Gloria Steinem probably has the most even-handed reaction I have seen so far to Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican Convention last Wednesday. (And a wooden, clunky one it was, too, in my opinion as a professional speechwriter! Those painful segues from her son Trig to special needs children in America, from her parents to Harry Truman, and on and on, ad nauseam.)
The speech was par for the evening, following as it did the mealy-mouthed viciousness of Rudy Giulani, sneering at “community organizers.” And where the hell do they both come off, yakking about Washington’s “liberal bias”? Republicans have dominated Congress for the past two decades and a Republican president has been in the White House for the past eight. Whatever Washington might be, the Republicans are squarely to blame.
Republicans are past masters at smearing accusations and lies, while completely ignoring their own history. Thus, they can cry “sexism” at everybody who queries Palin’s pitiful lack of qualifications for Veep, and be amused by the moron who shrieked “iron my shirt” at Hillary Rodham Clinton. Last night’s Daily Show, with Jon Stewart, beautifully nailed this GOP habit of speaking out of both sides of its mouth, with clips of the usual Republican attack dogs, Karl Rove, Bill O’Reilly, et al, making flatly contradictory statements on teen pregnancy and feminism.
(And I loved, loved, loved his clever match-ups of Fred Thompson with Foghorn Leghorn and Joe Lieberman with Droopy Dog!)
