Melinda Hennenberger adds another note in the Washington Post (paper of record in the company town where politics is the town industry) on “The Millions of Reasons Pelosi Decided to Stay”:
… [T]he lawmaker Republicans love to hate isn’t going anywhere. She means to be at the table when three others, all men — McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — knock out a debt deal with the president. “For some people in the public,” she said, “the thought of four men at the table was not an appealing sight.” With entitlements presumably on that same table, she wants to be there to watch over them. Having pushed through the Affordable Care Act, she wants to be on the job when it’s finally implemented. When Obama lately began speaking again about climate change — one of her signature issues — that, too, was an inducement. And looking out for women, she made clear, is very much the point of her decision to stick around…
As long as you’re still wearing out the kids on your staff, though, as I saw Pelosi do during a few days on the campaign trail with her this summer, you are just not ready to go yet. She did 450 fundraisers this year, raising $85 million for her party this cycle, and reveling in the process. Though Democrats did not come close to netting the 25 seats they needed to take back control of the House, I always thought she’d stay on doing what she loves — and what, at this point, no one can do better.
One sign of how far women in politics have come is that more are now doing what men have always done, aging on the public stage. Pelosi often makes light of her age: “Nobody’s older than I am,” she says unselfconsciously. Her 83-year-old colleague Louise Slaughter, a microbiologist who motors around the Capitol now on a senior scooter, is part of the House Democratic leadership team, too, and the ranking member on the Rules Committee.
Then there’s Pelosi’s 79-year-old neighbor in San Francisco, Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and just coasted to reelection, becoming the oldest woman ever elected to a new term in the Senate, historian Don Ritchie told me. Feinstein didn’t run away from her years, either, but on the contrary, ran on her decades of experience. Especially in vast California, she said this summer, “You have to build a base over time.” And then, if you’re lucky, you get to stick around and put it to use.
Gloria Steinam wrote about this a good 25 years ago: In politics, the tradition is that young men start out as radicals (because they have so little to lose) and gradually settle into conservativism (as they accumulate more power & property worth ‘conserving’). But in the days when women were most valuable as “trophies” and baby-bearers, young women had every reason to maximize their fleeting assets by hewing to conservative tenets; it was only as they aged and lost their saleability on the marriage market that they could afford to be (or they would get jolted into) radicalism. We have, praise goddess, jettisoned some of that baggage… but there’s still an unspoken assumption that women in the public sphere have a sell-by date, not just actresses and news anchors but politicians as well. Kudos to Nancy Pelosi and her fellows for standing up as examples for the rising generations that women are more than fresh faces and fertile wombs!
Ben Franklin
Some say liberals switch to conservative when they get older because they get smart.
Heh. Men are, by Darwin’s method, dumber as a class, than women because the women who have survived centuries of domination, have greater intelligence, by virtue of survival of the fittest. They have had some trouble exercising power, sometimes acting more like a man, because they have only begun to break the glass ceiling. But they are settling in now and are feeling more comfortable using some of their maternal instincts, in conjunction with that power. They are smashing the ridiculous assertion cited in my first sentence.
Brachiator
Golda freakin Meir or even Queen freaking Elizabeth (both 1 and 2). And all the women on the Supreme Court.
I take your point, but I naturally assumed that Pelosi would stay in office as long as she felt she could be effective, just like any other political figure. Barney Frank and any other number of other male and female politicians have retired. Pelosi continues on. Total non issue.
Right now, I expect and look forward to see Hillary Clinton make a run for the presidency in 2016.
Richard Shindledecker
And her eviseration of Tim Russert’s impaired kid was sweet to watch/savor. Luke can’t even brag about being Dick Cheney’s sock puppet (don’t want to think about what Dick would do with a sock puppet on non Sundays). She should go on as long as she damn well pleases.
WereBear
I adore Nancy SMASH!
And even if she is 70-ish, so what? She looks great, she acts great, she IS great.
Anniecat45
I live in Nancy Pelosi’s district. I’m happy to report that she won re-election with 84.9% of the vote.
Kane
I want Nancy on that wall, I need Nancy on that wall.
Mark S.
Why is this even an issue? Because Tim Russert’s idiot son brought it up? There are 18 Senators that are older than Pelosi.
sab
If the Republicans had had their way, Nancy Pelosi would only have been eligible for Social Security for about a year and a half, so it’s certainly way to early to think about retiring her.
sab
Whoops. I meant too early, not to early.
Shawn in ShowMe
I’m not sure that’s true anymore in politics, Anne. If anything, the public sentiment is firmly favor of keeping our female pols in office for as long as possible. Why? ‘Cause they’re usually pretty good at their jobs. Hillary, Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer, and Sebelius are all 64 or older and still going strong.
It’s the crazy ones like Palin and Bachmann and party hacks like Malkin and Coulter whose standing will suffer the most as they age. It’s cavemen that put them on the map in the first place.
jl
@Mark S.: I agree, I guess it is an interesting issue only because ass hat bigotry of all kinds needs to die, and there are plenty of public dofusses around to keep that bigotry alive. But other than that, not interesting.
So, an excuse to throw in my two cents on economic policy. I think best thing to do is just let all Bush income tax cuts expire. Increase government spending to compensate for withdrawal of tax receipts from individual spending and saving. You get the balanced budge multiplier. If the Krugman/Stiglitz/DeLong/JK Galbrwith/Blanchard diagnosis of current macroeconomics situation is correct (and it is), the balanced budget multiplier should be very effective in spurring more economic growth and increasing employment.
Go to Mark Thoma’s Economists View blog and search ‘balanced budget multiplier’ for some interesting posts from earlier this year.
Roger Moore
@Ben Franklin:
In a word, no. This only works if you assume that women are somehow evolving separately from men, which simply isn’t true. Women have to mix their genes with men at every generation to reproduce, so there’s no way for their intelligence to diverge from men’s.
