Mis-leading Ladies

Sarah Palin is not a happy camper, or so she told Politico this week. The Alaska governor thinks the press is giving Caroline Kennedy preferential treatment. She is interested in seeing how Kennedy "will be handled," and whether the media will use kid gloves.

More to the point, the former Republican vice presidential candidate says there is what she calls a "class issue" behind the scrutiny to which she has been subjected, but she never really expands on what exactly she means by that. She describes herself as "momma grizzly" when it comes to protecting her daughter from the paparazzi, but what she neglects to say is that, for the past several years, she could have been the poster child for the upwardly mobile.

Indeed, since 1992, Ms. Palin rose from a member of Wasilla's city council to being Wasilla's mayor. Then, in 2002, she took aim at the job of lieutenant governor of Alaska, but missed, and went on to chair the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Committee after which she became Alaska's first female governor.

By way of contrast, while she was the daughter of the closest thing this country has had to royalty, after graduating from Radcliffe, Caroline Kennedy went to work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she met her future husband, exhibit designer Edwin Schlossberg. Kennedy went on to get a law degree from Columbia University, and co-author two books on civil liberties. She serves on the boards of several notable nonprofits, and has been a steadfast supporter of poetry. But, for the most part, she has spent the past several years gainfully employed raising her children, a fact she readily, and unapologetically, acknowledges (something that might indeed bring a big smile to her father's face).

I guess if one considers "class" a static thing, and rather like a caste system, Governor Palin's argument about Kennedy's lineage might make sense, but one would have a hard time making that stick in an age when two of our country's presidents were raised by single moms, including Barack Obama, one was a peanut farmer, and another an actor.

Ultimately, then, Palin's observations about class, and treatment, or mistreatment, by the media are misleading, and don't hold water except insofar as they make for compelling irony given her party affiliation.

But, irony aside, Sarah Palin is right about one thing. The media spend a lot more time on our leading ladies then our misleading ones. Take, for example, how little air time was devoted to revelations, last month, that another leading lady, and outgoing secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, in her capacity as national security advisor, helped former White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, cover his tracks when he lied to Congress with his contention that the CIA originated the spreading of false information about Iraq's attempt to acquire uranium back in 2002.

Indeed, Condi Rice has been given a get out of jail free card despite the findings of a House committee that both she and Gonzales misled the public and Congress; Rice in her public assertion that she wasn't aware the CIA had doubts about the Iraq uranium issue before the controversial announcement despite the contention of George Tenet, former director of the CIA, that the CIA sent memos to the White House questioning the Iraq uranium claim well before the broadcast.

Rice has also managed to escape friendly fire when discussion of who approved waterboarding, and other alternative interrogation methods, comes up despite her presence, and participation in meetings at which these techniques, tantamount to torture, were openly discussed, and approved.

Back in 2002, a former CIA deputy reportedly spoke with Rice, and advised her to avoid making any public assertions about uranium enrichment in Iraq, one of the principal pretexts for taking the U.S. to war. Yet, in 2003, Rice agreed that the claim never should have found its way into a speech based on what she had only recently learned when she had that information long before, and suppressed it, thereby deliberately misleading Congress, and the American people.

What is the common denominator between Condoleezza Rice and Sarah Palin? Both women are political careerists, and party apologists, and both have more than the lion's share of talent in the art of deception. In her recent bid for the executive branch, Palin has proven herself to be quite adept at coming across like the girl next door, and the paragon of unpretentiousness, when even Macbeth would envy her singleminded ambition.

And, as another misleading lady, Ms. Rice has managed to deflect the kind of high voltage charges that have been leveled at former attorney general Gonzales, and others in the Bush camp, both in terms of their active efforts to tweak traditional definitions of torture, politicize Justice by using party affiliation as a prerequisite for employment, and try to legitimize an illegal war.

No one will dispute that Caroline Kennedy has had certain advantages from birth, but the insinuation that this progeny of a family that has, for generations, worked to dispell economic, and racial, disparity in this country will in some way work to secure the betterment of others who have the advantage of being born well is flat out misleading and fales.

More importantly, no one can accuse Ms. Kennedy of being a misleading lady. What you see is what you get. She has never tried to come across as anything other than what she is--a wife, mother, attorney, lifelong supporter of civil liberties, education, poetry, and humanitarian causes.

Governor Patterson would be wise to give Caroline Kennedy the opportunity to complete the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton's term in the Senate. As Kennedy herself has said, there are many different ways to perform public service, and she would be a refreshing change from those who have made a career of manipulating public opinion in their own favor.

