Bonnie Erbe: The Return of Sexism

[question everything]

From Capitol Hill Blue

The Return of Sexism
By BONNIE ERBE
Oct 11, 2005, 04:50

Gentlemen, let the meltdown begin. It's tape-off-the-mouth time in Washington. The Bush administration has so successfully reversed women's advancement that elite Good Ol' Boys who make their living telling other conservatives how to think no longer find it politically incorrect to publicly display sexist attitudes.

(snip)

But a court scholar who appeared on C-SPAN just after Frum noted that more than half of the justices thus far in U.S. history had little or "no significant" judicial experience before joining the high court, and that includes most of the chief justices. Pop goes that argument. If judicial experience were a sine qua non for court service, the late conservative icon and chief justice, William Rehnquist, would never have been allowed to serve.

Frum then went on to explain that Miers lacks the intellectual gravitas of Justices "Scalia or Thomas." I was with him until the word "or," at which point I had trouble keeping my breakfast down. As a former reporter who covered the Supreme Court for nine years after Clarence Thomas was confirmed, I never once saw him ask a question during oral arguments. His lack of intellectual gravitas was a question before his confirmation hearings and a continued font of conversation among court watchers since. To put it mildly, Thomas is known for many things, but genius is nary among them. Yet that bothers neo-cons not at all.


(snip)

Would these guys have felt as sanguine about rattling Miers' credentials if she were a man? No. Why? Because as far back as this administration has shoved so many progressive causes, none comes close to the damage the president has done to women's advancement. Of course, his clones feel comfortable publicly berating a woman's credentials, from intellect, to resume to conservative commitment. Sexism is once again cool. At least, one can hope, until the neo-con meltdown drives this president and his political ilk permanently from power.

(Bonnie Erbe is a TV host and writes this column for Scripps Howard News Service. E-mail bonnieerbe(at)CompuServe.com.)

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7508.shtml

[Angry Girl]

1. #5. Rampant Sexism. From the 14 Characteristics of Fascism...

14 Characteristics of Fascism...
Can you say Bush Administration?

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
5. Rampant sexism.
6. A controlled mass media.
7. Obsession with national security.
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together.
9. Power of corporations protected.
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
12. Obsession with crime and punishment.
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.
14. Fraudulent elections.

http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=britt_23_2

[area51]

2. "return of sexism"?

It never went away.