Frankensteinbeck
I think it’s only slightly because she’s female. Yes, there’s a little of that, but only a little. It’s much more that she’s a tremendously effective and powerful Democratic politician. Even in the minority leadership position she’s more powerful than Booger, and she’s unabashedly liberal. That just can’t be allowed, and it’s the duty of all Villagers to hint strongly that Nancy’s getting a little old and ought to retire, and Obama should probably not do anything extreme like raise taxes on the rich or regulate another industry or (God forbid) help the poor.
Ben Franklin
@Roger Moore:
In general, men have approximately 6.5 times the amount of gray matter related to general intelligence than women, and women have nearly 10 times the amount of white matter related to intelligence than men. Gray matter represents information processing centers in the brain, and white matter represents the networking of – or connections between – these processing centers.
This, according to Rex Jung, a UNM neuropsychologist and co-author of the study, may help to explain why men tend to excel in tasks requiring more local processing (like mathematics), while women tend to excel at integrating and assimilating information from distributed gray-matter regions in the brain, such as required for language facility. These two very different neurological pathways and activity centers, however, result in equivalent overall performance on broad measures of cognitive ability, such as those found on intelligence tests.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050121100142.htm
Kane
And that was before passing and signing into law Obamacare, the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act, Dodd-Frank, the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Repeal of DADT, the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act, Iran sanctions, and the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act along with other major legislation enacted.
Nancy Pelosi rocks! And all in the face of GOP obstruction.
Ted & Hellen
Nancy Impeachment Is Off the Table Pelosi is fearless and grand and the country could not function without her.
We are fortunate that she allows us to experience the eternal magnificence of her continued benevolent presence in Congress.
Maude
@Frankensteinbeck:
Bingo.
Pelosi is a powerhouse and she knows what she’s doing. That enough to upset the Village.
Luke Russert was trying to play gotcha. Just like Daddy.
Frankensteinbeck
@Ben Franklin: and @Roger Moore:
Studies like this are both important and famously misleading. This one says right at the top ‘There is no difference in intelligence between men and women.’ At the same time, it demonstrates that men and women’s brains are not the same, so the argument that they couldn’t have different intelligence does not apply. Evolutionarily, the sexes can evolve separately. It didn’t happen here (Again, no difference in intelligence) but it could have.
scav
Now THERE’S my cool new geek fact of the day to explore. thanks!
Brachiator
@jl:
Thing is, it’s not just about letting the Bush tax cuts expire. The president and the Congress have to deal with a boatload of expiring tax provisions, some going back to the Clinton era. If absolutely nothing was done, to let the Bush tax cuts expire, everyone’s taxes would go up, right now for 2012, and in 2013.
Also, since the GOP still controls the House, Obama cannot magically unleash spending to compensate for lost revenues.
Coming back to the main thread topic, Pelosi is going to have her hands full in helping craft a Democratic tax policy alternative.
Ben Franklin
@Frankensteinbeck:
Exactly my point. Female intelligence is measurably different from men, yet the conclusion is they are equivalent .
Frankensteinbeck
@Maude:
The Punditocracy’s biases are quite peculiar. It’s not as simple as their being partisan, but there’s a noticeable belief that anything liberal is automatically bad. I rarely watch television, but I watched it on election night. Rove wasn’t the only meltdown. The moment CNN announced Obama’s victory, I was treated to the anchor giving a stunned and disbelieving speech about how this had to be a mistake because America is a ‘center-right’ nation.
Ted & Hellen
I see the thread is being censored and monitored by Those Who Protect the Discourse.
Good thing too!
jl
@Brachiator: I was talking about what should be done, not what’s gonna be done. I fear some counter productive approximation to a crappy ‘grand bargain’ will be done.
WereBear
@Ben Franklin: In a nutshell, this explains why men do not see the small child covering themselves with chocolate syrup, even in front of the big screen which displays the Big Game, during the Big Game.
While women sense the small child covering themselves with chocolate syrup, even if the child is in another room.
Maude
@Frankensteinbeck:
The word belief is key. They are so insulated and only talk to each other that they start believing their own nonsense.
Some on like Pelosi or Obama makes them look stupid, because they are stupid in that they are so ignorant.
The pundits resent anything that doesn’t fit their self images.
They also don’t understand that things do change. They are way behind the curve and will stay that way because they are paid a lot of money.
Ben Franklin
@WereBear:
Yes. Amongst all the different types of intelligence, intuitive is not mentioned.
http://skyview.vansd.org/lschmidt/Projects/The%20Nine%20Types%20of%20Intelligence.htm
Corner Stone
@Frankensteinbeck:
I disagree with this. I’ve spent countless times beating down wingnuts on my local board who attack Pelosi first at her appearance.
It always shifts to other things, and I agree they hate her because she is effective. But IMO, they hate the fact that she is a powerful, effective female legislator so much more.
If it were James Pelosi from CA they’d probably try to make gay jokes/slurs as a way to compensate. I think they hate her just as much because she is a woman as because she brings her caucus to the table.
Ben Franklin
Of course, most of these studies are authored by men….
Maude
@Ben Franklin:
There are also the women who call men dumb and say things like, they all do it, whatever their complaint of the moment happens to be.
jl
@WereBear:
” the small child covering themselves with chocolate syrup ”
I’m not sure I see the problem here. Unless three’s a nest for fire ants in the house.
Now, please excuse me, I have to crack a brewski and look for a game to watch.
hep kitty
@jl: I’m afraid of this bargain talk. I find the President’s reaching out warmly to Romney disturbing. As an Obama supporter, I feel kind of insulted and I don’t like the sound of it.
Chris
@Shawn in ShowMe:
QFT. Well over half of Palin’s appeal comes from men who think she’s hot.
Brachiator
@Ben Franklin:
Not really what Darwin meant by survival of the fittest. Heck, he originally talked about a struggle for existence and only later used this phrase, which was coined by another writer.
@Frankensteinbeck:
What?
A bit of a stretch, but in any event irrelevant to hominid evolution, and most animals for that matter.
Ben Franklin
@Maude:
Not sure what you mean.
Corner Stone
@jl: I was thinking it sounded like a hell of a good start to a Saturday morning.
Chris
@Maude:
This entire election cycle’s reminded me of the liberal woman who supposedly said “I don’t know anyone who voted for Nixon!” in 1972.
