Why Does Karl Rove Get To Keep On Writing Columns?

Photo "borrowed" shamelessly from Down With Tyranny

One of my favorite movie songs of all time is "The End Of An Act," from the Team America: World Police soundtrack, better known as the "Pearl Harbor sucked, and I miss you" song. The song poses the musical question, "Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?" I feel the same way about the WSJ continuing to publish columns by one of the most discredited political figures of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, one Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove (obviously, Richard Cohen also falls into this category, but I'm gonna leave him alone today...I think).

In honor of Karl's latest counter-factual masterpiece, I've reworked the lyrics to "The End Of An Act."

I miss you more than Karl Rove missed the mark,
When he wrote about health care.
I miss you more than that column missed the point,
And that’s an awful lot girl.
And now, now you've gone away,
And all I'm trying to say,
Is Rove's column sucks, and I miss you.

I need you like Scooter Libby needed prison time,
For his role in selling Plame out.
I need you like Monica Goodling needed an ethics course,
When she was working for Alberto.
And now all I can think about is your smile,
And that shitty column too,
Rove's column sucks, and I miss you.

Why does Karl Rove get to keep on writing columns?
I guess Rove's column sucks
Just a little bit more than I miss you.

Richard Cohen Is Even More Morally Bankrupt Than I Thought

Good lord:

Now he is in American custody. What will happen? How do we get him to reveal his group's plans and the names of his colleagues? It will be hard. It will, in fact, be harder than it used to be. He can no longer be waterboarded. He knows this. He cannot be deprived of more than a set amount of sleep. He cannot be beaten or thrown up against even a soft wall. He cannot be threatened with shooting or even frightened by the prospect of an electric drill. Nothing really can be threatened against his relatives -- that they will be killed or sexually abused.

Well, I guess what might happen is that interrogators will have to use methods that actually, you know, work. Which might lead to actual, you know, good intelligence...with the added benefit that such proper interrogation is not illegal, unconstitutional, or morally bankrupt. Kind of a win/win, don't you think?

No one can possibly believe that America is now safer because of the new restrictions on enhanced interrogation and the subsequent appointment of a special prosecutor. The captured terrorist of my fertile imagination, assuming he had access to an Internet cafe, knows about the special prosecutor. He knows his interrogator is under scrutiny. What person under those circumstances is going to spill his beans?

Actually, Dick, I do. I believe that America is now safer now that we won't be torturing false answers out of people desperate to make the torture stop. I believe that America is now safer because our intelligence officers now know that they can no longer torture prisoners to death in ways that expose our own forces to torture and death in the event of their capture.

So, you know, there's one person for you. Why don't you go find another straw man to beat up, you sad, sad excuse for a pundit?

Teabagging!

From today's mass teabagging in Lafayette Park:

original image by Sommer Mathis, dcist, lol'd by me

Shorter Christopher Cox

Nero's fiddle-playing during fire crisis was his greatest contribution.

Bump...

Okay, it's been a couple of months, which means it's time for me to post something. If nothing else, this will accomplish the feat of bumping the over-wide embedded Palin parody video down the page some. I'm not deleting it, though, since, well, I think it should stay there for posterity.

So what to write about? Well, a couple days ago a guy was shot in the head and killed around the corner from my house. I mean, it was 3:30 AM, but still...all the guy was doing was walking home from a bar. If it had been a couple hours earlier on a different night, man, that could've been me. Damn. Poor guy.

EDIT: for the record, I agree with Bill Simmons: it's a travesty that The Colonel James isn't on the youtubes. A travesty I say!

Walt Disney Pictures Presents: Head of Skate

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Nice.

McCain Calls Hillary a Pig

Via Glennzilla:

Disgraceful, huh?

Uh, Palin?

Really? Palin?

