Bitch-gate...

If women want to be taken seriously as equals in the world then they have to stop acting like damsels in distress whenever someone gets rough or calls them a bitch. If you missed the story, recently at a fundraiser a supporter (female, by the way) asked John McCain, "how do we beat the bitch", referring, of course, to Hillary Clinton. McCain had the grace to look chagrined but ultimately took on the question without chastising the woman which led to claims of "ungentlemanly" behavior, as if he was supposed to throw down and challenge the woman to a duel in order to defend the fair maiden Clinton's honor. Was the woman's question inappropriate? Sure, probably, who cares? It wasn't McCain's job to scold the woman or rise to Hillary's defense out of some notion of chivalry. Chivalry is dead, especially in politics. God only knows what sort of criticism he'd have garnered had he chastened the woman. That's probably why he covered his face: knowing there was no graceful way out of this little quagmire because there were women involved and either way he was fucked. And not in the traditional sense. I'm no McCain supporter; I think he's the worst kind of political whore: the kind that used to have a shred of integrity but decided to give it away in exchange for the hope of votes. But give the guy a break. He has a big enough job trying to keep himself alive politically without worrying the minutiae of political correctness.

All of this comes on the heels of the last Democratic debate where Obama and Edwards got pretty critical and pointed with Hillary and Bill felt compelled to say later that they had "piled on" because she was a woman - making the debate sound like a biker gang bang. Maybe that would be more entertaining, but I digress. Her opponents didn't attack her because she's a woman; they attacked her because she's AHEAD and if they want to live to fight another day, they have to take her on. Politics is a bare-knuckle brawl; it hasn't been genteel since, well, ever. Hillary can take it; she's a tough broad and I mean that as sincerest flattery. And none of this is a criticism of her; she seems to take all the bullshit in stride as well she should. But people need to stop this double-standarding (and women are extremely guilty of this) of wanting to be considered as good as the boys but then demanding that someone rush to their defense when the going gets ugly. Defend yourselves, bitches!