I suppose to some extent, it’s inevitable that any group that’s been in power for too long would be living in a bubble. But Reagan’s groupies do it better than most.
Ben Franklin
@Brachiator:
Heck, he originally talked about a struggle for existence and only later used this phrase, which was coined by another writer.
This is about the concept of adaptation, not the wording.
jl
@hep kitty: Yes. Only good news is that looks like GOP is starting to blink. See on TPM that Boner is talking about stretching out the fiscal cliff into a steep slope, or even extending the ledge.
I think it better to agitate for what should be done rather than worry and kibbitz over what the main players are likely to do, which all evidence indicates will be at best moderately bad.
aimai
@Frankensteinbeck:
I agree. I think that particular question was posed to her by Luke Russert because he’s young, and because she was a Democrat, not merely or even largely because she was female. However, that being said, I think he wouldn’t have posed the question to a man at all–unless that man were Barney Frank. Because the question was disrespectful and the little Luke’s of the world feel free to be disrespectful to women, gays, and democrats because they are all seen as pushovers and easily insulted and attacked.
aimai
Maude
@Ben Franklin:
Some women talk about men in a denigrating manner.
They paint them with a broad brush.
Things like, men are pigs.
It goes both ways.
Corner Stone
@hep kitty:
IMO, I’m sure whatever deal we get will be the best deal we could have got.
As for the Romney stuff, that’s just smart politics. He can stay warm on Romney without ever giving him another audience. That way he’s not punching down and doesn’t look petty.
I was more concerned by his laudatory comments re: Reagan during the first election and term. I saw that as borderline despicable. Reagan had an actual record and an actual history that should be reviled and denigrated in our consideration of polite society. Romney’s just a loser scumbag wannabe who will never change or administer public policy ever again. He’s nothing.
Maude
@aimai:
In other word, being disrespectful to anyone who’s not Them. Luke thinks he is superior to just about everyone.
Brachiator
@jl:
The president cannot simply let the Bush tax cuts expire. They are not the only tax items on the table. You can not get to any “what should be done” from here.
Bipartisan budget committees have already drafted some provisional legislation to deal with some lingering 2012 items. If agreement is not reached here, taxes for 30 million people will increase in 2012.
I agree with you that no one should have to settle for a crappy compromise. But some deals will have to be reached.
Maude
@Corner Stone:
Reagan had a huge influence on this country. That’s what Obama was talking about. It didn’t mean a positive influence.
Obama ran for re election on turning away from the Reagan Doctrine. Romney ran on the Reagan Doctrine.
The 47% bit with Romney is pure Reagan.
rikyrah
So, Little Luke, show me the Democratic lawmaker – not the President – who raised 85 million for the party.
oh, you can’t find them?
then sit down and S-T-F-U with your ageist dribble against Nancy Smash.
geg6
@hep kitty:
Your concern is duly noted.
Ben Franklin
@Maude:
I see. Can’t argue with that……maybe with just cause :)
Shawn in ShowMe
@Maude:
Yeah, Obama’s praise for Reagan is akin to Marc Antony’s praise for Brutus. Both were honorable men, after all.
srv
@Ben Franklin: The women folk may be craftier, but now that they’re taking away our Twinkies and Ding Dongs, they have gone too far.
jl
@Brachiator:
I just said that the best economic policy for both long and short run is a balanced budget multiplier. That is all.
Deals will be crappier if no one is willing point out truly good and feasible policy options. Balanced budget multiplier is one of them.
Sure, people will gripe about higher taxes, but far more people will have jobs in two years, or have jobs that pay better, and there will be less excuse for dingbats to whine about fake debt crisis.
If some people want to kibbitz and whine what misguided pols are going to do, fine, I’m not interested in that. And you damn kids get off my effing lawn.
Mark S.
@Brachiator:
I hate the term survival of the fittest. It has led to some extremely stupid pseudoscience. If only the smartest and the strongest survive and everybody else dies off, should the human race consist of a bunch of LeBron Einsteins?
Brachiator
@Ben Franklin:
Either way. Adaptation is about much more than responding to “centuries of domination,” which you erroneously tried to link to Darwinian processes, and to “survival of the fittest” in order to come up with some speculation about women’s intelligence.
Skippy-san
It is long past bedtime for Pelosi. She is a polarizing figure-there is better talent out there that Democratic party should be moving to the fore. Even thought I voted for Obama and support parts of the progressive agenda, Pelosi does nothing for me. The sooner she retires-the better.
Ben Franklin
@Brachiator:
Obviously, you are not a subscriber to genetic memory aka instinct
Too abstract. Not enough concrete for your solid mindset.
TooManyJens
@WereBear: I hate this excuse that somehow men can’t see messes. Their eyes are just fine. They’ve just learned that it’s Somebody Else’s Problem. It’s a sweet deal — I wish I were eligible for it, but as a woman, I’m Somebody Else.
Yutsano
@Skippy-san: Yes. It’s not like she wasn’t one of the most effective speakers in modern history or is a fundraising juggernaut that helped to contribute to Obama’s victory. She’s old, let some youngbloods up in there. Jaysus, is that you Lil Luke?
Shawn in ShowMe
@Mark S.:
“Survival of the fittest” rolls easier off the tongue than “Survival of the most well-adapted to the current social, political and economic environment.” Of course the later statement is more accurate because it accurately describes what we see on the ground — bigger, faster, stronger athletes AND legions of computer programmers AND an increasingly obese, diabetic population.
This man-made clusterfuck of an environment is pulling the human race in a number of directions.
Badmoodman
Ugh, Gloria Steinam
Steinem.
WereBear
Too often, that is true. Women will do their sons tremendous favors when they teach them they can do housework; and will reap the benefits of great relationships, straight or gay, in return.
Myself, I only marry Enlightened Men.
Suffern ACE
@Skippy-san: nope. The minority leader is going to be polarizing no matter who holds that seat. Until Eric Cantor is replaced by Miles Milquetoast, I’m not gonna worry that she’s too polarizing.