Oh well, props to my friend Michael, who called this back in January:

Aside from being the hottest governor I have ever seen, she just might be the perfect running mate for the fascist twins Huckabee/Romney... just as evil and perfect for the soccer mom vote. What says change more than a neo-conservative woman as the VEEP? At 43, she's older than the last evil 'up and coming' Dan Quayle... you remember, that guy who hung out at the Naval Observatory during Iraqistan part 1 and got made fun of...

stats on Palin: 90% approval rating, lifetime NRA member, and pro-life. Scary.

My reply, which just shows what a bang-up job Team McCain did in vetting the governor:

Alaska is the home of the most corrupt political class north of Louisiana. I seriously doubt we'd ever see a national candidate from out of their current crop. Not sure if there are any skeletons in Gov. Palin's closet, but it wouldn't surprise me.

She *does* kinda have that Tina Fey thing going on, though, doesn't she?

So Many Lines To Cross, So Little Time

This literally makes me feel sick to my stomach:

Hillary Clinton today cited the assasination of Robert F. Kennedy during the 1968 presidential campaign to explain why she was remaining in the race despite long odds.

"We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California," Clinton told the editorial board of a South Dakota newspaper. " I don't understand it," Clinton added, alluding to the calls for her to quit.

At long last, have you no sense of decency, ma'am?

I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. Dean.

By edthered at 2008-05-09
Okay, I've been keeping my metaphorical mouth shut these past two months, waiting for the Democratic primary to play itself out, because I found myself on the verge of saying some pretty harsh things about Senator Clinton, and, well, I didn't want to add to the intra-party vitriol when there was a chance she'd end up as my nominee. That, and my wife gave birth to our first child in mid-April, so I've been a bit preoccupied.

Now, however, I can no longer hold my peace. Hillary can no longer win the nomination by any means that won't tear the party apart at the seams (more than it's already been rent asunder). She just can't. Moreover, if she continues to campaign aggressively, and Obama somehow does manage to self destruct before the convention, she's just damaging her own chances of being a palatable savior to Obama's delegates, who would probably page Al Gore to report to the convention floor before handing anything to Hillary.

With her speech this past Tuesday ("Full speed on to the White House!"), Hillary has entered into Norma Desmond territory. Here are a few soundbites you can expect to hear in the near future, as this sad spectacle plays out:

County Fair Livestock Judge: Hey, I know you. You're that politician, Hillary Clinton! You used to be in politics! You used to be big!
Hillary: I am big! It's the politics that got small.
***
Hillary: They took the idols and smashed them, the Kennedys, the Clintons, the Roosevelts! And who've we got now? Some nobodies!
***
[January, 2011, Hillary attempts to convince Joe Trippi to run her 2012 campaign.]
Hillary: Here, I was going to give it to you at midnight.
Joe Trippi: Hillary, I can't take it, you've bought me enough.
Hillary: Shut up, I'm rich! I'm richer than all this new Washington trash! I've got 109 million dollars.
Joe Trippi: Keep it.
Hillary: Went on a worldwide speaking tour. I've got books on Amazon, selling, selling, selling! What's it for but to buy us anything we want!
Joe Trippi: Cut out that "us" business!
Hillary: What's the matter with you?
Joe Trippi: What right do you have to take me for granted?
Hillary: What right? Do you want me to tell you?
Joe Trippi: Has it ever occurred to you that I may have a life of my own? That there may be some candidate I'm crazy about?
Hillary: Who? Some state senator, or shuck and jive artist?
Joe Trippi: What I'm trying to say is that I'm all wrong for you. You want a Rove, somebody with dirty tricks, a real bastard!
Hillary: What you're trying to say is that you don't want me to run again. Say it. Say it!
[slaps him hard across the face]
***
[February, 2011, Hillary Clinton press conference]
Reporter: I didn't know you were planning a comeback.
Hillary: I hate that word. It's a return, a return to the millions of people who have never forgiven me for deserting the campaign.
***
Joe Trippi: Tell her, Mark. C'mon, do her that favor. Tell her there isn't going to be any inauguration. Tell her there are no superdelagate endorsements other than the ones you write. Hillary: It's not true! Mark!
Mark Penn: Madame is the greatest politician of them all.
***
Markos Moulitsas: I understand she was a terror to work with.
Robert Reich: Only toward the end. You know, a dozen press agents working overtime can do terrible things to the human spirit.
***
Hillary: And I promise you I'll never desert you again because after 2008 we'll run another campaign and another campaign. You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!... All right, Mr. Dean, I'm ready for my close-up.

