"I knew Gloria Steinem, and you, senator, are no Gloria Steinem."
Boxer was right. Albino Ratboy pictured above, is so very, very wrong -- as he usually is.
The senator made no bones about it. She freely admitted that of course she would not suffer any losses; her children are too old to serve, her grandchildren, too young. And she was right to seize on Rice, who was directly before her. The woman has no family members in harm's way. She's an extremely wealthy woman (size 14 Ferragamos don't come cheap) who is paying, thanks to recently passed tax breaks, even less for this war out of her ridiculous disposable income, proportionately, than your average Wal-Mart pants folder.
Tony Snow called the senator's question to Rice a "great leap backward for feminism." And Tony nailed it... Feminists like Barbara Boxer want it both ways. They want abortion rights, they want women to have access to the workplace, but if the woman takes that freedom, does not marry, does not have children, evidently Boxer thinks that woman is unqualified to use her education, experience and judgment in her career. Now, according to Boxer, that woman has to have children to have her career.No, Snow hasn't nailed anything. He probably hasn't even nailed a woman since any initial, furtive, half-tumescent adolescent attempts at appearing heterosexual.
Ratboy is (I believe purposefully) missing Boxer's point, which is supremely feminist, independent as it is of race and procreative status. Yes, her attack was directed specifically at Rice -- a good thing for a Senator to do: when making an argument, point to dramatic, concrete examples. But her attack was aimed more broadly, as well, at all the men and women in office and among the Beltway chattering classes, of all races and ages, who supported this disastrous bloodbath in Iraq, and who support another escalation of hostilities.
Senator Boxer was not attacking Rice's choice to be childless and unmarried, or her "black cred," as Gibson discreditably accuses further on, but the fact that Rice, and others like her (those others would include Gibson), call on people to risk life and limb for their pet vision when they won't themselves risk anything. She wasn't attacking Rice's lifestyle, she was attacking her cowardice, and by extension, the cowardice of virtually everyone in power who supported this deadly venture.
Jenna Bush will not come home from Mosul with a broken spine and only one eye. Dick Cheney, James Inhofe, John Negroponte, Bill Kristol, Jonah Goldberg, stinky and sneering John Gibson himself: not one of these people will incur any losses on the sacrificial block that is Iraq.
Senator Boxer, keep up the good work. You're doing fine.