Brachiator
@Corner Stone:
Excellent point. Romney is yesterday’s news, even if Mitt himself doesn’t recognize this fact yet.
But wasn’t Obama just acknowledging political reality here, the fact that millions of Americans look favorably on Reagan? Doesn’t really matter that Reagan doesn’t merit any approval.
And wasn’t Obama also trying to reach out to those who see the Democrats as the enemy and Obama himself as foreign and illegitimate? He obviously did not succeed with the core of wingnut idiots, but he had absolutely nothing to gain from crapping on Reagan’s memory.
Corner Stone
@Maude:
Like Stalin?
Who I denounce, by the way.
But not broccoli.
TooManyJens
@WereBear: It’s not even teaching them that they can do housework, but that they have to, because leaving all the responsibility to others is a shitty way for an adult to behave.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard men who, in the abstract, know better, say “well, she just notices messes more and cleans them up before I get a chance” or “She just cares more than I do.” Bullshit.
karen marie
@Chris: It’s attributed to Pauline Kael.
Mark S.
@Ben Franklin:
I don’t think I am either. I don’t know exactly what you mean by genetic memory, though.
Julia Grey
@Ben Franklin:
That might explain my observations about men and women. Women tend to be good “connectors” and “noticers” of social clues. There really is such a thing as “women’s intuition.” We put little things together and suddenly realize bigger things.*
I jokingly call this men’s “obliviousness,” but it might just be that they are not as able to put 2 and 2 together, so to speak. But they’re very good at focus.
This is just “in general,” you understand. Individual mileage varies, as always.
_______________________________________
*This is often how women come to knowledge (conscious or unconscious) of their husbands’ affairs. Men tend to be less good at the discovery process, in my experience. They are more likely to either find out directly or not find out at all, they don’t tend to assemble minor data toward a realization, and they don’t usually have the conscious vs. unconscious (“I don’t want to know, so I won’t”) conflict so common in women.
Ben Franklin
@Julia Grey:
Yes. My beloved spouse is an intuitive genius who reaches profound conclusions rapidly.
She has difficulty expressing her logic behind those decisions, but they are 95% of the time, spot on. The focus thing engenders a form of myopia. Women see the Big Picture.
As I say ‘In the land of Myopia, the blind man is King”
WereBear
If only they knew how much “attention” they would get from a brisk dishwashing session or a few rounds with the vacuum cleaner!
Mark S.
@Shawn in ShowMe:
That’s a good point. Things change all the time, and survival is often pure damn luck. I’m sure there were plenty of very fit people who had the misfortune to die from the bubonic plague or smallpox.
Alison
@Skippy-san:
I’m sure that just breaks her heart.
Brachiator
@jl:
If we did nothing for two years, everyone’s taxes would go up. And the working poor would be crushed with rollbacks of tax credits such as the earned income credit and the child tax credit. More Americans who have lost their homes would be staggered with additional debt and tax burdens because of the expiration of the Mortgage Relief Act.
And I sincerely doubt that doing nothing for two years would result in mo better jobs.
To hell with this balanced budget multiplier.
General Stuck
@WereBear:
Unless beer was involved, why would a chocolate covered kid be newsworthy?
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@Roger Moore:
Women have to mix their genes with men at every generation to reproduce, so there’s no way for their intelligence to diverge from men’s.
Except, of course, that women carry two X chromosomes, each substantially larger than the Y chromosome. And female fetuses have less testosterone and more estrogen in development…
(not that I believe these necessarily have any effect on intelligence – just pointing out that your statement is incorrect)
TooManyJens
@WereBear: I don’t know, the idea of men getting special sexual rewards for doing what I do as a matter of course really rubs me the wrong way. No pun intended. But this I an extremely sore spot for me.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@Skippy-san:
She is a polarizing figure
Which is to say “Republicans hate her”. Since this will be true of ANY effective Democrat politician, what you are saying is that the Democrats should put forward an ineffectual leader to appease the Republican wingnut contingent – and prevent “polarization”.
Gretchen
I was so outraged by Luke Russert’s “Make way for young blood” . Untalented, undeserving young blood like himself? He really seems to have no idea that if his were in a pile of 1000 audition tapes, his would not be the one chosen.
And the first woman, ever, to achieve the office of Speaker of the House, should step aside for the younguns? If we’re worried about giving a place for youth, why not press Steny Hoyer to step aside? It would open up the same spot as 3rd in leadership, while preserving the historic spot of a woman at the top, so we’ll have one woman at the table making the deals.
Oh, sorry, I forgot. Steny earned his spot. He’s a white guy.
TooManyJens
I agree both that Pelosi was asked about stepping aside primarily because she is an effective promoter of the Fundamentally Illegitimate Party’s agenda, and also that her being a woman made Russert see her as an easier target. It’s not impossible for me to imagine Russert asking that question of a female Republican minority leader, but it’s a lot harder.
Brachiator
@Mark S.:
I agree with you that this term has spawned a great deal of wrongheaded pseudoscience. Oddly enough, a lot of it is currently being pushed by evolutionary psychologists and pop historians.
Also, the “strongest” and “smartest” are not necessarily the “most fit,” and if a person is scrawny but cagey and manages to reproduce and pass his or her genes along, then that person still wins that evolutionary contest.
@Ben Franklin:
You make a lot of assumptions. Both wrong and pointless.
jl
@Brachiator:
Did you bother to do the very easy and quick searches and read about balanced budget multiplier and similar approaches that would be better than any of the current policy options being discussed?
If you do not know what you are talking about, yes, it is easy to ‘sincerely doubt’ all sorts of things.
Trakker
Pelosi is without question the single most hated politician by the Republicans. I can’t think of a greater compliment to her effectiveness than that. After 2016 she will be Speaker once more.
schrodinger's cat
OT: Bal Thackeray. is dead. Good riddance.
McJulie
Humans don’t have huge sexual dimorphism compared to many other species, but we sure seem dedicated to maximizing and exaggerating what does exist — as well as making up stuff that doesn’t.
