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From The Situation Room Oct. 8, 2009. Tony Blankley tries to rationalize the NRCC's sexist statement about Nancy Pelosi saying 'taxpayers can only hope McChrystal is able to put her in her place'. In Tony Blankley's world, the media doesn't pay any attention to Republicans unless they're behaving badly. Really Tony? You're joking right? Because I sure as hell don't see any shortage of Republicans getting face time in the media no matter how they're behaving. The media has had so many 'exclusive' interviews with John McCain since he lost the presidential election I'd almost swear they didn't realize who won. I can't get the man off of my television screen.

And I think Tony needs to take a look at this from the good folks over at Think Progress with a snapshot of the media coverage of Republicans from back in January-- REPORT: GOP Lawmakers Outnumber Democratic Lawmakers 2 To 1 In Stimulus Debate On Cable News

As Media Matters has documented, during the Bush administration, the media consistently allowed conservatives to dominate their shows, booking them as guests far more often than progressives. The rationale was that Republicans were “in power.”

It appears that old habits die hard. Even though President Obama and his team are in control of the executive branch and Democrats are in the majority in Congress, the cable networks are still turning more often to Republicans and allowing them to set the agenda on major issues, most recently on the debate over the economic recovery package.

On Sunday, conservatives began an all-out assault on President Obama’s economic recovery plan, with House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) both announcing that they would vote against the plan as it stood. Despite Obama’s efforts at good faith outreach, congressional conservatives have continued to attack the stimulus plan with a series of false and disingenuous arguments.

The media have been aiding their efforts. In a new analysis, ThinkProgress has found that the five cable news networks — CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business and CNBC — have hosted more Republican lawmakers to discuss the plan than Democrats by a 2 to 1 ratio this week.

Boy Tony, how can the Republicans ever manage to get their message out without making sexist remarks about Nancy Pelosi when the media ignores them like that?

And David Gergen tries to rewrite history pretending that St. Ronnie would never have behaved so badly. Two words David. Southern Strategy.

Transcript below the fold.

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Conservatives just can't help it when they act like misogynists. It's hard wired into their DNA much the same way it's hard wired into Richard Land's views about women. The National Republican Congressional Committee is attacking Nancy Pelosi and is really hoping that Gen. McChrystal will put her in her place in their latest fundraising press release.

Now, Pelosi is backpedaling on Afghanistan amidst increasing criticism from the radical left:

"I've also made it clear it's a very difficult vote to get from the members," she added. "Their constituents don't like an escalated war in Afghanistan. They'd like to see a different approach. But let's see what the president has to say." (Glenn Thrush, “Pelosi skeptical about Afghan surge, McChrystal,” Politico, 10/05/2009)

“General Pelosi has no problem sacrificing her own credibility as the Obama administration and liberals in Congress attempt to walk back a strategy they strongly advocated just months ago,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Nancy Pelosi continues to make party politics a higher priority than our national security. Rather than listening to a four-star general’s assessments on Afghanistan, General Pelosi somehow believes she is better suited to craft our country’s military policy.” If Nancy Pelosi’s failed economic policies are any indicator of the effect she may have on Afghanistan, taxpayers can only hope McChrystal is able to put her in her place.

Matt Yglesias says that the NRCC is trying to "deploy a touch of the old condescending sexism via the Speaker of the House of Representatives."

Nancy Pelosi responded to the NRCC like this:

"It's really sad they don't understand how inappropriate that is," Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference. " I'm in my place. I'm the Speaker of the House, the first woman Speaker of the House. And I'm in my place because the House voted me there. That language is something I hadn't heard in decades."

I always love how conservatives attack Democratic women and want them to stay home and watch the kids, but when it comes a conservative in politic they flip flop to try and appear as if they support women's rights. Here's Richard Land on MTP back in 2005 sharing his vision of women in America:

Russert: We can try to find common ground, but there are differences, and I want to see just how profound they are. The Southern Baptist Convention in 1998 passed this statement on the family: "...A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband... She...has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household..."And, Reverend Land, you went on to explain it this way: "If a husband does not want his wife to work outside the home, then she should not work outside the home." Is that your vision of America?

DR. LAND: It's my vision for Christian families. I don't think that the law has anything to do with it.

