Barbara Boxer bon mots
Having spent the day in boring busy work, I’ve had the chance to ruminate about the many, many things wrong with Barbara Boxer’s attack on Condi Rice. To refresh your recollection, here’s what happened (courtesy of the New York Post, which fuliminates at Boxer’s tackiness):
Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, an appalling scold from California, wasted no time yesterday in dragging the debate over Iraq about as low as it can go – attacking Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for being a childless woman.
Boxer was wholly in character for her party – New York’s own two Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, were predictably opportunistic – but the Golden State lawmaker earned special attention for the tasteless jibes she aimed at Rice.
Rice appeared before the Senate in defense of President Bush’s tactical change in Iraq, and quickly encountered Boxer.
“Who pays the price? I’m not going to pay a personal price,” Boxer said. “My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young.”
Then, to Rice: “You’re not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family.”
What immediately strikes one about Boxer’s attack — aside from the obvious point that people who use ad hominem attacks almost invariabley do so because they don’t have a legitimate argument to make — is how she’s retreated entirely from feminist principles. As the Anchoress observes as part of a longer post on the subject:
Feminist Boxer, aside from making a deplorable personal observation regarding Dr. Rice, is doing one of those
