A civic-minded teenage girl traveled to Hartford to testify about a science museum where she interned, and she told legislators her experience there helped her overcome a fear of snakes.

What followed, though, was something awful that would make just about any parent tremble: state Rep. Ernest Hewett, D-New London, told the girl, "I got a snake sitting under my desk here."

The obvious innuendo drew harsh, bipartisan criticism from just about everyone except for state Rep. Ted Moukawsher, D-Groton, who felt compelled to publicly defend Rep. Hewett in this newspaper, despite Hewett's apparent history of bad conduct with female interns at the state capitol.

Moukawsher, shockingly, branded Hewett's disgusting comment to the girl a "compliment" in his March 2 submission to The Day, "Moukawsher defends Hewett's comment."

The widespread condemnation of Hewett by so many of his colleagues both Republican and Democrat shows just how far women have come, but the letter from Moukawsher is evidence that there are still hills to climb.