DC Resident To Florida And Michigan: Tough

Via Sullivan comes word of the incredibly predictable cry from the governors of Florida and Michigan: Save Our Delegates!

You know what, guys? There's actually precedent here. And I don't mean 100-year old precedent, I mean last election cycle precedent. That's when the District of Columbia, in an attempt to draw attention to the fact that those of us who live here have no voting representation in Congress, moved up its primary into January.

Can you guess what happened? No? Okay, I'll tell you what happened: The DNC told us to stick our primary where the sun don't shine. So you know what we did? Instead of crying on about how everyone should kiss our Big State asses, we did the responsible thing and held a caucus in February. Was this ideal? Not at all. In fact, it ended up costing me the opportunity to vote, because I was stuck at work. Oh well, those are the breaks.

The second-class citizens here in DC had to deal with the consequences of our political elders making a bone-headed attempt to move our primary up. The politicians running the shows in Michigan and Florida had the benefit of this very recent example of consequences when they made their decisions, and chose to ignore it. Now they're complaining like grounded teenagers that the curfew was "unfair." Too bad, those were the rules. They're not particularly fair, but they were made very clear from day one of this campaign. You want your delegations seated? Fine, schedule yourselves a caucus, or a real primary, not one that violates the rules. It's what the District had to do, and if you think you're somehow so damn special that the rules don't apply to you, you can go choke on a hanging chad.

NYS NOW: Still Crazy After All These Weeks

Woo-hoo! It's always a good day (or evening, in this case) when my inbox is graced with a Marilyn Fitterman press release:

Mr. Obama's experience and education can't hold a candle to that of Hillary Clinton, who has had the opportunity to actually live and work in the White House for eight years, and to work in the Senate for six years. Damn it, how much more should one have to know to be able to run this great nation of ours?

Hey, yeah! Say, how'd that health care reform work out? Oh, too soon? Seriously, Hillary didn't even have a security clearance when she was first lady...how can you put out a press release railing against sexism and misogyny, and in that very same press release, claim that being the wife of the president qualifies you to be president more than being a state senator?

Plus, education-wise, it's pretty damned snobby to say that a J.D. from Harvard "can't hold a candle" to a J.D. from Yale: ooooh, big difference...plus, and having gone to law school myself, I can say this with certainty, law school does pretty much nothing to prepare you to be president, aside from maybe artificially inflate your sense of self esteem. You know, assuming that Hillary's time as First Lady evens out Obama's time as an actual, you know, elected state senator, then according to Ms. Fitterman, Obama's four fewer years in the U.S. Senate mean he "can't hold a candle" to Hillary's experience"...and if that's the basis for your campaign, then good luck against McCain in November.

I'm not saying she wouldn't make a better president, I'm just saying that statements like this from your supporters don't really help.

New Primary Boogie

Please don't dominate the rap Jack
If you got nothing new to say
If you please don't back up the track
This train got to run today

* * *

One way or another
One way or another
One way or another
This darkness got to give.

The never-ending primary campaign rolls on today...and, regardless of the outcome, will keep on rolling through Pennsylvania. Which wouldn't be so bad, if the MSM election coverage wasn't so Drudge-influenced it resembles the work of TMZ and Perez Hilton more than that of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite...and of course, the blogosphere ain't much better.

Not that the campaigns themselves are much help, either.