And as usual Beck rules: Dear Mom, Beck has history of sexist comments

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Contessa Brewer takes the NRCC to task for their remarks about putting Nancy Pelosi "in her place". I don't think I've ever seen her quite this pissed off. Give 'em hell gal.

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Chris Matthews brings on "independent" woman Michelle Bernard, from the very inappropriately named Independent Women's Forum, to discuss the recently discovered thesis by the wingnut Robert McDonnell who is running for Governor of Virginia.

What's the matter Chris? Phyllis Schlafly wasn't available? Here's some background on Ms. Bernard's "Independent" Women's Forum.

The Independent Women's Forum (IWF) is an organization that, according to its website, "was established to combat the women-as-victim, pro-Big Government idealogy of radical feminism.

The IWF is funded by Richard Melon Scaife, Koch Industries and other conservative groups.

In October 2003, the IWF announced an affiliation with Citizens for a Sound Economy, now the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, with whom it shares its premisis and staff.

Founded by Rosalie (Ricky) Gaull Silberman, and Barbara Olson in 1992, the IWF grew out of the ad hoc group, Women for Judge Thomas. Its main goal is opposing what it sees as radical feminism.

IWF is a secular counterpart to Religious Right women's groups such as Eagle Forum and Concerned Women for America, but these groups often work together. People for the American Way describe IWF as a group that "opposes affirmative action, gender equity programs like Title IX, and the Violence Against Women Act."

IWF members include academic women who attempt to rebut arguments in favor of measures promoting what they may perceive as privileges for women in educational affairs. One of these papers, by Judith Kleinfeld, a professor of psychology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, heavily criticised a MIT study on discrimination against women in MIT's science department, calling their findings "junk science."

IWF's constantly-updated web site shows an ever-expanding sphere of concerns, which are viewed from a conservative perspective.

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Their National Advisory Board according to the article, Lynne Cheney, Abigail Thernstrom and Wendy Lee Gramm. Note to Chris Matthews, just because someone calls themselves "independent" doesn't mean their views are not "far right". Michelle Bernard and her organization are not anything that could be remotely described as centrist.

From "Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains" (2007)

The Man From Plains makes a startling announcement:

Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.

I HAVE been a practising Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries.

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

Read on...

You know, Jimmy Carter gets such an unfair rap in this country over his presidency, but this is my definition of a brave human being--taking a stand over what is right and moral not for any political calculation, but because it's right and moral.

I only wish more people would look in their heart and make the same kind of stand--one that champions equality and harmony instead of divisiveness and oppression.

Bravo, sir. Bravo.

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Mike Murphy is right: "Gov. Sarah Palin is the political train wreck that keeps on giving."

How great is it that a week after she aborts her career in politics, Republicans are still debating whether she has a future on the national ticket?

And Newt Gingich votes yes. [This audio, Newt Gingrich interviewed by his former mistress/now wife Calista, was posted to his website on Friday, July 10.]

One has to wonder with guys like Newt Gingrich still not giving up hope for Palin's future, whether NPR analyst Jennifer Pozner is right, that the public treatment, and Newt's tacit endorsement, of Sarah Palin is much more about her looks and sex-appeal than about her painfully obvious lack of qualifications:

Ironically, though Palin has railed against unfair treatment by the mainstream media, she has mostly been referring not to blatant sexism but to reporters who wouldn't show her "respect and deference." The last thing journalists owe any politician is deference.

In other Palin discussion among the GOP, Peggy Noonan created a major stir with this oped, opining that Palin wasn't qualified to run for high office and never will be. One good article out of a hundred, Peggy, but I still haven't forgiven you for your "GOP sex scandals can be traced back to Bill Clinton" wack-a-news bite. I for one am ready to stop talking about the Clenis and let GOP-nees take responsibility for their own wanderings and motivations. [h/t Nicole for the new lingo.]

Sunlight Foundation Blog: The health care industry, in its attempt to influence the debate over health care reform, has hired at least 350 former government staffers and former members of Congress, opreating with bottomless funding, to lobby against meaningful reform.

Amygdala: Nixon, Vietnam, and the phony 'stabbed in the back' theory

Feministe: Ross Douthat tries to understand teh sexism

Ta-Nehisi Coates: What the right means when they say "America"

Jesus' General: Keepin' the rich, white, Christian man down with political correctness

The Aristocrats: gun

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Pat Buchanan on Washington Journal continues his trashing of Sonia Sotomayor as an affirmative action, lightweight, anti-white judge. He repeats the better portion of his May 29th op-ed Obama's Idea of Justice with a few additional insults thrown in for good measure.

