Barbara Boxer schools general in sexism

Oh my. This is a great short video. Now, I feel a bit sorry for the general, because he may call all men "sir" and all women "ma'am." I don't per se find any problem with that. But still. I suspect women like Senator Boxer have been on the receiving end of sexist treatment for decades, so they know it when they see it. But damn, watch her in action. I wish our other Senators, and president, could find that kind of testicular fortitude in general.

RNC pulls video making "pussy" joke about Pelosi

That only took them a week.

GOP lawmaker slams RNC video mocking Pelosi as ‘reprehensible.’

A GOP lawmaker is apparently incensed that the Republican party made a "pussy" joke about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. At least there's one civilized human being among them.

RNC makes "pussy" joke about Speaker Pelosi

Seriously. They've just launched a new video called "Pelosi Galore," a take off of the Bond film "Pussy Galore." From Politico:

The wisdom of equating the first woman speaker of the House with a character whose first name also happens to be among the most vulgar terms for a part of the female anatomy might be debated – if the RNC were willing to do so, which it was not. An RNC spokesperson refused repeated requests by POLITICO to explain the point of the video, or the intended connection between Pelosi and Galore.

But what isn’t open to debate is that the waterboarding conflict has been accompanied by a cascade of attacks on the speaker, not as a leader or a legislator, but as a woman.

Earlier this week, Pittsburgh radio host Jim Quinn referred to the speaker on his program as “this bitch”; last week, syndicated radio host Neal Boortz opined “how fun it is to watch that hag out there twisting in the wind.”

There has also been a steady stream of taunts about the speaker’s appearance, and whether it’s been surgically enhanced. On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Republican strategist Alex Castellanos said, “I think if Speaker Pelosi were still capable of human facial expression, we’d see she’d be embarrassed.”

And Ben Smith notes that, contrary to what the RNC is claiming, the video has not been taken down.

The right wing's blatant misogyny

This video from Media Matters puts the recent right wing hysteria into perspective:

Frankly, I think Pelosi is tougher than all of them. But, this kind of talk is beyond the pale.

Is this sexism or something else?

I'm annoyed with what Ed Rendell said but am not sure what he said was sexist. Discriminatory against anyone who doesn't live a "normal" American family life, but not sexist. It would come as no surprise to me if I heard the same thing said about a man or a couple (like Joelle and I) that have no kids. In fact I've heard the same here in France regarding the Paris mayor (Bertrand Delanoë) as well as the mayor of Lyon a few years ago. Neither mayor is married and neither are women. It's no shock to hear similar remarks about couples who don't have kids. Sure, they can work more and are given less slack during difficult times since they have more time to devote to work, right? (I can think of many married men who invest very little time with their family, but that doesn't enter into the story as far as I hear.) There is an enormous double standard when it comes to couples without kids versus couples with kids, straight and gay, as many of us notice especially over the holidays.

I like Campbell Brown but here I think she's wrong. Rendell's comments could just as easily be made about many other people, men and women, married and single. It's not right, but it's also not sexism.

McCain: Obama called me a fish (I'm not kidding)

This is surrounding McCain's latest claim of "sexism," accusing the phrase "lipstick on a pig" of being sexist when used by Obama but not being sexist when used by McCain. Oh, and for anyone who's counting, the McCain campaign did in fact invoke John McCain's former POW status in relation to lipstick and pigs. Yes, they did. :-)

And even better, the McCain people today accused Obama of calling McCain "a fish." Seriously. No word on whether McCain took the fish to be a herring (losing his bearings), a snapper (temper temper), a cod (rhymes with cad) or perhaps something more exotic like a mahi-mahi (no, that's the kind of fish McCain would accuse Obama of being).

If I may paraphrase Jake, John McCain thinks some pigs are more equal than others (and for the McCain camp, that's not a reference to Palin or McCain, it's a reference to "Animal Farm" (that is, unless Sarah Palin banned it)). It was hard to excerpt Jake, but here's a portion:

Why should anyone believe McCain didn't mean it about Hillary Clinton, but Obama meant it about Palin?

And yet, the inaugural conference call of what the McCain-Palin campaign is calling the "Palin Truth Squad" addressed Obama's remark.

And interestingly, the Truth Squad call was full of half-truths and statements that weren't true at all.

Speaking on behalf of the McCain campaign, former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift tonight flatly stated that Obama had called Palin a pig.

