Idiot Princess™

by Molly Ivors

*sigh*

Seems like we just did this, doesn't it?

But then, MoDo must be telling herself the same thing.

Yes, the Idiot Princess™ is at it again, sharpening her tools for her paymasters who clearly fear Hillary with a pathology that must be based on some deep Freudian shit, to judge by its intensity and depth. Also by its cavalier approach to what, you know, might actually have happened.

But I can't keep doing this to myself, so I'm going to pick one assertion and assess it, trusting that the rest of the blogosphere will handle the "not really a feminist!" "she has balls!" "she mentioned a kitchen!" cowpies littering the landscape.

Today, in MoDo's world, the New York State Senate election of 2000 is rewritten.

If the gender game worked when Rick Lazio muscled into her space, why shouldn’t it work when Obama and Edwards muster some mettle? If she could become a senator by playing the victim after Monica, surely she can become president by playing the victim now.

Excuse me, but I have something I need to say.

Fuck.

You.

Hillary won her Senate seat because she busted her fucking ass. I know the cocktail party circuit isn't so interested in the problems of rural upstate, but she was. She sat down with factory workers and farmers, she visited small towns and places where the population was hemorrhaging. I know, MoDo, I lived there. I live there still, and let me tell you, we don't really care, up here, if someone is a "real feminist"--we care if they will represent our interests.

I went to several campaign events in 2000, and you know what? She never mentioned Monica once. Bill wasn't with her. She wasn't a victim, she was a person with policies. Up here, I admit, we have a certain pugnacious 'tude toward those who assure us that New York ends at the Hudson. Hillary won because she knew that wasn't true, and didn't act as though it were.

When I was a kid, people moved to my town. That may sound like not such a big thing, but between 1990 and 2000, the upstate city I know best, Binghamton, lost 11.8% of its population. Between 2000 and 2006, it lost an additional 2.3%. Still losing, but slowed significantly. She managed to staunch the bleeding of the population and bring two significant employers to this area, at least, something the functionally retarded George Pataki never gave one flying fuck about. And I met a sort of person I haven't met in ages yesterday: people who moved here, one from Colorado, two from Arizona. Suddenly, I believed in my home in a way I hadn't in years.

Let me clarify something for you. Rick Lazio was a proud-to-be-an-asshole fratboy in the mode of George W. Bush. Because the rest of the country went insane and decided to hand the reins of government to someone clearly unqualified and in over his head, don't assume that New York did the same. Of course, we went for Gore, too, despite MoDo's assertion that the Vice President, Oscar winner, and Nobel laureate lactated.

If Hillary had run on the "victim" platform, one would expect that her numbers would crash once she was in office. Sadly, for Maureen's narrative, they did not, and her 2006 win was even more decisive.

There is no doubt that a case for "Hillary the Vote Getter" can be made with cold, hard facts. She was reelected in 2006 with 67 percent of the vote, 12 percentage points better than her first run in 2000. She won 58 of the Empire State's 62 counties (after carrying only 15 six years earlier). And she swept every region of the state, most notably the vast Republican-oriented upstate sector, by comfortable margins. The latter is a clear demonstration, her proponents say, of her ability to make inroads in "Red America" on a wider scale in 2008.

Wow, that victim mantle sure must have a long train!

Ms. Dowd is clearly determined to spin out every wingnut fantasy about Hillary and to attack her on everything except actual issues. As it happens, I differ with Hillary on several issues, but this line of attack pisses me off. Hillary's vajayjay has nothing--nothing whatsoever--to do with her governing abilities. Only MoDo and her compatriots in The Village think it does.

And then there were these white wolves in the trees and Mo had a little cough.

Below: How MoDo sees herself, facing down the dangerous seductions of Hillary. (I think Ariels's red is more natural-looking than Maureen's, however.)

Comments

[ql- was in NY]

I made a conscious decision not to read modo today. Damn. If you just covered one item I hate to think what the rest of the column was like.

[Uncle Smokes]

As you know from the CD I recently sent you, Molly, I'm not terribly thrilled with the idea of a Hillary Clinton presidency for policy reasons--and I am rather put off by idea that feminine gender, both pro and con, should have anything to do with a voting decision.

