When the feminist Right-wing stands up for Dr. Rice

Darn that fusty old Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) anyway. I mean *did you hear* what she said to poor Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice the other day? I mean... gracious... it just makes you rhyme with itch! And that nice Tony Snow and even Rush Limbaugh proving they're even better feminists than those fruits-n-nutz left-coast democrat-congress Senators anyway?

I mean, just look what that rich ... niche ... hitch ... glitch ... snitch ... switch (oh, whatever) Senator said about her anyway.

"Dr. Rice, who I think would be a really good candidate [for President], is not interested. Probably because she is single, her parents are no longer living, she's an only child. You need a very supportive family and supportive friends to have this job."

Can you believe Barbara Boxer would be so, so, insensitive?

Oh, wait! (Scroll about halfway down.)

(Via, of all unlikely sources, Mickey Kaus who, equally improbably, got it from Nora Ephron.)

[Hmm. Some background may be in order. For at least the last four years opponents of the Republican's botched war in Iraq have fairly routinely pointed out that none of the architects have a personal stake in the fighting. (For instance neither the President or the Vice President have military-age sons or grandsons.) In a great segment of an otherwise not-that-interesting movie Michael Moore made a big impression on viewers by asking various Republican congressmen and Senators whether they were encouraging their own sons to enlist in to go fight in Iraq. Etc., etc.

So yesterday during a hearing Sen. Boxer made the same point to Sec. Rice. (Rice has no immediate family.) The right-wing-o-sphere excoriated Boxer for gender insensitivity. Rush Limbaugh chimed in. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow chimed in. Rupert Murdoch's squeezed out a long thick brown one about it. All of which might have been more credible had they not given a complete pass to First Lady Laura Bush's even more patronizing remarks about Rice's Presidential prospects. (The quote in my post is from the First Lady, not Sen. Boxer.) --fl]