But the larger point is that Roberts - while in a position to influence policy inside the White House - opted for a knee-jerk right-wing position on an important discrimination issue facing the American people.
Then, rather than showing sensitivity to the long history of injustice inflicted on women in the work place, he chose to make a joke, suggesting that women wanted money they didn't deserve.
"From each according to his ability, to each according to her gender," Roberts wrote. [Emphasis added.]
Instead, Roberts demonstrated lawyerly thinking and ideological disdain in opposing a strategy that tried to reduce the unfairness. Indeed, his memos suggest that he wasn't even aware that there was a serious injustice.
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Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His new book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'
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