Wow.

Just…wow.

“Hi…I’m a friend of Rep Hewett.  He invited me to attend the hearing…could you direct me to his desk, please?”

The late Donald Shaefer, former governor of Maryland and mayor of Baltimore, certainly had his moments of outrageous, and often sexist, candor, and foot-in-mouth disease has certainly marred the legacies of many a politician, but this seems like a scene out of a Will Farrell movie. An unbelievable scene.

On February 21, a 17-year-old female intern at the Connecticut Science Center was testifying before the Connecticut legislature. Among those questioning her about her work was Hewett, the deputy speaker and a former mayor of New London in his fifth term in the House. The intern was discussing the benefits of her work, and told the lawmakers, “I am usually a very shy person, and now I am more outgoing. I was able to teach those children about certain things like snakes that we have and the turtles that we have… ,” she said. “I want to do something toward that, working with children when I get older.”

Hewett responded—and I’m not making this up…

“If you’re bashful I got a snake sitting under my desk here!”

He has been stripped of his deputy speaker status, which carried a salary addition, by horrified Speaker of the House J. Brendan Sharkey. Sharkey also ordered sexual harassment training for veteran lawmakers, although what afflicts Hewett clearly goes a lot deeper than mere unfamiliarity with the nuances of workplace harassment legislation. Moving from bad to worst, this was an uncivil, crass and undignified statement for a public official to make anywhere, made in the course of official duties, during a public hearing, abusing a citizen, sexually harassing a woman, and directed at a child.

In his unavoidable apology, Hewett said that he wanted to apologize to his colleagues and the young woman, saying that he took “full responsibility for my actions. In hindsight, I can really see how this can be misconstrued as something sexual.”

Gee, ya think???

There have been calls for Hewett to resign. I would applaud him if he did so on his own initiative. (Aside: News reports have said that “some Republicans” have called for his resignation, as if arguing that legislators who harass teenagers while they are appearing before the law-making body should find another line of work s just partisan posturing. Really? Do Democrats and journalists—but I repeat myself— really think that this is minor misconduct? Do Democrats, the party of women, really have no problem with one of their number saying this? If Rush Limbaugh behaved in this manner, would not Democrats be calling for his head on a platter? If there aren’t any Democrats calling for Hewett’s resignation, 1) I’d be shocked and 2) the party is more warped than I thought.) Such behavior is too prevalent in the workplace and damaging to women to be treated as a forgivable lapse in judgment when it occurs in a high-profile setting and the offender is a lawmaker. Most executives and managers in business organizations would be fired for such a comment. A resignation would make a strong statement about the seriousness of the problem of sexual harassment.

My tender and compassionate side—I really do have one, you know— acknowledges that Hewett might have just had a massive brain cramp, and was trying to make a joke that came out abysmally wrong. It is conceivable that he did not intend the sexual innuendo…barely. If he has no prior history of sexual banter or misconduct in the workplace, I would conclude that the remark was probably innocent. Stupid and jaw-dropping, but innocent. If it was Bill Clinton or Eliot Spitzer making the joke, however, I would presume willful intent. Hewett’s statement to ABC News’ New Haven affiliate WTNH-TV that he meant nothing sexual by the comment and that it was “taken out of context” is not encouraging, however. The statement is harassing in or out of context, whether the topic was snakes or not…unless Hewett really has a pet boa constrictor that he keeps under his desk in the chamber. I would think we would have been informed of that by now, if it were the case.

I still think he has an obligation to resign. No citizen should feel sexually harassed by his or her own legislature. The Most Inappropriate Public Utterance By An Elected Official Ever—at least, I can’t think of a worse one—should carry significant, permanent consequences that go beyond a reduction in rank.

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Pointer: The Daily Beast

Facts: Connecticut Post , ABC

Graphic: Regal Pet