Frankensteinbeck
@karen marie:
Apropos of this, I have a new theory. The famous ‘Reagan Democrats’ are all on TV. The national journalist class is heavily dominated by people (mostly men) who were the right combination of age and wealth to go ‘Yes, Ronnie! You’ve made it all so clear! I DO deserve a tax break and those lazy poor minorities will be so much happier if we screw them over!’ Many of them think of themselves as liberal, or Democrats who just happen to vote Republican a lot. When the Tea Party sprang up they wanted SO BADLY to believe that the country was full of folks just like them, liberals who understand that manly cowboys make us safe and Jimmy Carter demonstrated it was time for Hippies to grow up and the best way to help the weak is to oppress them.
hitchhiker
That made me think of election night & the comparison between Megyn Kelly and Rachel Maddow. Both anchoring their networks’ coverage, both surrounded by powerful men. Megyn is old school trophy and proud of it; Rachel is fuck that shit.
During the Rove meltdown moment, did you notice that one of those powerful men jumped up to help Megyn make her way down the steps in her pencil skirt & high heels? She thanked him and said she didn’t want to fall . . . can we picture Rachel’s face if some guy suggested that she needed help doing something like walking away from her desk?
You only have to “maximize your fleeting assets” if there’s no pay equity between the genders. That day can’t come soon enough.
piratedan
looks like AP is calling AZ-CD2 for Ron Barber….
yay team blue!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/17/1162572/-AZ-CD-2-now-being-called-for-Democrat-Ron-Barber
Liberty60
@Ted & Hellen:
“Fuck,
arresting somebody for murderprotecting the discourse here is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.”muddy
It’s also ridiculous to tell senior members of the party they should step aside, when the whole place is run on pure seniority. Oh, you’ve lasted a long time and earned your spot after all these years, that won’t do! Let the kids in, they have no seniority, thus no power, and not as much experience dealing with these shifty mofos.
I guess they think it’s the only way they can win is to slant the odds. As per usual.
WereBear
@TooManyJens: I was not putting it forth as a quid pro quo.
I was using it as an example of how men can recognize that they are equal partners; diaper changing, trash dumping, surface-cleaning; et al.
Brachiator
@jl:
My point stands that doing nothing is not an option. And if you focus solely on the Bush tax cuts to the exclusion of all the other expiring tax provisions that must be dealt with, then you cannot make any reasonable assertions about what might be the best policy approach.
Btw, I do appreciate the references to the stuff about the balanced budget multiplier.
Mnemosyne
@WereBear:
Actually, I wouldn’t notice it, either, and I’ve got two X chromosomes. But I also have ADHD, so I can literally step over a mess on the floor and not notice it until it’s brought to my attention. And then promptly forget all about it again 10 seconds later when something shiny comes into view.
Which is why one of the newly popular books about ADHD (written by a woman) is titled Here’s to Not Catching Our Hair on Fire: An Absent-Minded Tale of Life with Giftedness and Attention Deficit — Oh Look! A Chicken!
Ben Franklin
@Liberty60:
Well, the policing has been more muted, of late.
bemused
@WereBear:
That still doesn’t explain why so many men can’t find what they are looking for in the fridge if it is not front and center. I have a card that I plan to stick on the fridge, a guy has the fridge door open calling out “where’s the butter” and there is nothing but butter in it.
Raven
@Mnemosyne: It’s not a deficit and it’s not a disorder. Hunters in a farmers world, dog.
Mark S.
@Julia Grey:
I agree wholeheartedly that women in general are better at picking up on social cues. In defense of my sex, I do think sometimes women over-interpret sometimes. Just my personal experience.
Raven
@bemused: Yea and I get called when a badly wounded opossum is laying in the street because someone has to take a shovel and kill it. Just an hour ago the princess called me upstairs because the traps she insists on have mice in them. hmmm
Ruckus
@Gretchen:
In a pile of ten anonymous tapes, his wouldn’t be chosen. Put the names on and there you go.
bemused
@Raven:
Oh, that’s entirely different. Everyone knows the guy must get rid of the rodent carcasses. : )
Betsy
@Roger Moore: yeah, but there are sex-linked traits that are heritable – in other words, very possible that the sexes evolve traits that are not shared by both sexes, or shared to a lesser degree. Under your limitation, women could not evolve to be smaller and men larger on average — or to have no beards — etc.
hep kitty
@geg6: I’m sure I would offend, somehow, by expressing an emotional response to talk I’ve heard and deals offered in the past. No, no, I’m not being practical or pragmatic, of course. But so the fuck what? I can say how I feel.
Some of you guys are so fucking predictable in your overreaction to the teeniest observation that might be interpreted as critical and unsupportive of the President with no evidence to back it up.
Thankfully I don’t have time to patrol every comment I don’t like by ppl who don’t belong to the club and make little hive-mind snark. I have to go practice independent thinking and the ability to hold two concepts in my mind at the same time.
Raven
@bemused: That’s what she said.
bemused
@Raven:
I rest my case.
Ben Franklin
@Betsy:
Do you have concrete evidence? :>)
TooManyJens
@WereBear: Yeah, like I said, I’m just really pissy about this subject right now. For reasons.
Betsy
@Skippy-san: bullshitter
Raven
@bemused: And the meeeses are also at rest. I’m trying an almond on the rat trap so time will tell.
Raven
@WereBear: I do all the grocery shopping, all the cooking AND kill the wabbit!
General Stuck
Cool, sporadic fire could lead to full scale battle of the sexes. All we need then is for the firebaggers to weasel in some Obama fail, and this Saturday can be wasted with some excitement.
Ben Franklin
Ah, the Calvary has arrived.
Raven
@General Stuck: The way Georgia is playing against Georgia Southern the waste is widespread. . . panic.
Ruckus
@bemused:
My dad was infamous for not being able to see the tool he was looking for when it was right in front of him. Took me years to figure out that his eyes worked but his brain was 4 steps ahead. In his mind he already had the tool and therefore didn’t need to keep looking for it until whatever the tool was supposed to do didn’t get done.
