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.)