In fact, I'm not really sure why I pay attention at all...

At any rate, here are some predictions, for posterity:

Clinton wins the overall Texas vote by a few points - say, 52% - 48% - but because there are more delegates allocated to districts in cities like Austin and Houston, ends up not netting more than one or two delegates. She'll carry Ohio by about 8-10 points, but again, only net maybe 5-10 delegates. Obama will win big in Vermont, netting 5 delegates. Hillary will win Rhode Island by, say, 55-45, and net 3-4 delegates there. Overall, Hillary will come out of the day netting 5-10 delegates...which, of course, only reduces Obama's lead to around 90-95...and of course, Obama will make up all of those delegates in North Carolina.

I don't see how Hillary can win the nomination at this point without things getting ugly at the convention, but I don't see why she would (or should, really) bow out before Pennsylvania. I just really, really hope she doesn't continue down the "McCain has more experience than Obama" route, since, you know, I'd hate to have to watch clips of her in McCain's campaign ads next fall (probably already too late for that, sadly).

How Can You Be So Obtuse?

When I read articles like this one, I'm not surprised by the post-Super Tuesday flameout of the Clinton campaign. Since I'm not a Serious Columnist like, say, David Broder, I can only speak for myself, but when Hillary's campaign started floating the idea of challenging the DNC's decision not to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations, it made me less likely to vote for her. The kicker is that they started with that talk before things really started spiraling away from them...so if I were, say, David Broder, I might say something like, "To everyday Americans, and especially the salt-of-the-earth backbone of the old Democratic machine, this sort of legalistic noisemaking served as a not-so-pleasant reminder of the Clintons' propensity to seek victory by any means necessary." I'm also partial to this one: "One friend of mine, a lifelong Democrat, emailed me last night to say that she was starting to see what her Republican friends have always found so infuriating about the Clintons."

Like I said, though, I'm not a Serious Columnist, so I'm stuck with just my opinion, which is this: by threating to challenge the Texas system in court, before the Texas primary even happens, the Clinton campaign is likely to drive a fair-sized number of voters into the Obama camp by driving home Obama's argument that we need a new kind of politics for him. At the end of the day, the only people in the Clinton campaign who would benefit from a lawsuit would be the lawyers (curse our oily hides!), who get paid win or lose.

I guess desperate is as desperate does.

[EDIT: h/t to memorandum. Where are my manners this morning?]

Bill Kristol: Playa Hatin'

Wow. Could someone please explain to me how The Very Serious Opinion Leader Bill Kristol has a job writing a regular op-ed column in The Paper of Record? FFS, this has to be a joke, right? Please, tell me some intern is covering for Kristol, and seeing just how far he or she can push the envelope without The Times deciding not to run the column. I mean, something like this just has to be parody:

But Obama chose to present his flag-pin removal as a principled gesture. “You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest.”

Leave aside the claim that “speaking out on issues” constitutes true patriotism. What’s striking is that Obama couldn’t resist a grandiose explanation. Obama’s unnecessary and imprudent statement impugns the sincerity or intelligence of those vulgar sorts who still choose to wear a flag pin. But moral vanity prevailed. He wanted to explain that he was too good — too patriotic! — to wear a flag pin on his chest.

So, uh, what exactly is an appropriate reason for not wearing a flag pin? Please, I'd love to know, since, you know, I've never worn one, and my reason has always been that I'm better than Bill Kristol, but since that's apparently the height of moral vanity, I guess I need a new, less "grandiose" explanation.

What kills me about Kristol's NYT columns is that he's clearly either not even trying (phoning it in like Jack Nicholson in whatever "poignant" romantic comedy he happens to be in this month), or he's even more dense than I thought. It's so paint-by-numbers. Personally, I figured it was just laziness, but then a little research turned up this column from Kristol's high school newspaper:

Last October, a reporter for the school paper asked Timmy Johnson why he had stopped wearing the varsity letter sweater that he, like many other football players, had been sporting on Fridays since the beginning of the football season. Johnson could have responded that his new-found fashion minimalism was no big deal. What matters, obviously, is what you believe and do, not what you wear.

