[Dialogue] Drapes of Wrath

Sat Nov 11 18:39:14 EST 2006

Of course, we always love Maureen!

In a message dated 11/11/2006 4:35:50 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
h-wainwright at charter.net writes:

 (http://www.nytimes.com/) 

____________________________________

November 11,  2006 
Op-Ed  Columnist 
Drapes of  Wrath  
By _MAUREEN  DOWD_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/maureendowd/index.html?inline=nyt-per)  
Washington 
The new  Democratic sweep conjures up an ancient image: Furies swooping down 
to punish  bullies. 
Angry winged  goddesses with dog heads, serpent hair and blood eyes, unmoved 
by tears,  prayer, sacrifice or nasty campaign ads, avenging offenses by 
insolent  transgressors. 
This will be  known as the year macho politics failed — mainly because it was 
macho politics  by marshmallow men. Voters were sick of phony swaggering, 
blustering and  bellicosity, absent competency and accountability. They were 
ready to trade in  the deadbeat Daddy party for the sheltering Mommy party.   
All the  conservative sneering about a fem-lib from San Francisco who was 
measuring the drapes  for the speaker’s office didn’t work. Americans wanted new 
drapes, and an  Armani granny with a whip in charge. 
A recent study  found that the testosterone of American men has been dropping 
for 20 years,  but in Republican Washington, it was running amok, and not in 
a good way. Men  who had refused to go to an untenable war themselves were now 
refusing to find  an end to another untenable war that they had recklessly  
started. 
Republicans were  oddly oblivious to the fact that they had turned into a 
Thomas Nast cartoon:  an unappetizing tableau of bloated, corrupt, dissembling, 
feckless white hacks  who were leaving kids unprotected. Tom DeLay and Bob Ney 
sneaking out of  Congress with dollar bills flying out of their pockets. Denny 
Hastert playing  Cardinal Bernard Law, shielding Mark Foley. Rummy, cocky and 
obtuse as he  presided over an imploding Iraq, while failing to give young 
men and women in  the military the armor, support and strategy they needed to 
come home safely.  Dick Cheney, vowing bullheadedly to move “full speed ahead” 
on  Iraq no matter what the voters  decided. W. frantically yelling about how 
Democrats would let the terrorists  win, when his lame-brained policies had 
spawned more  terrorists. 
After 9/11,  Americans had responded to bellicosity, drawn to the image, as 
old as the  Western frontier myth, of the strong father protecting the home 
from invaders.  But this time, many voters, especially women, rejected the rough 
Rovian scare  and divide tactics.  
The macho poses  and tough talk of the cowboy president were undercut when he 
seemed flaccid in  the face of the vicious Katrina and the vicious Iraq  
insurgency. 
Even former  members of the administration conceded they were tired of the 
muscle-bound  style, longing for a more maternal approach to the globe. “We were 
exporting  our anger and our fear, hatred for what had happened,” Richard 
Armitage, the  former deputy secretary of state, said in a speech in Australia,  
referring to the 9/11 attacks. He said America needed  “to turn another face 
to the world and get back to more traditional things,  such as the export of 
hope and opportunity and  inspiration.” 
Talking about  hope and opportunity and inspiration has propelled Barack 
Obama into the  presidential arena. His approach seems downright feminine when 
compared with  the Bushies, or even Hillary Clinton. He languidly poses in 
fashion magazines,  shares feelings with Oprah and dishes with the ladies on “The 
View.” After six  years of chest-puffing, Senator Obama seems very  soothing. 
Because of the  power of female consumers, some marketing experts predict we 
will end up a  matriarchy. This year, women also flexed their muscle at the 
polls,  transformed into electoral Furies by the administration’s stubborn 
course in  Iraq. 
On Tuesday, 51  percent of the voters were women, and 55 percent of women 
voted for the  Democratic candidate. It was a revival of the style of Bill 
Clinton, dubbed  our first female president, who knitted together a winning 
coalition of  independents, moderates and suburbanites. 
According to The  Times’s exit polls, women were more likely than men to want 
some or all of the  troops to be withdrawn from Iraq now, and 64 percent of 
women said that the  war in Iraq has not  improved U.S.  security. 
The Senate has a  new high of 16 women and the House has a new high of at 
least 70, with a few  races outstanding. Hillary’s big win will strengthen her 
presidential  tentacles.  
Nancy Pelosi,  who will be the first female speaker, softened her voice and 
look as she  cracked the whip on her undisciplined party, taking care not to 
sound shrill.  When she needs to, though, she says she can use her “
mother-of-five  voice.” 
At least for the  moment, W. isn’t blustering and Cheney has lost his tubby 
swagger. The  president is trying to ride the Mommy vibe. He even offered 
Madame Speaker  help with those new drapes.  

_Copyright  2006_ 
(http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html)  _The New  York Times Company_ (http://www.nytco.com/)   

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