IOW unless he concentrated on the details of the moment he had moved on. It was like a check list for him, need to do process x, need tool a, look for tool a, also need to do process y, need tool b, look for tool b, how come process x is not done, what the hell tool was I looking for and who moved it and how come process x is not done. His brain worked faster than reality. Helped me learn to process designs in my head rapidly and making things and yet not to get too far ahead of myself so there is that.
Cain
@Phoenician in a time of Romans:
This.
It’s amazing how many fall for this polarizing bit. My father who is a staunch democrat does not like Pelosi. I don’t understand, Pelosi was Obama’s right hand. She delivered everything the president wanted and then some.
It was the senate that really screwed us over. But now we got rid of all the blue dogs and now we have some decent progressives. It is imperative that we get the house back under Pelosi so that we can do some more progressive changes out there.
Raven
@Ruckus: Ding. I think that is why I like fishing so much. I get wherever I’m going and get to fishin. Inever know what I going to happen so I stay focused. Hence, I am spending the day watching football, following the stupid conversation and getting my gear ready for a week at the beach!
Raven
@Cain: I have all these friends that hate Rachel. They are highly educated academics, progressives and they just loathe her. I don get it.
Cain
@schrodinger’s cat:
That’s good to hear. I’ve hated shiv sena for years. More than I hate Congress I.
General Stuck
@hep kitty:
By all means, if that is what you are doing. Expression of feelings and thoughts on politics as a personal matter is never bothersome to me. It is when faux memes or narratives are attached, or allegations with thinly veiled agendas are proffered without supportable evidence that is problematic.
General Stuck
@Ben Franklin:
Blow my bugle.
nancydarling
@Raven: When one is female and lives alone in the country, one disposes of one’s own carcasses and wounded possums. Your wife could too, but why would she?
I’ll bet Nancy Smash could dispatch a wounded possum pretty quickly if need be.
Cain
@Raven:
Weird. Misogyny comes out for the weirdest things.
Raven
@nancydarling: They both could.
General Stuck
@nancydarling:
Stiletto heel between the blinkers.
And wimmen that can cook up some road kill are worth quite a few pelts.
Raven
@Cain: I dunno, one of these dudes is a highly respected prof and his wife is too. He thinks she’s preachy and doesn’t like her voice. WTF? I’m used to stupid ass right wingers who have never even watched her show hating on her but this has me baffled.
nancydarling
@General Stuck: I almost stopped to pick up a wild turkey that collided with a car. It had just happened, feathers still flying. I am sorry to this day that I didn’t.
bemused
@Ruckus:
That is my husband exactly! Totally focused on the task at hand but way ahead of himself at the same time. Then he’s on to another project but has to try to remember where he left his tools or whatever he was using. I do spend a lot of time gathering up items he has left behind and just pile them up on a table where he will notice them.
I guess it’s kind of a mystery to me. I and most women I know can be working on a task on the job while thinking about errands after work and several other job or non-job related things at the same time.
Svensker
@Raven:
I figure I was the one cleaning up the baby erp and poops no matter where or when they occurred and no matter how devastating, so he gets to take care of spiders and dead/dying critters.
General Stuck
@nancydarling:
A lost meal, sad. Specially this close to Thanksgiving.
Raven
@Svensker: No kids over here. Actually she is phobic about vermin and snakes. I don’t mind doin it.
Shawn in ShowMe
@Raven:
Are they over 40? Could be a generation gap thing. Or maybe they’re just not into snarky women. If they love Chris Hayes but snub Rachel, that could be it.
Ben Franklin
@bemused:
Or hearing 3 conversations, simultaneously,while I struggle with the one I’m having.
WereBear
@Raven: I don’t get it, either. Rachel is such an Intellectual Treat.
Ruckus
@Raven:
That’s misogyny at it’s finest. As long as a woman is equal or lessor to some men they are OK. Give them a voice or power and all of a sudden that’s the worst thing in the world. It is the same process as “I’m not a racist, I have black friends” For some the personal knowledge doesn’t translate to all. They don’t hate all blacks, they hate “niggers”. They don’t hate all women, only the “bitches”. And of course the all only excludes those that they know personally and that have less power than they give themselves. It may not be racism or misogynous in the strictest terms, it is not necessarily about pure hate, it is a perception of power and their place in the power structure.
Raven
@Ruckus: whatever
GregB
Ollie North, the man who arranged the sales of missile parts to the Ayatollah’s in Iran is certain that President Obama is incompetent at best and malevolent at worst.
I never liked that fascist goon.
jeffreyw
@Mnemosyne: Wanted to thank you for posting the recipe link for those roasted banana bars last Sunday. Mrs J and I just made a batch and they are sooo gooood! ! !
WereBear
Happy kitten lunatic time:
http://new.livestream.com/accounts/398160/events/1594566/player_pop_up
Chris
@GregB:
The phrase “international terrorism” conjures up three faces in particular for me. One is, obviously, Osama Bin Laden. One is Carlos the Jackal, the most-wanted-terrorist of the seventies and eighties and practically the Osama Bin Laden of his day.
The third is Oliver North.
Of those three, the first is rotting at the bottom of the ocean. The second is serving out a life sentence at La Sante prison in Paris.
The third is not only walking free, but a bestselling author of shitty dime novels, former candidate for a U.S. Senate seat, and television host with his own show on Fox News.
Living proof of the arbitrariness with which our government treats the crime of terrorism.
joel hanes
@TooManyJens:
Yes, many men passively reject their responsibility to do their share of the housework and childcare and cooking.
Yes, many women passively reject their responsibility to put oil in the car, have it serviced, deal with it when it doesn’t run, mow the lawn, get the plumbing fixed when it breaks.
These were strongly-gendered roles in previous generations.
Ruckus
@bemused:
I don’t believe that it is because women are supposed to be better at multitasking. I think it is the way some humans look at things. I am also sure that it is at least a partially learned trait as I have known women who process the same way. I know more men who do but I think it is not a male/female thing. We are a product of our upbringings after all. So if most girls watch/lean from their mothers and most boys watch/learn from their fathers then the learned experiences will continue. This could explain some of the winger hate for none traditional families. OHMG boys learning from their mothers, gay men teaching equality, what the fuck will the world come to? Assholes, maybe it will be a better place. And maybe not, but one can hope.
