Since Hillary Clinton came thisclose to winning the White House, the gender wars have taken a right turn and gone internecine, but could all the conflict energize a huge traditional Democratic base–women? Not likely, but still possible.
The latest all-female mud fight has Bush spokesperson Dana Perino taking on Maureen Dowd for a “stereotypical and uncalled for” attack on Republican and conservative women.
Perino is irked by a Dowd column about “Republican Mean Girls, grown-up versions of those teenage tormentors who would steal your boyfriend, spray-paint your locker and, just for good measure, spread rumors that you were pregnant.
“These women–Jan, Meg, Carly, Sharron, Linda, Michele, Queen Bee Sarah and sweet wannabe Christine–have co-opted and ratcheted up the disgust with the status quo that originally buoyed Barack Obama…replaced Hope with Spite and Cool with Cold. They are the ideal nihilistic cheerleaders for an angry electorate.”
This prompts the notoriously even-tempered Perino to respond: “Can women have moments they aren’t proud of? Sure. But to write all conservative and Republican women off as mean is…mean.”
Chalk this spat off to partisan reflexes were it not for other symptoms such as Meghan McCain’s swipe at Christine O’Donnell as “a nut job,” even as her father is out stumping for Carly Fiorina.
In these last days before the balloting, such female fisticuffs may portend something more than the kind of entertainment that enriched wrestling impresaria and would-be Senator from Connecticut Linda McMahon.
As Democrats scramble to rally their traditional strongholds–youth, African-Americans, Latinos, organized labor–there may still be untapped gold in the women’s vote.
Are the majority willing to be represented by Sarah Palin’s Mamma Grizzlies with moola?