Pity poor Elizabeth Dole, female pioneer in the ranks of professionals and politics, Harvard-educated lawyer, cabinet secretary to two presidents, and former CEO of a thriving Red Cross, who's a long shot for the presidency despite her hefty resume. The obstacles in her path come not from sexist males but from blue-blooded, back-stabbing, eyelinerless wenches of the Eastern seaboard. These feminists can't stand a woman in pastels let alone one who is pro-life. Pearls send them reeling, and a Southern-belle professional grates like nails on a chalk board.
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd fired the opening salvo in the Dole pot shots with a Nurse Ratchet analysis. Then Melinda Henneberger of the same paper offered a profile of Dole that criticized her for her "superhuman discipline." After coming to know and love our buck elk of a president lo these many years and interns, Henneberger views self-control as a negative? The article ridicules Dole's determination of how many steps she must take to get to the podium at events. No matter that the current Oval Office occupant pompously stages family walks to the helicopter.Margaret Talbot, still of the Times, argues Dole is nothing more than a political wife, lumping her in with Hillary. Talbot neglects to mention that Dole's marriage occurred after she was a Washington mover and shaker.
Finally, Judith Havemann of the Washington Post offered her piece titled, "Elizabeth Dole, Reformer? Her claims to revamping the Red Cross are a matter of debate." This article, spun from wishful thinking that Dole is a loser, describes the 41 percent increase in Red Cross revenues during the Dole years. But, the catty Judith adds, 61 percent of that jump was from selling blood products. Her point being? Well, Havemann concludes, ergo, actual public donations increased only 9 percent. Despite struggling mightily with every new math technique available, I am unable to explain the Havemann reasoning, computation or relevance. The article adds that Red Cross employees saw Dole as a "demanding taskmaster." Most presidents are not puppy farmers. Then, the fatal flaw in Dole's tenure: she cleaned up the blood supply and emphasized abstinence in the Red Cross AIDS education program. Mercy, what a bimbo Liddy is! Havemann's petty piece does all but use the word "witch."
These attacks will continue because feminists support only those they deem worthy: i.e, proper credentials and correct views. Feminists become the classic petty female when an independent woman rears her well-coifed and well- qualified head: they claw until she's down and out. If you're a woman looking for support, find a Republican who favors Estee Lauder, not a Democrat with Chap-Stick and Birkenstocks. Feminists demand equality on a selective basis: Anita Hill is their worthy and pure Ivy Leaguer, but Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick and Gennifer Flowers are a tad too cute and too commoner for feminist defense.
The feminist wile is out for Elizabeth Dole. Media myths about her thin skin ignore her simple and logical response, "I've long ago learned to deal with the slings and arrows of politics." All the negative they can spin about Dole (surely a story about her pumps is in the offing) will be bandied about as enlightened feminists resort to irrelevant gossip.
Last week, Dole spent some time in the grand state of Arizona where the top five elected posts are held by women, four of whom are Republican. A state more than comfortable with women in office, no one here noticed the fab five until some outsider mentioned it. Arizona, the home of Sandra Day O'Connor and the late Erma Bombeck, is now under its second female governor who had served as its first female speaker of the House. The current attorney general is formerly Arizona's U.S. Attorney. There's no place better than gun-totin', red-neck country for women because the men here are strongly supportive and the women even stronger with one more endearing quality -- they see qualifications and issues, not gossip. Gov. Hull's wardrobe has not once been mentioned. Former Gov. Rose Mofford took a beating on her beehive hairdo but her male predecessor took the same for his hair piece.
The intelligentsia whine of discrimination when the women they support prove unelectable. Their long-held notion that Mrs. Clinton is maligned because she is a strong woman is in error. Mrs. Clinton was not accepted because she's wacky ("vast right-wing conspiracy"), rode to power on her husband's coattails, and has socialistic tendencies, writ large in her health-care plan, that frightened even Marxists. Yet, feminists coronated her for Senate a month ago.
Elizabeth Dole could be the perfect candidate for a nation in need of a little purity on the heels of thongs. But among feminists, experience doesn't count, hair does. Results don't matter, suits do. Dole is a victim of her own chutzpah in making it to the top without subscribing to the nonsense of feminist politics and not complaining about males along the way. If feminist journalists could stop the scratching and hair-pulling of a pro-life Republican woman long enough to analyze qualifications, they would be forced to admit Dole, while possessing views contrary to their own, is Oval Office material.
Marianne M. Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies at Arizona State University. Her e-mail address is mmjdiary@aol.com