Raven
Anyone read “A Brief History of Everything” by Ken Wilber? Fuck it or kill it for the boys but lot’s of education we can do better. It’s biology.
Bruce S
It’s funny – Dianne Feinstein has been part of my political landscape as long as I’ve lived in the Bay Area, which is longer than I want to discuss. I remember her as an SF supervisor – aka “the Iron Maiden” to my lefty friends.
Intuitively I knew she was old, but I had no thought about her as being 79 when I dutifully put my scratch next to her name. She’s no Barbara Boxer and periodically annoys me, but she’s sort of a California institution. One of our two Bay Area Jewish women who I’m proud to claim as representatives of our state in the Beltway mess. It wouldn’t surprise me if I scratch next to her name on the Dem Senate line one more time in 2018. If I last that long…
bemused
@Ben Franklin:
I’m laughing thinking about a bunch of women together, everyone talking, yet somehow everyone manages to catch the drift of all the different conversation threads. I have no idea how we do that.
@Raven:
I have noticed that some men for the most part liberal are not quite comfortable with strong, talented, successful women. Maybe it has something to do with how they grew up, if the women they were surrounded by weren’t as vocal or confident. It is puzzling that “progressive” men would dislike women like Pelosi or Maddow so much.
WereBear
Oh, whoop-ti-do.
You do realize that what you have brought up comes up like every few months, at best, while what I have been bringing up comes up every day, sometimes multiple times? Do you REALLY want to equate the two as equal?
WARNING: this will count towards your final grade.
Corner Stone
Are we at the “Yeah, but..” stage of this installment in the ongoing struggle that is the battle of the sexes?
sparrow
@Julia Grey: In general, I guess this might be true. I actually find most people are “sensors” (non-intuitives in the Jungian sense), though I suspect even more women are than men.
Myself, I am a straight female with a very “male” brain. Whenever people start comparing the “sensitive/illogical/intuitive” woman with the mathematical, oblivious man, it’s the latter I find to be a description of me.
But honestly, it has nothing to do with gender. I really prefer the “left/right” brain dichotomy, if we must use such shorthand.
Bruce S
Christ – I just looked it up and Nancy and Barbara Boxer are both 72. Who knew? I hope it’s not sexist to say they look great for a couple of 72-year old ladies. Especially considering the fact that they’re carrying something like six cojones between them. Not a problem.
jeffreyw
Thread needs moar banana bars with browned butter pecan icing.
General Stuck
@WereBear:
In all honesty, dishes don’t have to be washed every day, depending on the season, and rate of bacterial growth vis a vi prevailing ambient temps and relative humidity.
On the other hand, no oil change, car no go far./
bemused
@WereBear:
Oh my, I pulled one of our cats in my lap to watch and she was just mesmerized, wide-eyed and didn’t move a muscle. I put her down but she jumped right back up into the chair to watch the kittens.
geg6
@Ruckus:
Really? I’m not a huge fan of Rachel either. And I can understand your friend’s having an ambivalence for her (hate should only be reserved for wingnuts). I’ll watch MSNBC many evenings but I always end up skipping her show. But I will say that I find her voice to be perfectly normal and not irritating at all. And I’m a woman, so I don’t think you can accuse me of misogyny. I like other commentators better, is all.
joel hanes
@WereBear:
I buy all the food, scrub the kitchen and bathroom floor on hands and knees, cook about 50% of the time, and did 40% of childcare for my son. I feel well-positioned for this dicussion.
One of my partners takes responsibility for the mechanical stuff I mentioned. One did not.
I agree that many women have more to gripe about, because the things that many men avoid are all-day every day things.
joel hanes
@joel hanes:
But I freely stipulate that I am not “most men”.
I will avoid bringing this up again.
Gex
@WereBear: I look at it like this: If I have to work all day, come home, fix dinner, and do all the housework, I will be too tired for shenanigans.
If I get help with some of that well, more opportunities for shenanigans.
And as for the mess blindness – women can have that too. My girlfriend is that kind of person, and yes, somehow all the household jobs became mine. :(
JPL
My son sent me a recipe for heron since I keep threatening to kill the one that struts around on my patio. Guess he doesn’t have to come to my rescue if I really do it.
Ruckus
@geg6:
Well I was not trying to say this is for all situations, sometimes we have reason for not liking someone, not based on hatred. I should have been clearer. I was engaged to a woman who had an irritating voice according to some. Her best friend asked me how could I stand her voice. My answer was that for some reason it didn’t irritate me at all and in fact I liked it. Maybe because of the person it came with.
When it is a pattern, even a small one, then I stick to my post. That was what I was getting from Raven.
On the other hand I don’t believe that racism and misogyny are restricted to whites and men. Little with us humans is clear or consistent, behavior, thought process or lack of, hatred, love, learning, etc., etc.
Peregrinus
@Julia Grey:
This is interesting to me, because I’m male, and that is exactly how I tick. I’ve always said I should’ve been born a girl, though . . .
TooManyJens
@geg6: I can see people not being huge fans of Rachel’s style, which is very casual and prone to internet-speak and whatnot. Now if they didn’t like her but then were fans of male hosts who did the same kind of thing, I’d have to wonder, but that style’s not for everyone.
I hadn’t actually heard that people find her voice irritating. That’s odd to me; her voice doesn’t seem particularly remarkable.
Peregrinus
@bemused:
I know how. You learn it. All the males in my family can do that – it’s known as “being Cuban.” ;-)
Smiling Mortician
@Raven: I too know some otherwise reasonable progressives who don’t like Maddow. The only person who even tried to articulate why explained it thusly: “She’s girly so she doesn’t exude gravitas.” Which I took to mean that somehow there’s an unbreachable divide between femaleness and seriousness. IOW, sexism. Quelle surprise.
bemused
@Peregrinus:
Ha, I tell my husband he is just like his dad, including leaving every closet and kitchen cabinets door open behind him and I am forever closing them. However, in this family it’s called being Finnish.
