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Columnist: Don't let cliches distract from serious political issues
Monday, September 15, 2008
While much of America spent last week fixating on whether Barack Obama called Sarah Palin a pig during a campaign speech, the head of the Pentagon's office on sexual assault response and prevention tried to explain why her male boss barred her from complying with a congressional order to testify.
Kaye Whitley told a subcomittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that she'd been riding in a van with Michael Dominguez, the principal deputy under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, on the way to a July hearing of that same committee. But when the van stopped on Capitol Hill, Dominguez — her superior — told her not to get out.
Whitley, the head of the Pentagon's office tasked with cracking down on sexual assault, had effectively been muzzled by a male superior on an issue that affects huge numbers of women in the military. "It almost has the feeling like you're being abused, ironically, in a different way," mused U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., to Whitley, when her bosses finally let her testify last week.
And here we're upset about a cliche.
Let's just make it clear: Obama used his "lipstick on a pig" line long, long before Palin joined the Republican presidential ticket, though it's certainly open to speculation whether the cliche had an extra barb to it this time around. McCain's used it, too, at least once using it to criticize Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on health care.
No one called him a sexist. And no one should have.
This whole story is a distraction in a campaign that should be about a lot more than silly slights and personal attacks.
But if we're looking to bandy around accusations of sexism in this electoral season, there are plenty of places to find it.
Was it sexist for manufacturers to sell nutcrackers in the shape of Hillary Clinton? It was cringe-worthy, at the very least.
Is it sexist to wonder if Palin can do the job of vice president and raise five kids? Maybe not to wonder, but it's certainly sexist to say she can't.
Was it sexist for John McCain not to chastise the woman who asked him on the campaign trail how he would "beat the b——?" – referring to Clinton. I'll let you decide.
This isn't just a matter of presidential politics.
A fellow politician recently referred to U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, as a "lying b——." The quote was duly reported. Find me a male politician on the receiving end of a comparable slur.
Or how about the entire column devoted to Clinton's decision to show a little cleavage? House Minority Leader John Boehner wears some snappy ties, but I have yet to see a column devoted to those.
Sexist? Maybe it depends on the point of view.
Former state Rep. Merle Grace Kearns, a Springfield Republican, remembers back when she first ran for county commission, and was told the job she sought was a "man's job."
"I just sort of ignored them," she said. "It needed to be done, and the guys weren't getting it done."
Kearns, now retired, has very little tolerance for the current lipstick hullaballoo. She said she likes to think Palin is sensible enough to see this story for the nonsense it is.
"This is a serious time today," she said. "This is so silly, and this is a really important election.
"Grow up."
Indeed.
