Linda Hirshman's article about four female candidates at the Daily Beast is worth the read, even though it has been marinated in leftist attitude. Here are some snippets:
Longtime Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is either going to lose the Republican primary for governor of Texas today or, at best, lose in a runoff with Rick Perry in a couple of months. With Hutchison's retirement from the Senate, the Republicans are down to three female members. Will Congress' Republican caucus now go overwhelmingly male, just as it has already gone all white?Actually, Sue Lowden is viewed as the Republican Party’s establishment candidate because she is currently Chairman of the Nevada GOP. Her primary opponent, Jerry Tarkanian, is the more conservative of the two. But to liberal pundits such as Hirshman, all conservatives look the same in terms of ideology, i.e., "right-wingers."
Maybe not: Enter the Sarah Palin Brigade.
[...]
Republicans are popping out Palin variations all over the place. Women are making impressive showings in at least four Republican primaries where the GOP stands a reasonable chance of taking the Senate seat in the general.
And these aren't your mother's Hutchison Republicans: the 60-plus, first-women-in-their-law-school class types who have few or no children, are mildly pro-choice and fiscally conservative—ladies who came into politics, whether they admit it or not, in the wake of the feminist movement. Like their precursor, the mini-Palins—Jane Norton (Colorado), Sue Lowden (Nevada), Kelly Ayotte (New Hampshire), and Cherilyn Eagar (Utah)—are all under (most well under) 60, beautiful, impressively fecund, unreservedly conservative, and stonily pro-life.
Update: Little Miss Atilla agrees:
"Linda Hirshman is right up there with Frank Rich in her insightful insightfulness."h/t: Brian
- JP
Josh - like Sue Lowden, Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire is also the Republican Party establishment candidate. She was "hand picked" by the NRSC and Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn - just like Charlie Crist was. Even though there are other Republicans running in the primary, the NRSC and McConnell and Cornyn have held fund raisers for her - again interfering in primaries.
ReplyDeleteThe real conservative running in this primary is Ovide Lamontange. He has recently been endorsed by Steve Forbes as the best candidate on fiscal policy. I suspect the Tea Party might also endorse him. He is the true "outside" anti establishment candidate. In 1996 he ran in the gubenatorial primary as an outsider and won the Republican nomination - losing the gubenatorial race to Democrat Jeanne Sheehen. Here is a Politico story on him:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29303.html