Peregrinus
@TooManyJens:
She does have a particular tic that I noticed – probably only because I used to do speech in high school – of raising her pitch in certain sentences without relation to what she’s talking about. That’s the one time I’ve ever found her less than perfect on delivery.
@Smiling Mortician:
Fuck gravitas. Let Tom Brokaw have gravitas. I want Rachel’s peppy smile as she sticks the shiv into the latest piece of bullshit.
Peregrinus
@bemused:
Actually, I meant being able to follow different conversational threads at the same time. It’s not considered a proper family gathering unless everyone is talking to each other, loudly, at the same time, and possibly including cusswords every two or three words.
Between me and the ever-lovely Peregrina, I’m actually the multitasker and the less handy person around the house at doing projects, whereas if she can focus on something, she can do it very very thoroughly. We’re both okay at spotting and cleaning up messes, if we remember. I, however, also legitimately enjoy doing dishes, cleaning the kitchen and folding the laundry, so my usefulness has largely been proven.
bemused
I clicked on a Raw Story about a debate on legalizing pot and Nick Gillespie was on the panel. One guess as to what he was wearing. Does he have a fetish for black leather? How many black leather jackets does the guy own? Does he wear it when it’s 90 degrees with 98% humidity? I wouldn’t be shocked to learn he sleeps in it.
Mnemosyne
@Raven:
It is a deficit (and a disorder) but, interestingly, it turns out to have very little to do with attention. Recent research is showing that it’s actually a memory problem — people with ADHD have trouble moving things into their working memory where they can actually get done.
But, yes, to the point that I think you were trying to make, I’m discovering that it’s better to try and work with it rather than against it whenever possible, but it’s tougher for women because we’re expected to remember everything (like people’s birthdays) and tend to stick with low-level jobs we’re not good at for longer because we feel like we should be able to do them if we just try hard enough.
Shawn in ShowMe
@Smiling Mortician:
I take it to mean that there’s an unbreachable divide between youth and seriousness. That’s probably why you don’t see anybody under the age of 50 anchoring a primetime news show other than Rachel. When you look at it from the point of view of “conventional wisdom”, MSNBC took a helluva risk.
Mnemosyne
@jeffreyw:
I see you tried the recipe I posted. ;-) I brought those to my office on Monday and by Tuesday people were asking when I was going to make them again.
hitchhiker
@bemused:
Mine, too. I thought it was just him.
Also, he can come across as someone who can’t articulate his thoughts well . . . took me awhile to understand that he’s just moved past what he was in the middle of saying without ever actually finishing saying it.
Makes conversation weird, sometimes — but he’s a genius.
jeffreyw
@Mnemosyne: I gave you a shoutout this thread! And even linked to your comment when I did a post on them for the W4D blog just now.
bemused
@hitchhiker:
I think mine is in his own head so much that he thinks he has said out loud what is going on in there. Often I tell him I have no idea what he is talking about and he has thought we already had that conversation.
Raven
@Mnemosyne: Bah, Thom Hartmann’s Hunter and Farmer Approach to ADD/ADHD. You want to carry it around that way help yourself. There is plenty of stuff I do way better than a “normal” person.
bemused
@Smiling Mortician:
“Girly” is not how I would describe Rachel’s style, lol.
Ben Franklin
I’m glad this turned into an anecdotal discussion. i was running out of links for the missing links :)
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: I just slapped that recipe on my mom’s Book of Faces wall. They will be made when I go back to the ranch. Oh yes, they WILL get made!
Mary G
We have come some ways from when a woman anchoring the news was likely to be pushed out the door at 40. Not far enough, though.
Nancy SMASH! and my other fellow California women in politics rock. I never thought she would quit, not for a second. She obviously loves it and loved being the one with a gavel and I hope to make sure she gets it back, and sooner than 2022.
I hope the country follows along. I was shocked to find Dianne Feinstein was up for election when I got my sample ballot. She ran a few token TV commercials towards the end of the campaign and her opponent did nothing. Never heard a peep from her; she knew as well as anyone that she didn’t have a chance. I hope for a sane, principled opposition party, but it sure is nice not to have to deal with Republicans until it arrives.
Luke Russert is a pompous idiot. I think he was revealing something most Villagers are inclined to keep under wraps. They get bored covering the same people and would rather have some new ones to talk about. They know Nancy’s beliefs and positions and don’t want to have to write the same thing over and over again. Also, too, she is too experienced and smart to stick her foot in her mouth or make gaffes like some younger or less capable politicians might. They’d rather have Todd Akin or Grumpy Grandpa McCain saying outrageous stuff that will get them clicks.
Howard Beale IV
To the GOP, Peolsi is like getting herpes-you were screwing around when you got it, but you didn’t protect yourself; you sure as hell didn’t want it, and if you could get rid of it you would.
But, much to their surprise and ultimate horror-they couldn’t, and they can’t-and to add insult to injury, there isn’t enough political acyclovir on the planet to stop a Nancy SMASH flareup.
AxelFoley
@TooManyJens:
There’s your problem right there.
Mnemosyne
@jeffreyw:
Didn’t mean to sound unappreciative — I was scrolling up through the thread from the bottom as is my wont and missed your initial comment. :-)
Julia Grey
Hey, somebody run that by me again, which side does what. I keep forgetting. Seriously. I need to know.
Hmmm. Could be a bit awkward to have 3 Roman crosses standing in your yard, especially given it’s not the Easter season. I’d take them down toot sweet, were I you.
Sound’s like that 70s TV commercial, when Women’s Lib was bedevilling the advertising game: “I bring home the bacon….fry it up in a pan…and never, never, never let you forget you’re a maaaan!” Yeah. That was hot.
Julia Grey
What perfume was that ad for?
Shawn in ShowMe
@Julia Grey:
Enjoli.
hitchhiker
@bemused:
Possibly we’re married to the same person? That happens in my house all the time. You should have seen us years ago in marriage counseling . . . therapist asks question. I answer. Silence. At some point it becomes obvious that the shrink doesn’t realize my dearest thinks he’s already spoken. Boy, those were long sessions!
Teejay
“em”, “em” her name is spelled “Steinem”.