"[T]he formation of the Palin Truth Squad couldn't have happened too soon, as we saw when Sen. Obama in Lebanon, Va., this evening uttered what I can only deem to be disgraceful comments comparing our vice presidential nominee Gov. Palin to a pig," Swift said.

"Sen. Obama owes Gov. Palin an apology," she said.

Asked why she was so confident Obama was "comparing" Palin to a pig, she said Palin was the only one of the four candidates on both parties' tickets who wears lipstick.

"She is the only one of the four candidates for president, or the only vice presidential candidate who wears lipstick," Swift said. "I mean, it seemed to me a very gendered comment."

But, Swift added, if "as part of his apology Sen. Obama wants to say, no, he was calling Sen. McCain -- who is a true hero in our country -- a pig, then I suppose we could wait en masse for an apology to that, as well."

It was pointed out to Swift that, after the line about the pig, Obama had said, "You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called 'change,' it's still gonna stink after eight years."

Swift then suggested that Obama was calling McCain a fish.

"I have a fourth-grader and two second-graders at home," she said. "I would not teach them that this is sort of a high-minded debate on policy issues when they are calling people rotten old fish or a pig. In fact, it sounds a lot like some of the least intelligent debates on the playground sound like at our elementary school."

A reporter then reminded Swift that in December, McCain was asked about criticisms coming his way from then-opponent Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., and McCain replied, "Never get into a wrestling match with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it."

Was McCain calling Romney a pig? a reporter asked Swift.

Of course not, Swift said.

It seems to me we should have one rule. If Obama was calling Palin a pig, then McCain was calling Hillary Clinton one. If McCain wasn't, then Obama wasn't.

Cindy McCain thinks Palin is "a babe" - but that's not sexist

Uh huh.

Speaking to Diane Sawyer, Cindy McCain blasted the overall coverage of Palin as sexist -- and specifically an Us Weekly cover headlined "Babies, Lies and Scandal."

"I think it's insulting," McCain told Sawyer. "I think it's outlandish. And for whatever reason, the media has decided to treat her differently, because, I believe, because she's a woman."

While McCain believes sexism has fueled much of the criticism against Palin, she didn't disagree with conservative commentator and radio host Rush Limbaugh's assertion of the governor.

"We're the ones with a babe on the ticket," Limbaugh said.

"She is. She's lovely. I think she's beautiful," McCain said in response to the comment.

This, from Miss Buffalo Chip.

McCain: Only sexists don't like Sarah Palin

UPDATE: McCain's own campaign co-chair says she doesn't think it's sexism at all. Oops.

Yes, the Republican party. Great defender of the oppressed. Promoter of equal rights. Standard-bearer of the right of women. Now claiming that the only reason anyone in the media or the public is concerned about Sarah Palin is because she's a woman. Almost brings a tear to my eye how much they care.

McCain is desperate to change the conversation. First it was complaining about those crazy bloggers. Then the rude media that just wouldn't stop talking about "the pregnancy" (ignore the fact that McCain leaked news about the pregnancy to Reuters). Then it was sexism. Then it was a few other things I can't recall, and now we're back to sexism again.

Yes. The only reason anyone has a problem with Sarah Palin is because she's a woman. We'd be tickled pink if an uber-conservative man, who wanted to ban all abortions (unless the mother were going to die), who lied about her foreign policy experience (duty-free shopping in Ireland, anyone?), who was under investigation in her own state for corruption, whose husband was a tad sketchy, who courted an anti-American political party for votes, whose church invites anti-Semitic speakers who think terrorist attacks against Israel are God's revenge on the Jews for not turning Christian (and whose church seems to hink you can "cure" gays), who wants to ban books, who sought and received the most legislative pork of any governor, who lied about her opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere (she supported it), who thinks the Iraq War is God's will, whose church's preacher suggested that if you vote for John Kerry you might not go to heaven, who seems to have fired a trooper because he was married to her sister, who doesn't even know what the vice president of the United States does - yes, we'd be silent if a guy were nominated who had done all of that.

Is it sexist as well to think that John McCain must have lost his marbles to pick someone so unqualified with practically no vetting whatsoever?

No, Mr. McCain. Sexism is when you attacked Chelsea Clinton as a teenager.

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

Sexism is cracking jokes about women being raped, and liking it.