Media Matters has an article with his op-ed posted and links to some of his talking points that they've already debunked.

During this interview Buchanan went even further than the op-ed and said this when asked about calling her a "lightweight":

Buchanan: Well I, again in that Saturday piece, she went to Princeton. She graduated first in her class it said. But she herself said she read, basically classic children's books to read and learn the language and she read basic English grammars and she got help from tutors. I think that, I mean if you're, frankly if you're in college and you're working on Pinocchio or on the troll under the bridge, I don't think that's college work.

Here's the portion of the New York Times article Buchanan was referencing.

Judge Sotomayor is not known to have identified herself as a beneficiary of affirmative action, but she has described her academic struggles as a new student at Princeton from a Roman Catholic school in the Bronx — one of about 20 Hispanics on a campus with more than 2,000 students.

She spent summers reading children’s classics she had missed in a Spanish-speaking home and “re-teaching” herself to write “proper English” by reading elementary grammar books. Only with the outside help of a professor who served as her mentor did she catch up academically, ultimately graduating at the top of her class.

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Or you can see it at the G. Gordon Liddy post below.

Open Thread....

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That great defender of downtrodden white men, Pat Buchanan, was at it again with his "affirmative action" rhetoric on Sonia Sotomayor, but this time he gets tag-teamed by Norah and Lawrence O'Donnell for his idiocracy. Pat just can't believe that President Obama's final four choices for the court were....gasp...all women. The horror!

Buchanan: Look, are you going to let me talk, Lawrence? You got down to four women, not a single white male...all women, and then we're going to pick a Hispanic....

Norah O'Donnell: Did it ever occur to you Pat, that maybe there weren’t any white men who were qualified?

Buchanan: Yes.... No, it did not occur to me. You mean there are no white males qualified? That is an, that would be an act of bigotry to make a statement like that.....

Norah O'Donnell: In the past there have been no women who were qualified.

Buchanan: There certainly have been qualified in the past. I don't doubt there are but probably half of the great lawyers and judges are white males in this country and to rule them all out...why? Because of their sex and because of their race is wrong! I think at least it's affirmative action.

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Teh stoopid, it hurts:

Fox Sports has compiled a list of women that can hold their own against men in the sports world — because everyone knows the real measure of a female athlete is how she competes against dudes. Fox starts their "Girl Power" list with Rachel Alexandra. Perhaps you've heard of her: She's a horse.

Last weekend Rachel Alexandra became the first filly in 85 years to win Preakness Stakes. And if horses can do it, so can humans!

Which female athletes had the good fortune of an equine comparison? Well, there's Katie Hnida, first woman to score in a NCAA football game, but she was entangled in a rape-allegation scandal, Fox notes. There's Michelle Wie, but of course she faced "substantial criticism" when she only qualified for one of 14 PGA events. Legendary athletic phenomenon Babe Didrikson Zaharias is also mentioned, plus that one time she didn't qualify for that one event.

See, it's important to remember that while these women were able to compete against men, they weren't necessarily very good at it.

We've come a long way, baby? Obviously not.

Howard Kurtz discussed Dick Armey's disgusting comments toward Joan Walsh and made this observations via CNN.

BLOOM: You have got to be kidding me? That is one of the more sexist remarks I've heard, and I've been debating people on the air for a long time. I mean, do men really all think that women are just dying to be married to them? Do they all think about us as sex objects, or in the case of Dick Armey, I guess, nonsexual objects, if he's imagining being married to her? I mean, does he have no arguments on the merits and that's what he has to resort to?

KURTZ: Well, you know, it was really one step above, "Joan, you ignorant slut." And it bothers me that nobody pays a penalty for this. I'm sure he'll be back on all the shows within a week or two.

He shouldn't be back on the shows. MSNBC has a duty not to invite him back on. Why is that such a hard concept to grasp? Republicans can say absolutely anything on the airwaves (women get the brunt of it) and never have to pay a price for it.

Download | play   Download | play   (h/t Heather)

When Campbell Brown started off this segment about Palin and sexism, I expected it to be another screed about how "mean" the press is for asking questions about her litany of lies. Instead, Campbell excoriates the McCain campaign for treating Palin as a "delicate flower that will wilt at any moment," arguing that it's sexist to treat her any differently than her male counterparts. Consider this her first "Special Comment."

