Conservative Women

In her now infamous Larry King interview, Carrie Prejean recently alleged that people in the media are tougher on conservative women than they are on men (or, she implied, liberal women).  She specifically mentioned Rep. Michelle Bachman and ex-Gov. Sarah Palin as examples of “brilliant” women who have been treated unfairly based on their conservatism.  In case you missed it her self-censorship in that interview:

It’s a classic working-the-refs strategy that the right wing has been trying for years, despite the presence of Rush Limbaugh, News Corp/Fox News, a myriad of syndicated columnists, the baby Rushs (Savage, Medved, etc.), Regnery Publishing, The Weekly Standard, The National Review, Drudge, WorldNetDaily, FreeRepublic, huge corporate conservative pr ads everywhere, and big corporate ownership of all major broadcast and cable media outlets. 

Even the neoconservative Bill Kristol has said, as quoted in Eric Alterman’s 2003 book What Liberal Media?, “I’ll admit it…The liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used by conservatives for conservative failures.”  (p.2)  Take it from Patrick Buchanan: “I’ve gotten balanced coverage, and broad coverage – all we could have asked.  For heaven sakes, we kid about the ‘liberal media’ but every Republican on earth does that.” (p.2)

Alterman also quotes former Republican chair Rich Bond: “There is some strategy to it (bashing the ‘liberal’ media)…If you watch any great coach, what they try to do is ‘work the refs.’  Maybe the refs will cut you some slack on the next one.”  Finally, he cites Former Republican overall guru and White House Chief of Staff/Secretary of State James Baker who said “There were days and times and events we might have had some complaints (but) on balance I don’t think we had anything to complain about.”  Baker is speaking of an era before many of the conservative sources I’ve listed above. 

Since The Washington Post editorialized in support of invading Iraq over 30 times, The New York Times sat on it’s Bush wiretap story until after the 2004 election (need I mention Judy Miller) and MSNBC hired Joe Scarborough, has there any doubt that the mass media as a whole is at best balanced and, if anything, skewing conservative.

But to the specific point on women, from the conservative/liberal perspective, it is undeniable that Democrats like Nancy Pelosi (whose pretend assassination Glenn Beck acted out on television) and Hillary Clinton (who was widely accused of everything from devising a socialist takeover of health care to murdering Vince Foster) have faced far harsher attacks than anything Prejean, Palin or Bachman have faced.

But it’s not the fact of being a conservative that has gotten any of the three into trouble.  Senator Kay Baily Hutchison, Former Senator Elizabeth Dole, Peggy Noonan, Kathleen Parker, Dana Perrino, and Mary Matalin (and plenty of other conservative women) are regularly treated with great respect by all mainstream media outlets and none have ever caused the uproars that the three Prejean says are persecuted have caused repeatedly.

The reason has nothing to do with their politics, but Prejean was in the ballpark when she cited “brilliance” as a factor in whether someone should be taken seriously.  Hutchison, Dole, Parker & Co., are usually wrong, but they’re not stupid.  They can add legitimate perspectives and value to a debate when they’re being honest about the facts.

Palin, Bachman, and Prejean complain that they’re not taken seriously, but they’ve done nothing to deserve serious treatment and their flamingly obvious lack of preparation to discuss any political issue never fails to entertain.  Peggy Noonan is someone you can laugh with, but you don’t laugh at because she’s a serious thinker with sense of humor.  Hutchison does her homework.  Big difference.

So Palin, Bachman and Prejean have to stop using “conservative women”, some of whom know a thing or two, to cover for their own ignorance.  And now, for your entertainment, the proof:

Palin’s Greatest Hits:

Bachman’s Greatest Hits:

Prejean on “opposite marriage” and having the right to “choose”:

 

Palin Brawling Again

Why don’t they take her seriously?  First, it was “palling around with terrorists” – one of the most demagogic incitements to violence in presidential campaign history.  Then, it was attacking the media for asking her policy questions (and questions about what she reads) that she could not answer.  Along the way, she got into a public dispute and some ethical hot water over how she personally tried to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from his law enforcement job with the State of Alaska. 

Earlier this year, she was in a public spat with the young father of her grandson.  And then she engaged in another silly public back and forth with David Letterman.  Now, she’s brawling again – this time with John McCain, Nicole Wallace and former McCain campaign staffers.

Here’s the link to MSNBC if you can’t watch the video on this site: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/34005238#34005238

I respect people who fight for what they believe in, but looking back on Palin’s spats shows that there is no separating the public issues and disputes from the private and/or personal.  She recognizes no such boundry and so she always ends up looking like a cross between a spunky tv meteorologist and a Jerry Springer guest.

The Third Way Team & AIG

Early this year, there was a lot of criticism that the Obama economic team was a bit too Clintonesque.  The idea was that the third-way Tim Geithner/Larry Summers/Bob Rubin-influenced team needed representation  from the Paul Krugman/Dean Baker/Joe Stiglitz school of thought.  This story about how soft the New York Fed under Geithner was during the AIG bailout is adding fuel to that argument.