But Johnson chose to present his letter sweater removal as a principled gesture. “You know, the truth is that right after the school year started, I had a letter sweater. Shortly after Homecoming, particularly because as we’re talking about the football season, that became a substitute for I think true school spirit, which is participating in the extracurricular activities that are of importance to our community, I decided I won’t wear that sweater.”

Leave aside the claim that “participating in extracurricular activities” constitutes true school spirit. What’s striking is that Johnson couldn’t resist a grandiose explanation. Johnson's unnecessary and imprudent statement impugns the sincerity or intelligence of those vulgar sorts who still choose to wear a letter sweater. But moral vanity prevailed. He wanted to explain that he was too good — too imbued with school spirit! — to wear a letter sweater.

Fast forward to last Monday's pep rally. Michelle Simmons, Johnson's steady girl, visiting from a local girls' school, in the course of the rally, remarked, “For the first time in my high school career, I’m really proud of the Collegiate School. And not just because Timmy has done well, but because I think people are hungry for a state championship.”

Michelle Simmons has been in high school for over three years. Can it really be the case that nothing the the Collegiate School achieved since then has made her proud? Apparently. For, as she said later in the same appearance: “Life for regular students has gotten worse over the course of my time in high school, through football, basketball, and baseball seasons. It hasn’t gotten much better.”

Now in almost every empirical respect, Collegiate students' lives have in fact gotten better over the last three years. And most students — and most of their steady girls — don’t think those years were one vast wasteland. So Timmy Johnson hastened to clarify his girlfriend's remarks. “What she meant was, this is the first time that she’s been proud of Collegiate's school spirit,” he said, “because she’s pretty cynical about pep rallies, and with good reason, and she’s not alone.” Later in the week, Michelle Simmons further explained, “What I was clearly talking about was that I’m proud of how Collegiate students are engaging in the pep rally process.”

But that clearly isn’t what she was talking about. For as she had argued in the pep rally speech, Collegiate's illness goes far beyond a flawed pep rally process: “Timmy knows that at some level there’s a hole in our trophy case.” This was a variation of language she had used earlier in the season: “Timmy Johnson is the only person on this football team who understands that, that before we can win states, we have to fix our school spirit. Our school spirit is broken in this school.”

But they can be repaired. Indeed, she had said a couple of weeks before, at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance: “Timmy Johnson ... is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your chocolate malted. That you come out on Friday nights, that you go to a football game. That you push yourselves to cheer louder. And that you engage. Timmy will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, not going to games.”

So we don’t have to work to improve our school spirit. Our broken school spirit can be fixed — by our cheering for Timmy Johnson. We don’t have to play football or put up decorations for the sock hop to help our school. Our uninvolved and uninformed lives can be changed — by our cheering for Timmy Johnson. Collegiate can become a school to be proud of — by letting ourselves be led by Timmy Johnson.

Bobby "Shooter" McGavin, to whom Johnson is sometimes compared, challenged Collegiate students to acts of school spirit and athleticism. Timmy Johnson allows us to feel better about ourselves.

Johnson likes to say, “we are the team that can win states” and “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” Johnson's athletic ability makes his skill on the field appear almost collective rather than individual. That’s a democratic courtesy on his part, and one flattering to his teammates. But the effectual truth of what Johnson is saying is that he is the one we’ve been waiting for.

Timmy Johnson is an awfully talented quarterback. But could Collegiate students, by November, decide that for all his impressive abilities, Johnson tends too much toward the preening self-regard of [homecoming king] Darren Thompson, the patronizing jockism of [star basketball player] Thomas Astor and the haughty bookishness of [class president] John Higgenbotham?