"Bear with me for a short rant on another subject, because frankly I have had and I know a lot of other women out there are with me on this. I have had enough of the sexist treatment of Sarah Palin. It has to end. She was here in New York City today meeting with world leaders at the UN. And what did the McCain campaign do? They tried to ban reporters from covering those meetings. And they did ban reporters from asking her any questions. Tonight, I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment. This woman is from Alaska, for crying out loud. She is strong; she is tough; she is competent. And you claim she is ready to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff. Allow her to face down those pesky reporters just like Barack Obama did today. Just like John McCain did today. Just like Joe Biden has done on numerous occasions. Let her have a real news conference with real questions. By treating Sarah Palin different from the other candidates in this race, you are not showing her the respect she deserves. Free Sarah Palin. Free her from the chauvinistic chain you are binding her with. Sexism in this campaign must come to an end. Sarah Palin has just as much a right to be a real candidate in this race as the men do. So let her act like one."

UPDATE: (Nicole) It's still happening.  Palin gets questions, looks at McCain and demurs

  Download | play   Download | play   (h/t Heather)

Amy Poehler brings back her Hillary Clinton with Tina Fey's eerily accurate Sarah Palin to castigate the media for their sexist coverage of the presidential campaign. Like Clinton, I'm a little surprised that this has become an issue now, especially after how much grief I got for complaining about it six months ago.

PALIN: Good evening, my fellow Americans. I was so excited when I was told Senator Clinton and I would be addressing you tonight.

CLINTON: And I was told I would be addressing you alone.

PALIN: Now I know it must be a little bit strange for all of you to see the two of us together, what with me being John McCain's running mate...

CLINTON: And me being a fervent supporter of Senator Barack Obama, as evidenced by this button.

PALIN: But tonight, we are crossing party lines to address the now very ugly role that sexism is playing in the campaign.

CLINTON: An issue that I am frankly surprised to hear people suddenly care about.

PALIN: You know, Hillary and I don't agree on everything...

CLINTON: Anything...I believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy.

PALIN: And I can see Russia from my house.

CLINTON: I believe global warming is caused by man...

PALIN: And I believe it's just God huggin' us closer.

CLINTON: I don't agree with the Bush Doctrine...

PALIN: And I don't know what that is.

CLINTON: But Sarah, one thing we can agree on is that sexism can never be allowed to permeate an American election.

PALIN: So please, stop Photoshopping my head on sexy bikini pictures.

CLINTON: And stop saying I have cankles.

PALIN: Don't refer to me as a MILF.

CLINTON: And don't refer to me as a "FLIRJ". I Googled what it stands for and I do not like it.

PALIN: Reporters and commentators, stop using words that diminish us, like "pretty", "attractive", "beautiful"...

CLINTON: ..."Harpy", "shrew", "boner-shrinker"...

If anyone wonders why Hillary supporters are upset over the coverage on TV and in the media just check out Alex.

CASTELLANOS: "Her problem is she's Hillary Clinton. And some women, by the way, are named that [bitches] and it's accurate."

Download | play Download | play

During CNN's primary coverage last night, a segment was about Sen. Clinton discussing the media's acceptance of misogyny into their coverage. Wolf called her words "provocative" as the panel begins to debate it. Later he says it's a little more difficult to discern than racism. Jeffrey Toobin makes some valid points about a NY Times article which referred to her as a "white bitch," (hello Wolf) saying that you can't say something like that about an African American. Not so for Republican Alex Castellanos, who not only disagrees, but thinks she is a "bitch" and says so with smile in his heart. Why does he have a seat with "the best political team" in America? Because he makes disgusting Republican attack ads. Being a distributor of slime in American politics really pays off. I'm sorry, he should be fired on the spot by CNN. What can I call John McCain now? Is it OK to call him pr*&k on TV? Is that OK? "Hi, I'm Wolf Blitzer and John McCain is a pr*&k. We'll have that scoop and much, much more as the best political team in America continues right after the break."

And to see Borger and Brazile---sitting there trying to have a rational discussion after he says the things that he does is just as ludicrous. Borger's retort is to say that a lot of voters don't feel that way and Donna mildly says Alex has a problem with her. I mean, really. What does he have to do to offend them?

Full transcript below the fold:

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