Peter NicklesSo D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles gave Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh (D) some flowers today (City Desk even has a photo of said flowers). He did this in an attempt to apologize for telling a Washington Post reporter he thought Cheh, who recently criticized the Fenty administration for trying to keep Ximena Hartsock in her job at DPR for a while longer, was “stupid” and “an angry woman,” remarks that struck this writer as pretty sexist. So it’s hard not to raise an eyebrow at least partially at the act of giving this “angry woman” some flowers to appease her irrational temper.
For her part, Cheh seems to be taking it in stride, joking with the Post that she also likes chocolate. But just for a minute, imagine this scenario playing out with a male Council member. Nickles would never have bought Tommy Wells flowers. In fact, I’m willing to bet he never would have lashed out with these kinds of personal attacks in the first place if Cheh were a man.
It’s good that Nickles apologized. That’s what he should have done. But maybe he could have thought of a way to say he was sorry to Cheh that wasn’t so gender-specific?