So please, let's do have a discussion of John McCain's record with women. John McCain is 72 years old and has had four bouts of cancer. There is a very real possibility that if John McCain is elected president, Sarah Palin will become president some time in the next four years. Sarah Palin is unfit to govern America in a time of war, and John McCain's recklessness in picking Sarah Palin won't be glossed over by the Republican party's sudden discovery that women suffer prejudice. You're a bit late to the parade, boys.

FOX News calls Mrs. Obama "Obama's baby mama"

I'm sensing a mix of sexism and racism from FOX News on this one - hitting both at once, that might even be a new low for them. This network should be ostracized by every Democrat - no one in the party should be appearing on FOX ever again. And if they do, they should be held accountable for it. And someone should launch a true campaign to take FOX down, once and for all. So far the efforts have been piecemeal and short-lived. Someone with the cash and the staff needs to do something real this time.

Feel free to contact FOX:
roger.ailes@foxnews.com
Comments@foxnews.com

Hillary's girl power

Jacki Schechner thinks a woman would make an exceptional commander in chief. Just not this one:

I think it does women a disservice to play the sexism card at this stage in the game in this particular circumstance....

Neanderthal men who think women belong in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant are not a large enough demographic to be holding Senator Clinton back from clinching this nomination, and claiming that's her downfall is both disingenuous and bad form. Save the fight for when it matters. When there is real discrimination based on sex. If anything, the press has been infinitely generous with Clinton - keeping her in this race long after the math proved Obama's delegate lead insurmountable. Again, she's not losing because she's a woman. She's losing because she got bad campaign advice and ran with it.

If you listened to my podcast commentary, I made it very clear I was excited by the idea of the first female President. I just don't think Clinton's turned out to be that female. That doesn't make me naive or a traitor to my gender. If anything, it does us some justice. One of us is going to make an exceptional Commander-in-Chief someday.

I just want my President to be someone I can look up to and be proud of as a human being. Gender aside, Clinton is not that person.

Village Voice: "My lady parts do not ache for Hillary Clinton."

Allison Benedikt's blog post in the Village Voice:

My lady parts do not ache for Hillary Clinton.

As The First Viable Female Contender’s bid for the Democratic nomination sputters to its inevitable end, everyone and their mother/sister/daughter has something to say about the poisonous misogyny that’s apparently to blame.

Sunday and Monday brought three such post-mortems in The New York Times, one on the front page that ended by quoting a resident of Bizarro World, who laments, “[Obama] still looks more like every other president we’ve ever had than she does.”

Next comes Arianna “No Fear” Huffington, suffering from a strain of short-term memory loss that seems to be going around, to declare: “The greatest triumph of Clinton’s campaign—a complete triumph—is the example she has set for the next generation.”

Currently pregnant with the next generation, let me just say this: There is no greater wish that a mother can have for her daughter than that she will exploit poor people, obliterate Iran, and win rigged class president elections, Putin-style. (Mom, I won 100 percent of the vote!)...

This War on Women is just like the War on Christmas: imaginary....

Now we learn of a new, primarily female group, Clinton Supporters Count Too, which promises to actively campaign against Obama in the general because, as their leader told the Times, “We, the most loyal constituency, are being told to sit down, shut up and get to the back of the bus.” Also: Black people? Suck it.

And Hillary’s lapping it up. Confirming in today’s Washington Post that the primary campaign has been sexist (but not racist), Clinton complains—states/notes/ declares—that there’s been a “disservice because we have broad coalitions of voters who have voted for me who make up the base of a winning campaign in November that I think want to see this end up with my being nominated." Translation: "This is unfair and sexist, because my voters clearly want to see me nominated. And if I'm not nominated, a disservice has been done to my voters." What makes it really unfair is that she’s losing by every measure and we still won’t let her win. Classic misogyny.

Here’s the thing: There is plenty of sexism—more than enough, thank you very much—in this country. Which is why it’s so sad to see Hillary’s supporters (and lately even her female detractors, and way too many column inches) elevate her to some kind of goddess warrior, symbolizing the decades-long fight for gender equality, absorbing the entirety of history’s catcall in one massive blow, and then standing tall again because that’s what women do. Powerful stuff, except that she’s a lying, race-baiting insult to our collective intelligence.

Powerful, if she and her husband hadn’t sold out poor people in the ’90s or if she had stood tall like a woman against the war in Iraq or if she wasn’t right now trying to change the rules of the game and stir up the worst kind of identity politics. Powerful, if her most fervent supporters weren’t threatening to vote for John McCain out of spite, Supreme Court justices be damned.

(H/t Markos)