Comments

[sgkiner]

"The Hong Kong Connection" is a legal thriller about a gutsy female attorney who takes on high ranking International officials. It's a taut, rollercoaster of a ride from New York to Palm Beach to Washington D.C. to Hong Kong. The plot is expertly woven, the characters persuasive, and the dialogue snappy and spot on.
www.StrategicBookPublishing.com/TheHongKongConnection.html

[laurenc]

The most important paragraph in your post is the summary of Condi Rice's record.
As a Black woman, she's been given a complete pass in terms of her (mis)behavior.
It's deeply offensive to have no accountability for such staggering lapses.

As far as Caroline's dad, he created a Commission of the Status of Women, which gave rise to National Organization for Women, so in his own way he was responding to the uproar over the lack of opportunities for married women with children. Undoubtedly he'd have been just as happy if Carolyn managed a day job ALONG with raising children, like millions of other working women have done.

[Jayne Lyn Stahl - Huffpost Blogger]

You're absolutely right about Caroline's dad. I think that whichever way she went, whether she decided to stay at home to raise her children, or pursue a day job along with raising her children, her father would have approved.

I think JFK would say whatever decision a woman makes should be respected, and not used as a way of diminishing her, or disqualifying her from pursuing other more "professional" options down the road.

The real tragedy, of course, is that we'll never know what he would say, but can only surmise that he was the kind of dad who would support his children whatever their decisions in life were.

[dennis181]

Great, insightful piece. No surprise about Palin's comments, either...."Blame the media" is a standard response.

Good job, Ms. Stahl.

[meko]

These are the people under consideration who have announced that they questionnaires from Paterson. I don't see what they've done to deserve your disrespect and censure.

Congressman Joseph Crowley
Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney
Congressman Jerrold Nadler
Congressman Steve Israel
Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand
Congressman Brian Higgins
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi
Mayor Byron Brown
Borough President Adolfo Carrion
Caroline Kennedy

I don't see Rice or Palin on the list. I don't see why public servants need to be attacked with your guilt-by-association techniques. If the people who Kennedy are up against have done something corrupt or shameful, call them out on their own actions.

[Jayne Lyn Stahl - Huffpost Blogger]

Excuse me, but where do you see "disrespect" or "censure" for Andrew Cuomo, Jerrold Nadler, Carolyn B. Maloney, or any of those you've named on your list any of whom would be exceedingly well-suited to replace Senator Clinton, and should indeed consider running for her seat.

The post merely suggests that while a temporary, two year appointment is at hand, the governor of New York give someone a shot up at bat who is appointed not elected with the understanding that her appointment is a temporary one.

If it appears, in any way shape or form, that there was either disrespect, or censure, intended for Secretary of State Rice, please be advised that this is not the case, not at all. I think that she is a gracious, highly intelligent, and articulate person whose actions while arguably well-intentioned have been shown to be misguided. Nor, for that matter, do I intend to show disrespect, or censure, for Sarah Palin, only a wanton lack of the kind of nuance necessary to provide enlightened leadership now or in the future.

[meko]

The suggestion that Paterson should appoint Kennedy as "a refreshing change from those who have made a career of manipulating public opinion in their own favor" does imply that the rest of the people Paterson is considering for the seat fall into that category.

All the people on that list have received the governor's questionnaire for prospective senators. When people say "experience in politics is the problem" it's their experience that is being downgraded.

Governor Paterson has said that he will not appoint a caretaker to the seat. So anyone who is appointed is expected to be a candidate in the next election.

Unless he sincerely believes that of all the people on that list Caroline Kennedy is the person who can best legislate on behalf of the State of New York, he has no business adding the advantages of incumbency to those Caroline Kennedy would have in the next election.

[meko]

I home that Patterson give a respectful hearing to Congresswomen Maloney and Gillibrand as well. They have demonstrated legislative competence and don't deserve to be smeared along with Rice and Palin.

They, not Rice and Palin, are the ones up for this senate nomination, along with a number of qualified male public servants.

While balancing the ticket in terms of gender is admirable, it would also be nice to have a black senator (Brown) or an upstater represent New York. There are a lot of forms of diversity.

[Henry]

I remember when Caroline addressed the Democratic Convention several years ago. I was impressed. I hoped for another address to the Republican Convention by a star that never appeared. That would be Julie Nixon Eisenhower. Where is she? I am serious about this.