However, the crazed, neurotic babble by folks like Dowd is making me want President Hillary Clinton with a vengence.

Keep up the crap work, MoDo!

[Molly Ivors]

Smokes,
Of course, and my beloved simels has his reservations too. All fine, as long as it's about policy and not filtering everything through the lens of gender.

MoDo does more damage to women than I can say. I shudder to think what Molly Ivins would say to her.

[trifecta]

It was that bad QL. Mo Dowd is going to go all Gore 2000 once again. She has learned nothing other than the reflection in the mirror looks a bit older and sadder and it is still all about her.

Vapid thy name is Maureen.

[coozledad]

MoDo's not aging gracefully, and there's a touch of panic audible in her appraisal of Hillary. She'll probably be doing even more lap dances for castration-anxiety prone males in the next few years, if only to squirrel enough away for the cosmetic surgery she needs to maintain the fragile threads of her psyche.

[coozledad]

You beat me to it, trifecta.

[res ipsa loquitur]

If the gender game worked when Rick Lazio muscled into her space...

I fail to see how standing there when Lazio crossed that stage (in a manner that was absolutely designed to intimidate her physically and provoke embarassment) constittues "playing the gender game." How does just standing there constitute "playing"?

Fuck you, Dowd. I'm sending Hillary cash today just because of you. And trust me, she doesn't need my lousy $50. Asshole.

[tomdurkin]

On the off chance my catholic education wasn't wasted, Molly Ivins is in a far far better place than the one MoDo is destined for.

[watertiger]

See, some of us saw Hillary remaining at her podium while Lazio tried to bully her as "standing her ground".

Only Modo would see it as "paralyzed with fear."

Fuck you, Maureen. You don't deserve one penny of your lousy paycheck.

[ecoast]

Molly, Great post.
Write an LTE to NYT.

[jhe]

I agree with Digby's point that it doesn't matter who the Democrat is, the VRWC with their willing collaborators in the village will target that person with this crap.

The only person who I think is really ready to handle it is Hillary. I have the same policy reservations as others have mentioned here and elsewhere and a concern over missing the best chance in a generation to enact a social democracy agenda, but the risk of President Gulliani because Edwards or someone else closer to me politically doesn't get up the learning curve on swift-boat politics fast enough isn't worth it.

I hate the electability argument and this subtlety different (electoral competence rather than likability with some ill-defined demographic), but it's basically why I've come around to Hillary.

[n69n]

even the first sentence is fucking dipshit.

[Oilfieldguy]

Does the carpet match the drapes?

[wfwjd?]

Binghamton, huh? Have a spiedie for me!

[DrDick]

I do not like Hillary, based on her policies and corporatist positions, but this is simply bullshit. Hillary is a smart, tough, highly qualified politician. She is far better qualified than any of the 7 dwarves on the right. She also campaigns on policies and issues, again unlike most of the Republicans, who are campaigning on "Boo! Scary brown furriners and taxes and stuff!" This constant trivialization of Democratic candidates is absolutely infuriating.

[vanderleun]

And not necessary since they trivialize themselves so well.

[bbbustard]

There seems to be a consensus building up around here - and it's seems to be a backlash coupled with a recognition of what we're up against that can only be helpful to the Dems - so maybe we want MoDo to keep on being MoDo.

[Maddie In Florida]

Sexist BS...the gender card.

Digby said it best and boy I am with her 100%:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

What a bunch of Neanderthal sexist jerks.

[Maddie In Florida]

Sexist BS...the gender card.

Digby said it best and boy I am with her 100%:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

What a bunch of Neanderthal sexist jerks.

[julia]

Nah, this is narrative. Juan Williams rolled it out on Morning Edition the day after the debate, when everything another candidate had to say to or about her was framed as a physical assault, to the point where Williams actually felt it was necessary to make an excuse for it.

She's a girl. Even if she's a really tough girl, men - even girly men like Democrats - can take a girl. Imagine what the islamo...

Whatever. Modo completed her descent into parody with the Caitlin Flanagan callout. She's not even pretending not to be Norma Desmond any more.

Yep. The meme's been circulated, and the lazy Villagers, who can't stand to think up their own story-lines, are swallowing this one hook, line and sinker.

