I'm glad that President Obama is nominating Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense, because he promises to bring some sense and sensibility to how the United States uses its power abroad and how it decides when and when not to go to war . . . and also because his appointment is driving neo-conservative war hawks in the Senate crazy.
But, with the top three cabinet posts going to men, and white men at that - John Kerry for Secretary of State (soon to be the first white male to hold that post since 1997), Jack Lew for Secretary of the Treasury, and Hagel for Secretary of Defense - progressive groups are griping about the absence of women in the top posts, and how President Obama didn't adequately defend Susan Rice when she was the prospective Secretary of State nominee. I seem to remember the very recent past much differently. I seem to remember Obama urging Republican senators attacking Susan Rice - one of whom was a woman - to attack him instead, defending her in the process. I also seem to remember that the person who told Obama not to nominate Susan Rice for State was Susan Rice herself, because this was a fight she did not want him to pick.
I sometimes get a little nervous when women's groups start pushing more female candidates for elective and appointive office, largely because their successful efforts to get a woman to win the Democratic nomination for the 2010 special U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts led to the rise of Scott Brown. President Obama was all ready to nominate Dr. Rice for Secretary of State until she took herself out of contention, though this time, naming a woman to head the State Department would have prevented the second coming of Scott Brown, because he's likely to run for the other U.S. Senate seat about to be vacated by John Kerry so Kerry can become Secretary of State. Now there's irony for you.
More irony: Susan Rice is known to be belligerent and assertive, presumably making her a neo-con's dream candidate for the nation's top diplomatic post, especially when it comes to dealing with countries like Iran. Kerry promises to be more cautious . . . just like Chuck Hagel.
Meanwhile, Chris Matthews is pleased with the Kerry appointment because he believes that he, not Susan Rice, is the best qualified candidate for Secretary of State. Meanwhile, former Arkansas governor and Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee is blasting Obama for instigating a "war on women" for not naming any women to his top Cabinet posts, even though Huckabee is anti-abortion and anti-contraception.
It takes a lot of damn gall for a misogynistic television commentator to opine about Obama's lack of female choices for the top Cabinet positions. I'm talking about Chris Matthews. He devoted a segment of his MSNBC show "Hardball" to the issue last night. Isn't he the same person who commended the President for picking both Kerry and Hagel for his Cabinet? Not to mention the same person who said Hillary Clinton won the New Hampshire presidential primary in 2008 because "her husband messed around."
And while this is going on, Tennessee congresswoman Marsha Blackburn introduced a bill to defund Planned Parenthood for offering abortions - see, if a woman proposes such an idea, it's not part of a war on women, so there is no war on women! - even though most of its services go to women's health issues unrelated to abortion.
Okay. Here's what I say. Planned Parenthood should be funded. Abortion should be legal. But the reason President Obama chose men for his top three Cabinet positions is because they happen to be the best qualified people for their respective jobs, not counting women who asked not to be named to anything. If women want to complain about Obama's "pathetic" record on appointing women to government positions - 43 percent of his appointees are women, plus two Supreme Court justices, one of them Hispanic - fine. And if Republicans want to advocate more female participation in government by getting women to wage a war on women they insist is non-existent - women who are funnier and no less mean-spirited than Patricia Heaton but more dangerous because they're elected officials - fine. I don't want to hear any of it. I want no part of this Carrollian Wonderland where everything is the opposite of itself and where the Tea Party is controlled by Mona Lisas (Marsha Blackburn, Sarah Palin) and Mad Hatters (Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan). Because, ultimately, I have no preferences or prejudices when it comes to American men and American women.
I'm equally disgusted with all of them.
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