Most decent people will be relieved to find out that Democrats are finally finding their civility in the Carrie Prejean saga. Top Democratic operatives are finally breaking the party’s collective silence and speaking out against the vicious attacks on Prejean’s mental sanity, womanhood, and femininity that followed her answering a question regarding homosexual marriage in the 2009 Miss USA pageant.
MSNBC’s team of male talking heads bashed Prejean nonstop for weeks. Keith Olbermann devoted more than one Countdown installment to her “boob job” and supposed mental-deficiency. David Schuster decided Prejean was “superficial”and implied, too, that she was intellectually lacking. These comments were typical of the coverage Prejean received after Parez Hilton called her a “dumb bitch” and publically wished he could use the c-word to describe her.
These below-the-belt attacks, said former Hillary Clinton senior advisor Ann Lewis, imply that people like Olbermann ”can’t seem to distinguish between a backroom smirk among the boys and something you put out in public.”
“It’s an attempt to demean your opponent, rather than debate them. If they’re serious [about the issue of gay marriage], then you’d think that one would want to debate it on the merits,” she says. “It’s almost as if they can’t help themselves.”
Others quoted in the same article as Lewis went further:
Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, believes that those who attack female leaders on gender grounds do so out of weakness.
“In a way, it shows the desperation of the opposition,” she says. “If all else fails, you do something on their looks, or you remind them of sex.”
Phil Singer, who dealt with the issue as a spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, takes it one step further, arguing that such tactics are actually likely to be counterproductive in the end.
“As the degree of viciousness escalates and increases, I think women – and most people living in the modern era, including men – are more likely to rally to [Prejean's] cause,” he says.
He suggests that gender-based attacks can actually be the crucible within which a woman’s base of support is forged.
“Certainly nobody wants to be on the receiving end of this type of rhetoric, but in the long run I think it could end up making [Prejean] a stronger national figure, and creating a real base for her,” he says.
… Marie Wilson, president of The White House Project, which promotes women’s leadership … notes, “If a man gets in a situation about he-said, she-said, or what people knew, you don’t go to his maleness as a way to attack him.”
OK, you probably know by now that these quotes, while authentic, are not related to the Miss USA furor. No, these quotes are from a Politico article debating the misogyny in the RNC’s recent ad taking Pelosi to task for lying about her briefings regarding the waterboarding of terrorists as far back as 2002.
AllahPundit says the ad is tone-deaf and I couldn’t agree more; it’s just bad form and strategy. But let’s get this straight: the RNC creates a poorly-themed ad that tries to tie the popular and catchy Bond music and franchise to Pelosi’s accusations against the CIA (our nation’s spies and security experts), and uses a famous female bond villian in the marketing scheme, and suddenly Democrats come out of the woodwork to protest the “vicious” and “gender-based” attacks. But when Prejean’s chest becomes a topic on the networks for a solid week (the direct result of her voicing a majority opinion), well, that’s just fine and dandy.
Wow, the quotes were over THAT ad? I saw nothing remotely sexist in that ad or anything even referring to her gender. It is sad that the feminists are jumping all over that but not the way Miss CA has been attacked. Wouldn’t it have been nice if those quotes had actually been in her defense? When pigs fly.
[...] to gay marriage opponents and others offering a politically incorrect point of view Wolkings World: Finally: Dems defend Prejean Michelle Malkin: Gossip blogger/pageant judge calls contestant “dumb b*tch” over gay marriage [...]