She IS attacked because she is a woman, and bullied in a way that any woman can see, but she's not allowed to call it bullying. Just like Kerry shouldn't have called out the Swift Boaters. Defending yourself from these criminals is the worst thing you can do.

God, I hate it when victims complain!

[Gary Denton]

DrDick is absolutely right. Hillary is about my fourth choice but she is a smarter and tougher than all the GOP candidates. The redhead needs to up her meds.

[guy in Jersey]

"She sat down with factory workers and farmers, she visited small towns and places ...."

And she sat down with the defense lobbyists, and with the health-insurance lobbyists, and the pharmaceutical lobbyists, and with AIPAC, and when it counted most, with George W. Bush.

Not that MoDo isn't full of it, but look who you're defending.

[Ray Radlein]

It's not like The Village is unaware of Hillary's studious and careful mastery of retail politics during her first Senate run; the Inside Baseball Crowd made a note of it at the time. But when you exist in the rarefied neighborhood of MoDo, you are always allowed to invent a new Common Wisdom whenever you want, as long as it's appropriately juicy.

[es]

Spiedies: Lupo's or Salamida's?

Visit spiedies.com for the answer!

[mike]

So far, Dowd is on record of hating the following women:

-Hillary Clinton
-Judith Dean
-Teresa Heinz Kerry
-Michelle Obama

These women are VERY different from each other, (hell, they're not even all Democrats) so what could it be that Dowd hates in all four?

It seems to me that it's physically impossible to hate each of these women and, ya' know, actually LIKE women.

[Molly Ivors]

Well, my brother and sister both worked at Lupo's, es, so I think I'm obligated to side with them.

Though I did go to high school with a Salamida...

[reslez]

It's the old one-two. First you attack her for playing the gender card. Then you attack her gender. Any response to the second attack feeds into the first. The trouble is, this is Neanderthal-level thinking. Anyone who'd be convinced by it could never have been persuaded to vote for her anyway. Nobody out there thinks Hillary is a girlie girl. That narrative is total fail. It's the opposite of the old Roveian maxim, "Turn your opponent's greatest strength into their greatest weakness". Hillary's gender is her already biggest weakness. Her opponents don't get points for pointing out the obvious.

[Ferris]

Molly,
I was raised in Elmira/Binghamton and still have family there.

I can tell you from personal experience the ones who still live there love Hillary because she listens to them and comes through.

The Helicopter contract, to name a minor case.

It hurts to go back. Hillary and Eliot are the only two that seem to be listening to them.

[Edward Furey]

I was astonished to discover when my daughter began kindergarten in a New York City public school in 1996 that the school was heated by coal, and that the New York City public school system was the largest non-industrial user of anthracite coal in the United States. Another school in the neighborhood was also coal fired.

I said to my wife: they keep talking about getting public schools into the 21st Century; these buildings haven't even made it into the 20th Century.

The first New York politician I ever heard making the same observation was Hillary Clinton in the warm-up to her Senate run in 2000. I'm not sure if she had anything to do with it, but pretty soon the old coal fired burners were replaced with gas furnaces.

[186]

I remember the Lazio / Clinton race very well, the infamous moment where Lazio walked over to Hillary during the debate and asked her to agree to a pledge the media pounced and ripped Lazio up until election day. Hillay and the media played the "gender card" big time in 2000 in Hillary's favor. This time the Media is not so willing.

[186]

By the way NYC Schools have coal fired boilers because the UNIONS refused to get rid of them because you then loose the "Boiler Tender" jobs.

[duus]

great post. thanks.

slightly off topic, but in the spirit of Ferris (Nov 4. 12:14pm) I just moved to Binghamton from Ann Arbor (started working at Bing univ.) Very interested in your comments on how binghamton has changed and what Clinton did for this part of upstate NY. It made me happy to hear of this side of her political successes.

[duus]

reslez said: "It's the old one-two. First you attack her for playing the gender card. Then you attack her gender. Any response to the second attack feeds into the first."

Good observation.

[Donna Queen]

Spiedies are best cooked by some guy with a hibachi outside a seedy bar on Clinton Street. Do they still do that?

