January 8, 2007

The elevation of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House is for feminist women, not women as a class. The media confirmed this in their reaction to her success. They dripped with praise and noted the young girls in “Mary Jane’s” and grandmothers who applauded this woman’s success.

Imagine how the media would treat a conservative woman who did not fit their agenda profile. You don’t have to imagine, the late Ambassador to the UN, Jeane Kirkpatrick, was the first American woman at that post, but the media did not gush at her achievement. That’s because she was a Cold War warrior and criticized people the left loved. It’s the same with other republican and conservative women. One never hears the media praise Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, or Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina. They save their praise for Pelosi, Senators Barbara Boxer and Barbara Mikulski, all liberals.

I’m all for women advancing. I have a successful wife and daughters. But there’s a double standard here, also, notice that only political and business women get media and cultural approval. Where are the homemakers who are the real heart of this country?

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.