Taylor Marsh: Trying To Prove That Like Cures Like

Another gem from the self-proclaimed "Antidote to Right-Wing Talk," wherein The Antidote demonstrates that the answer to the classic Right-Wing Talk technique of using hyped-up charges that a political opponent is Unpatriotic and has Deeply Offended Real Americans to portray them as Unserious and otherwise damage their credibility is to...use hyped-up charges that Michelle Obama is Unpatriotic and has Deeply Offended Real Americans:

When it comes to talking about your country, especially when representing someone who wants to be president, you shouldn't have to have an interpreter put out a press release to explain what you actually meant, when what you really said was an insult. Why do Republicans always get this stuff, but Democrats come across like amateurs? Point to McCain.

Excuse me? I suppose Republicans "got this stuff" when they Swiftboated John Kerry, or when they portrayed Max Cleland as a Freedom-Hating Terrorist Lover. This type of bullshit is a classic wingnut ploy, and as The Antidote clearly demonstrates, it is not a ploy that is limited to the right wing. I expect that The Antidote will update the rather odd photo on the top of her page shortly to make sure we can see the flag pin on her lapel.

Whether or not you agree with Michelle Obama's statement (and most Americans probably don't agree, but hey, it was a free country until recently, so you're still somewhat entitled to your own opinion), if you really are sincerely and deeply offended that someone publicly said that they haven't been "really proud" of their country their entire adult life, until recent political events raised their spirits, you have some serious growing up to do. For my part, I'm just sick of mock indignation as a political tool.

Taylor Marsh's Commenters Strike a Blow For Feminism

You know what's really great about the comments over on Taylor's "Michelle Obama is an America-hating traitor" post? All the comments comparing Michelle Obama (unfavorably) to dogs. Wow, way to go, ladies! I'll be so thankful if Hillary wins - what a victory for feminists everywhere! Huzzah!

As for the post itself, well, it's chock full of Malkinesque gems. Here's a good one:

The love I have for my country does not include following yet another political huckster down a path where he gets the glory he craves, while my blue collar family gets the shaft... again.

Oh well said, Taylor. All hail, your blue collar family, and their American pride...how dare some nouveau riche social climber (whose not-so-distant ancestors may well have arrived in this country wearing actual iron collars) show any disrespect to The Homeland?

FFS, this drivel is from a site that describes itself (right up there at the top of the page, no less!) as "The Antidote to Right-Wing Talk."

It gets even better: The quote from Michelle Obama was this: "For the first time in my adult lifetime I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change." Not "For the first time in my adult lifetime I really love my country." Of course, Taylor's entire post is a list of things that her More-Patriotic-Than-Thou love of the Homeland does not depend on. Like this: "The love I have for this country does not depend on ignorance of what patriotism requires to serve a personal goal." Riiiiiiiiiiiiiigt. Listen, Taylor, honey, I hate to break this to you, but it's possible to love something, and not be proud of it. Ask just about any parent out there - there are times in nearly every child's life when his or her behavior is nothing for a parent to be proud of, yet parents keep loving their children all the same. Pride and love are not the same thing.

And as for this: "My uncle Dick certainly didn't serve his country and get battle fatigue in WWII so people could pick and choose pride in this nation based on personal association to some politician, forgetting the greater glory we all serve through our country's ideals."

I hate to break it to you...that's exactly what your uncle Dick served his country for - to preserve for those of us who came later the right to express their disappointment in their country when they see it veering off track. Not so that future generations could be forced into public expressions of "pride" when the Commander-in-Chief orders the torture of prisoners and the destruction of the evidence of that torture, or the illegal surveillance of citizens, and so on and so forth.

I haven't been proud of a lot of things our country has done these past seven years. Got a problem with that? Well, that's your right. But accuse me of not loving America, just because I'm, you know, ashamed of little things like war crimes, and you can fuck off along with all the other authoritarian nutjobs.