[jonst]

Thank you Molly. Having read Dowd, and Rich, for that matter, this AM, I've been walking around all morning pissed off. They are both in Gore attack mode.

No matter how pissed off I am at Hillary, (and I am) she did not deserve what she got today, and got this week. The 'she played the gender card' is a friggin joke to me. As if males have not, and are not, playing their cards. I'm for her now....(but MAN I wish she would dump on Lieberman and change her stance on Iran). But that said....I'll give her my time, and my money, as I will any of the Dems running. Though I have problems with all of them. The overriding issue here is to get the GOP out of the White House.

[jonst]

Thank you Molly. Having read Dowd, and Rich, for that matter, this AM, I've been walking around all morning pissed off. They are both in Gore attack mode.

No matter how pissed off I am at Hillary, (and I am) she did not deserve what she today, and this week. I'm for her now....(but MAN I wish she would dump on Lieberman and change her stance on Iran). But that said....I'll give her my time, and my money, as I will any of the Dems running. Though I have problems with all of them. The overriding issue here is to get the GOP out of the White House.

[Phoenix Woman]

As far as I'm concerned, she is and forever will be The Harpy.

[Molly Ivors]

Fuck off, 186. Lazio attempted a bit of political theater and it rightly backfired.

duus, drop me an email if you want to get coffee or something. I have a pretty long view of the area. One weird thing is that only recently have there been any meaningful university/community partnerships, which is more striking when you consider a town like Ithaca, where half the jobs in town are just such partnerships.

[Melinda]

I'm from the same region (between Ithaca and Watkins Glen) and can't really say that I believe that Clinton has helped the upstate economy all that much, really. but I'll definitely agree that she worked her ass off in her campaign for Senate and she's worked her ass off as a senator. I saw yard signs for her way the heck out in rural Chenango County, which I've always thought of as true-blue real-deal Republican territory, before the GOP turned mean. Well, meaner.

Guy in NJ - Lazio didn't sit down with farmers or factory workers. He figured that he had upstate sewn up and didn't even come up to campaign. I'm not a Clinton fan and don't want her to be president, but you can't take away from her how hard she's worked for those of us here in the hinterlands.

[Molly Ivors]

Spiedies are best cooked by some guy with a hibachi outside a seedy bar on Clinton Street. Do they still do that?

In the summer, yes.

[Molly Ivors]

Melinda,
Well, I see significant changes in Broome and Tioga, but of course every region has its own challenges. Whole lot of nothing out here.

And actually, I agree that she's a good senator for upstate and if anyone were to consult me about her political future, I'd like to see her stay a senator for another term or two.

But the MoDo line of attack is pure bullshit.

[186]

"Phoenix Woman"

Nice Mouth, way to raise the level of debate.

[Judith]

funny - I havent read her in years - I think she is embarrassing - and yet today I skimmed the first paragraph of her junk and had the same reaction - oh, fuck you Maureen. I laughed when I read Wolcott and just had to come here and say I agree.

[Molly Ivors]

Nice Mouth, way to raise the level of debate.

You must be new around here. We don't buy into the civility game.

[Oberon]

Binghamton...spiedies...mmm

[Thers]

I agree with 186. No more fucking cursing, or we won't have a debate of the classy sort held my Dowd or Instpundit.

Keep it the fuck clean, you fuckers.

[JoeCHI]

The Politics of Identity Politics:

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/11/4/115111/084

[shrimplate]

It was called "SUNY Binghamton" back when I graduated. Great school.

Rick Lazio was/is a Long Guy Land goombah who never showed any concern for Upstate and Hillary really put in her time there. She still does.

She's the over-all best senator New York has had since Moynihan, and even staunch Adirondack Republican misogynists have to acknowledge her work and attention.

Now I'm in The Valley of the Sun and I'd gladly trade both Kyl and McLame for the likes of Hillary anyday.

I was always part of the "Moe Loogham is already here and he won't go away" sub-sect.

[ws]

i'm thinking modo & rich are auditioning for the lapdancing they'll be doing on the imus reunion tour.

fuck all 3.

fuck, fuck, fuck.

there, now my head won't explode.

and thanks! you have no idea how much your pov means to a pissed off former new yorker now southern fucking belle.