented the story.

It turned into some victorious Henry V moment whereby the senator from Massachusetts stared down the enemy with soaring rhetoric – borrowed from someone else, by the way – to rally the troops.

And that gave way to an entire cottage industry of shirts, hats, mugs and dolls with the tag line #ShePersisted.

I remember at the time thinking that this was hilarious.

Women have been told that we are........

© Yuma Sun