(h/t: John Cole)

ZOMG! Marilyn Fitterman Was Right!

It may be even worse than Ms. Fitterman had feared: Women "Falling for Obama"

My god...she tried to warn us...but...but I didn't know! I didn't know, damnit! Oh my god, WHAT HAVE WE WROUGHT?!!!

New York State NOW...NOW With Even More Crazy!

Courtesy of a friend, the latest press release from our pals at NYS NOW. Feel the crazy! I seriously think Marilyn Fitterman has a lucrative second career in front of her as a writer for the WWE (the erstwhile WWF...or is "erstwhile" sexist, as it implies that the WWE changed its name when it got married?). Just check out the gem of a lede! Race vs. Gender! Oh yeah! Feel it coming! Can you smellllllllllllllllll what BARAK is cooking?!!!! No you can't, because he doesn't cook, since he's such a womyn hater that he thinks only womyn should cook! RACE WAR! GENDER FIGHT! Only on PAY-PER-VIEW!!!

EDIT: I posted this as soon as I got it, just 'cuz I like to scoop Drudge whenever I can, but for your benefit, I've now gone through and bolded some of my favorite passages:

Deja vu: Race vs Gender 1870-2008

By Marilyn Fitterman
NOW NE Regional Director & Past President NOW-NYS

The press, the media, the pundits, everyone is saying the Democratic presidential race should not be about race vs. gender. How ridiculous is that? We look at Hillary Clinton and we see a possibility of the first woman in the white house. We look at Obama and we see the first man of color in the white house. Therefore, to say it is not about race vs. gender is to deny reality. Let’s get real, and from there it will be easier to make the right decision, which of course is to put women first in a women’s organization. We must, as women, unite.

If not for ourselves then whom are we for? If not us, who? If not now, when? [You forgot the rest of the quote! "If not.. I'm sorry, Pat, what was that question?"] Back in the early 1820s and 30s there were numerous women fighting for and speaking up for abolition. Women saw the inhuman cruelty of slavery. Lucretia Mott, Maria Chapman, Lucy Stone, Sojourner Truth and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to name just a few, spoke up against slavery at the very real risk of physical violence. In 1833 the American Anti-Slavery Society actually barred women from speaking. So what did women do? They started their own anti-slavery society throughout the country and even had conventions in 1837, 1838, and 1839. In 1840, when some of these women went to England to attend the International Abolition Convention, they were barred from attending and, after fighting to get in, were barred from speaking even though some were there representing an American Society of Abolitionists. It was not long after this that Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton realized that women had to unite and fight for themselves. They met to discuss a movement for equality and suffrage, and this historic meeting was the impetus for the 1848 first Women’s Rights Convention in Senaca Falls. Those women asked:

If not for ourselves then whom are we for? If not us, who? If not now, when?

In that period married women had no right to their paychecks, their children, or their property, let alone the right to vote. For a time the women’s movement and the abolition movement worked together. In fact, Frederick Douglas, a freed slave, was a frequent speaker at women’s conventions. While women were struggling to attain the vote, Douglas spoke for them and sided with them that women and Black men should have suffrage.

However in 1869, when Congress offered up the Fifteenth Amendment giving only Black men the vote, Douglas betrayed women by making the concession. Some women even agreed with Douglas that it was o.k. for Black men to leave us behind instead of holding fast for suffrage. In much the same way today, some think it is o.k. for Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, et.al. to support Obama. [Ummm...what? I mean, I'm not going to sit here and defend the fact that women didn't get suffrage until 1920, but the fact that the 15th Amendment passed in any form in 1869 is pretty impressive...also, I don't seem to recall women having to deal with more than a century of Jim Crow after being granted the vote.] Back then, because of that betrayal [You keep saying this word. I do not think it means what you think it means.], women had to wait another fifty years. Not until 1920 did we get the vote. That betrayal caused a split in the suffrage movement which is mirrored in today’s race vs. gender situation in the Democratic Party and in our current women’s movement.

