From The Kitchen Table

They worked hard to get the lighting just right. Upstairs the wardrobers and makeup artists and hairdressers prepare this young mother for her moment in the spotlight. The lip gloss, the eyeliner and false eyelashes. None of this is new for this beauty pageant veteran who can claim the title of Alabama's Junior Miss.

What color should she wear? Which cross shall we dangle at her neck? How many buttons should we leave unfastened at the neck of her silk blouse? Which undergarment highlights her breasts to strike just the right chord - not too much but enough to hint of her 'real' womanhood? And downstairs, the set decorators were working to transform the suburban kitchen - you know the ones like they show on all the home improvement shows on HG-TV – into a backdrop for this particular raven-haired puppet.

And while the President of the United States addressed Congress and his country, her drama coaches went over the last minute details - smile here, soften your voice, slow down here, bring a note of sadness to your voice. Don't forget to shake your head here. The tears should well up in your eyes here - don't worry, your makeup is secure. The hands - be sure to highlight your wedding band when you're gesturing. And one last thing - resist the urge to say "bless his heart" until just the right moment!

It's all these days later and I'm still fuming about the performance of Senator Katie Britt, the Alabaman selected for the Republican response to the State of the Union address by Democratic (and democratically-elected, by the way) United States President Joe Biden.

But what really set me to grumbling and ultimately to write this post was her harrowing and gruesome account of a young Mexican woman who told of being repeatedly raped. Here's a transcript of what she said.

"When I first took office, I did something different. I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas, where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex-trafficked by the cartels starting at age 12. She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped. The cartels put her on a mattress in a shoe box of a room, and they sent men through that door, over and over again, for hours and hours on end. We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country. This is the United States of America, and it’s past time we start acting like it."

The problem with this horrific story she tells is that it did take place in a third world country - Mexico. It's the story of Karla Jacinto Romero, who has spoken for years about being a victim of child prostitution in Mexico, and it happened when George W. Bush, a Republican, was President of the United States. Romera has told  the story - in front of Congress too - of how her mother threw her out on the streets, and a pimp trafficked her to more than 40,000 clients over four years. Romero said many of the clients were foreigners who had traveled to Mexico for sexual interactions with minors like her.

So Katie Britt, well-scrubbed and coiffed, sits perched at the edge of her seat at her kitchen table and brings this story into her speech, complete with tears welling up in her eyes,  hoping that she could heap coals on the fires lit by a defeated former President who is counting on the immigration mess to bring him victory in November.

It was only after she was called out by the reporting of an independent journalist and later picked up by mainstream media, that Sean Ross, a spokesman for Senator Britt, confirmed on Saturday that she was indeed speaking about Ms. Romero. Yes, this Christian wife, mother and Senator who was selected to deliver the speech, lied to the American people. Ross concluded people are still victims of "disgusting, brutal tracking by the cartels" while leaving out the fact that among the despicable humans are those availing themselves of the services provided. Of course, we just don't talk about the crimes of the men who raped that child. But when your leader is a convicted rapist, it's wise not to bring up the subject of rape.

 Katie Britt went on Fox News Sunday and did not offer any sort of apology  and continued down the path of misleading the American people, the diamonds on the cross hanging around her neck catching the camera lights.

And as Pete Buttigieg said, "I'll leave it to her to explain the falsehoods, but I think it illustrates the bigger issue. She's a United States Senator, and the United States Senate right now could be acting to help secure the southern border.