Nominate Your Favorite Female Blogger

H/T to Catherine Morgan for letting us know about Women's Voices, Women Vote effort to recognize women who are using the Internet to make their voices heard. In response to observations that there are fewer political blogs by women, Catherine began a list of political blogs by women. She initially identified just over 100 political blogs by women, but that list has now grown to 337! Now, you can nominate your favorite blog by a women for special recognition at Women's Voices, Women Vote.

This is great timing. March is Women's History Month, and tomorrow, I get to speak to the Georgia Federation of Democratic Women about political blogging. I hope more women will decide to make their voices heard!

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Fred Thompson is a Bigot

Apparently, for Fred Thompson, the most important criteria for President is whether the candidate has a penis. I would argue that a brain is more important and that since Thompson has neither, he should get out of the race now before his fast-fading campaign becomes even more of an embarrassment to his Party.

Yesterday, in the context of his remarks about Bhutto's brutal assassination, no less, Thompson observed that no women in America is up to the job of being President. No, no, this was not a slip of the tongue: he has repeated this stunningly sexist opinion twice this week, and that indicates that he is tossing out red meat for his Party faithful. Earlier this month, when Thompson was asked to name his "favorite possession," he glibly replied, "trophy wife." And yet, he continues to poll in double digits among Republicans. Amazing, really.

I can promise you this: a Democratic candidate for President who thought that it was all in good fun to refer to his wife as a "possession" or a "trophy" or who announced that women are unqualified for the nation's highest office, would have zero chance of getting elected dog catcher much less getting the Party's nomination for President. Yet, I haven't heard any Republicans-even the women-banging on podiums to disavow Thompson's remarks, have you? And there in lies the problem for the Republican Party.

There are a long list of reasons I support John Edwards in the Democratic primary, but Hillary Clinton's gender is not one of them. She, along with a long list of other women in this country, are infinitely more qualified to be President than a backwoods bigot from Tennessee who is so out of touch with mainstream America that he doesn't realize-or doesn't care-that he just royally pissed off more than half of the electorate. Fred needs to have his limo driver take him around back so he can jump in his faux-red pickup truck and drive himself back to Tennessee. Perhaps he can pick up his good friend Scooter Libby along the way.

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GOP Candidates Mum on Moms

..and anything else that has to do specifically with women. Joanne Bamberger points out in this piece at Huffington Post that while Democratic candidates like John Edwards and Joe Biden and other have clear platform statements about women's issues-none-read that none of the r's do. Oh, they have things about the "sanctity of life" and such but nothing, I said nothing, about women's issues. Sort of lets you know where you stand with them, doesn't it? Here's an except from Joanne's piece:

And I have to say, I was shocked. At least from what they've got on their sites, it seems like the Republicans aren't very interested in women. Granted, all issues are, in one way or another, women's issues. But I'm looking for something specific about the ones we tend to deal with a lot more than our husbands, partners and significant others.
As for the Democrats, they all have places on their websites to address the so-called "women's issues." John Edwards has his Promise for American Women. Chris Dodd wrote the Family and Medical Leave Act. Hillary Clinton is calling herself a "Champion for Women." Joe Biden has a whole section on his website called "Empowering Women to Take Charge."
So I assumed that the GOP candidates would have similar topics on their sites.
I'm still looking.

Well, what I'd say about that is that if they don't care about us, then we don't vote for them. I suppose their platform on women's issues is that they will, in the most paternalistic way possible, "protect us." Oh, joy.

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Eggs at Issue

The traditional "Eggs and Issues" breakfast at the beginning of the legislative session may take on a whole new meaning this year with the "Human Life Amendment" on the table for this session. I posted about this yesterday, and Catherine Morgan over at Political Voices of Women picked it up today with this comment:

My Opinion: This is the kind of thing that really infuriates me. With issues like the war, our broken healthcare system, education, the economy, and so on and so on…Tricking the voting public with wedge issues like this makes me sick. The only thing worse than using a wedge issue to manipulate the voting public, is a wedge issue that will take take away personal rights of women…This is an infuriating story.

This is a national issue for the next election cycle as republicans seek to put this on the ballot in critical states. It's wedge issue politics, and I agree with Catherine: the only thing worse than a wedge is a wedge that tramples on women's most basic rights.

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