The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.

According to the New York Times, Marc Cenedella, “a Republican businessman laying the groundwork for a possible run for a United States Senate seat in New York” against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, just took responsibility for publishing a blog with these kinds of offensive entries. Hernandez also shares that:

The interview was the first time that Mr. Cenedella commented publicly on the matter since The New York Times reported on Monday that until recently, entries containing random observations about sex, women and drugs were on a Web site that bore his photograph and the title “The personal blog of Marc Cenedella.”

In an entry titled “A New Holiday for Men,” there was a link to a separate site that designates March 14 as a special occasion on which women are encouraged to offer steak and oral sex “to show your man how much you care for him.” Another entry linked to a site that purports to provide biblical justification for a man’s having more than one wife. “I wasn’t so sure about all this Bible stuff,” the entry accompanying the link said, “but I’m starting to cotton to it.”

Surely Senator Gillibrand had enough of a problem being referred to as a “hottie” by none other than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), so running against this guy ought to be a real treat.

Mr. Cenedella “said on Tuesday that he took “full responsibility” for blog posts about sex, women and drugs that have drawn criticism” although he says he doesn’t know “which author wrote which one.”

In a political environment in which women of both political parties are being referred to as ice queen, diva, slut, whore, “Lying Ass Bitch,” Nurse Ratched, witch, and bubblehead, to have a prospective candidate demonstrate such immaturity and sexist behavior is not a road we want to pursue.

When women run for public office, they have a good chance of winning. But many women don’t want to open themselves up to this kind of objectification. Despite the post-feminist talking point that we have long overcome the need to be mindful of this sort of behavior, sexist attacks are still de rigueur. If a man signs his name to blog posts such as these, I am dubious that he would be above the kinds of attacks that have long been used to keep women out of office.

Mr. Cenedella referring to any woman as “a bit of a fluffy bunnikins” does not inspire confidence; only disgust. If that is how he sees half of the population, perhaps he needs a workshop…

Mr. Cenedella accused Senator Gillibrand of planting the story to keep him out of the race. Gillibrand’s spokesperson, Glen Caplin, offered this in response:

“Marc Cenedella has yet to answer the real question. Why did he find it appropriate to publish such clearly offensive material under his name and why did it take him 24 hours to take responsibility?”

We’d like to know that, too…