Government is a Man’s Job

By Eric on December 27, 2007

Earlier this month, Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand announced that she was pregnant. No scandal here–the Congresswoman and her husband decided to have a child–until one constituent (probably a strong supporter of family values) wrote a letter to the editor (scroll down the page) arguing that this pregnancy was just one more example of why women can’t serve in the U.S. Congress.

Naturally, this letter prompted some responses from the sane part of the world. Feministing’s Jessica Valenti responded by sarcastically asking if male politicians should similarly “reimburse their daily salaries when they have to go to get prostate exams or prescriptions for their Viagra.” FundieWatch has a sentence-by-sentence breakdown of the letter, and Jesse Wendel from GroupNewsBlog responded with a letter of his own.

It’s one thing when there’s just one self-described “male chauvinist” spouting off crap to the editor of his local newspaper. But what about when the crap is being spewed by a major presidential candidate?

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson on Wednesday teased Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying “there is no woman on the horizon that ought to be president next year.”
…
Thompson continued to refer to the next president as a man who should represent conservative principles and values, and should be examined “by what he believes and by where he’s been and what he’s done.”

Thompson claims he’s not opposed to a female president since “I’ve got a daughter that’s going to be president some day,” but I have a hard time believing him. The entire purpose of his speech is to single out Clinton as a woman and, therefore, unqualified for the presidency. Moreover, he’s trying to win the hearts and minds of fundamentalist Christians who believe that a woman’s place is, according to the Bible, in the kitchen. He strongly believes that a woman can be president, except she will be unqualified because she’s a woman. Or maybe he’s saying that women just aren’t ready to be president yet. Maybe women still have to do something (grow a penis?) before Thompson will consider them ready for the high office of President of the United States.

So my question for Mr. Thompson is: when will it be a good time for a woman to be president?

Tags: 2008, Fred Thompson, Hillary Clinton, Kirsten Gillibrand, women's rights

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