That's my Senator -

[kyburg]

Margaret Carlson:
Boxer's Spine Gets Her Cut Off at the Knees

You wouldn't know it from reading the newspapers, but Sen. Barbara Boxer served her country valiantly last week. In her grilling of Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice, Boxer finally named the elephant in the hearing room, which is more than the war itself. It's the lies that got us there.

Finally, a national television audience could watch a member of Congress ask tough questions in language that didn't pussyfoot around. From all the commissions, studies and news reports, we now know pretty much what Rice knew and when she knew it. What we don't yet have is an explanation for why Rice didn't tell us what she knew and at times even told us the opposite.

Boxer asked Rice if "your loyalty to the mission … to sell this war overwhelmed your respect for the truth." Rice, without explaining a thing, coolly accused Boxer of impugning her integrity. No explanation of why her stories of yellowcake uranium, aluminum tubes and a potential Saddam Hussein mushroom cloud did not constitute an (over)selling of the war.

For her trouble, Boxer was blasted — even by those who agreed with her — not so much on substance but on style. Sen. Robert Byrd gets called "irascible." Why can't women get called irascible? It's so much nicer than the other words we get called.

Women don't have a lot of leeway in how they comport themselves. Could any woman behave on TV like Bob Novak or Bill O'Reilly and get her own show? Female pundits are rarely called "sharp and incisive," only "shrill and strident." Women in politics have less margin for error. During his 30 years as a columnist, I can remember William Safire calling only one person a "congenital liar," and it just happened to be Hillary (D-Whitewater).

In the Senate, you still hear women described as "ladylike." The models for admission to the club are Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Dianne Feinstein, in their pumps and matronly dresses. If a woman takes on a man, she must do it in florid language or behind closed doors. If she takes on another woman, she'll be labeled a catfighter, unless she's a white-haired grandmother in triple strand pearls and does it in verse. (Remember when Barbara Bush called Geraldine Ferraro something that "rhymes with witch"?)

In a chamber where they still call each other "esteemed colleague" at the oddest times — as they were killing off Trent Lott, for instance — it was as if Boxer had said "liar, liar, pants on fire," when she hadn't said anything of the sort. If only Boxer could be a couple inches taller, have a deeper voice, do something with her hair — and be, as Henry Higgins sang, more like a man? Well, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), seated a few seats down, is 6 feet 4 with a basso profundo and the best hair in the business, and he couldn't land a punch. Mr. "I Voted For It Before I Voted Against It" lacked what Boxer showed: spine, and the simple courage to call "misinformation" by its right name.

But all she got for it was the pasting of a lifetime. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said such Democratic foolishness risked "adopting our enemy's view of the world." Even Boxer's supporters deducted points for style without adding any for degree of difficulty. She was ridiculed in a skit on "Saturday Night Live," looking like a homeless person with gray hair flying, ranting at the cool, composed, perfectly turned-out Rice.

The Los Angeles Daily News accused Boxer of embarrassing herself with uncivil bombast. "The edge in her voice was jarring," wrote the San Francisco Chronicle. The Washington Post's Colbert King took on Boxer for "slurring Rice." In blog- land, Boxer was called, among other things, "old, burnt out, shrill and saggy looking."

Perhaps a more diplomatic interrogation could have saved herself some grief. But it's hard to find that pitch-perfect voice within the range of civility on these subjects. On Wednesday, the U.S. suffered its biggest one-day loss in Iraq. The war's body count is at 1,400. Insurgents vow a bloodbath on Sunday. In Washington, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice sail on, and everybody's mad at Barbara Boxer.

I'm going to send her a note telling her how proud I am of her. For one reason, and one reason only - this is a representative who does what her constituency tells her to do.

She was one of the two - count 'em, two - senators who voted against granting Bush the power to invade Iraq in the first place. Her justification? "My constituents are 800 to 1 against this. I'm sorry - I have to vote no on it."

Okay, so Dean is annoying and Boxer is irascible. Works for me.

Comments

[snackpants.livejournal.com]

I only wish there were more people like Boxer in our government.

Just what we need... more opprotunists in congress.

The 16th & 17th Ammendments of the Constitution were some of the stupidest pieces of legislation ever passed.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Amendment XVI

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. Ratified February 3, 1913.

Amendment XVII

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

Ratified April 8, 1913.

Two Amendments ratified during WWI.

Well, at least that legislature took steps to pay their bills when they went to war.

And WTF does a woman born in 1940 have to do with it?

[snackpants.livejournal.com]

Barbara Boxer is a Senator, elected by the masses.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

What.

Snacky.

Please.

Quit poking yourself in the eye with the STOOPID stick.

It's sad.

[rozard.livejournal.com]

ouch