The Great Leap Backward

NITYA VENKATARAMAN WRITES:   

So Boxer played the "family" card (which most single women will readily admit is really the "single" card and hard enough to hear at dinner parties and awkward family gatherings, let alone during congressional testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee defending the unpopular decision-making of a boss whose approval ratings are tanking).

People reacted. Strongly.  Scrutinizing the Secretary of State’s every eye twitch to see if California Senator had struck a nerve.

Everyone had a punny headline.

(Rush Limbaugh said ovaries.) 

Boxer stood by her words. 

Condi thought single women had come farther than that.

And, not to be outpunned by the media, Tony Snow told Fox News that Boxer’s "jabs" were a "great leap backward for feminism".

It must be the season of great leaps backward in Washington because this past December another powerful woman — one a little closer to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — also side-swiped Condi’s single status.

ABC News White House producer Karen Travers reported that during the President and First Lady’s annual interview with People Magazine Laura Bush referenced Secretary Rice in a conversation about a female candidate for president and noted that while she would be a "really good candidate", Rice is not interested.

"Probably because she is single, her parents are no longer living, she’s an only child. You need a very supportive family and supportive friends to have this job," the First Lady said.

(Ouch. No family AND no friends. Obviously.)

Is Betty Friedan turning in her grave yet?

– Nitya Venkataraman