If not for ourselves then whom are we for? If not us, who? If not now, when?

Recently, a famous TV personality declared that the United States owed more to Black men than it did to women, this being his reason for supporting Obama. I found that to be one of the most repulsive reasons for not supporting Hillary Clinton.

Women have been second class citizens since recorded history. The internalized misogyny that rears its ugly head and so insidiously creeps into our everyday lives will never end until women stick together as do other oppressed groups. Recently I was reminded that pre Roe vs. Wade women had a great uniting force in that all could be forced to complete unwanted pregnancies. I remember how women who were strangers would help and support other women to find a doctor or a back alley abortionist. Women then understood the importance and the value of joining together to help each other control their own reproductive lives. However, since Roe vs. Wade many young women don’t have that very common problem of forced pregnancy, a problem which crosses all economic and social lines. They have forgotten the importance of uniting for each other. And with the loss of this camaraderie we have apparently also lost the knowledge that forced pregnancy could return with a single US Supreme Court vote. And to get Hillary elected, we could sure use a revival in some of that old girls’ club camaraderie.

The current circumstances of race vs. gender are very much alive in spite of media denials. Just looking at the results of Super Tuesday one can see that Black communities were hands down for Obama. Meanwhile women, who are more than fifty-two percent of the population, did not do the same for their sisters. The charisma and preacher-like emotional speeches that Obama gives enrapture the younger generation. [That...that...that snake oil salesman! "And all week long your River City youth'll be frittern away, I say your young men'll be frittern! Frittern away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too!"] But there is very little information in the rhetoric. Were Hillary to show this same agitated style, she would be ridiculed for excessive emotion. She is caught between a rock and a hard place. If she shows emotion, as does Obama, she is vilified, as was recently demonstrated. So even though she is enormously qualified and experienced [especially counting those eight years as the president's wife, no?] for the presidency, all that goes by the wayside when Obama enchants the youngsters with charming rhetoric that says little. [What is he, the freaking Pied Piper? And wait, are you suggesting that young people, including young women, who are Constitutionally granted the right to vote, actually shouldn't be allowed the franchise, because they are too emotional and impressionable? How very forward-thinking and non-paternalistic of you.] If Hillary were to be “charming” she would be disparaged. Women just can’t get it right, can we? [Well, some women can...but judging from this press release, not all of them are capable of getting it right all the time.]

If not for ourselves then whom are we for? If not us, who? If not now, when?

Many young women today have forgotten or do not know of the sit-ins, the hunger strikes, the marches, the tears as we lost the Equal Rights Amendment, the thousands upon thousands of women, mothers and grandmothers who died having illegal abortions. Those many young women have forgotten the women’s movement and all the gains we have made. They have abandoned us and instead have fallen for the charisma and charm of a Black male instead of the experience, dedication, and proven life’s work of a White female. ["Oh laws, massa! The missus done run off with that bad negro Catcher Freeman! When will them White Women learn!"] Will it take losing Roe vs. Wade to get back that old camaraderie? We’ve got to realize that and ask:

If not for ourselves then whom are we for? If not us, who? If not now, when?

But, it’s not too late. It’s up to all of us who care about women’s equality to educate each and every young woman we meet, and remind her that all the freedoms she has can easily be lost if women don’t unite for full equal rights. We should remind young women that we have a long way to go because even today women are only making seventy-seven cents for every dollar a man earns. This pay inequity hits single mothers and retirement-age women. They should know that it’s about time young girls had the role model of a woman in the White House. Yep, women’s equality is very important and we’ve got a long way to go.

DAMN IT, we woman have been at the forefront of every progressive movement in this country. It’s about time we stand together for ourselves and stand together at the forefront to elect the first woman president. After all:

If not for ourselves then whom are we for? If not us, who? If not now, when?

We must unite for Hillary.