Election Wars: Attack of the Crones

After reading from Melissa at lunchtime that Tweety was back on his Hillary Hatred Horse today, I decided that no matter how dirty a job it was, someone had to do it.

Behold Sweet Jesus I Hate Chris Matthews.

So far the awesome Melissa and the equally awesome Richard Blair have signed on as contributors, with hopefully more bright lights of Blogtopia(™ Skippy) to come.

But Chris Matthews may have inadvertently done a service with his fear and loathing: he may have actually made younger feminists, post-feminists if you will, understand what it was like for women in the 1970's and earlier

Like Rebecca Traister, for instance:

Is it possible that for the first time in my life, my reaction to a political news cycle could have mirrored a larger national feeling? Could Matthews and his threatened brethren, who came damned close to putting this Hillary disbeliever on the path to feminist redemption (who knows how I'll vote; but I do know that I am happy that I'll now likely have the opportunity to cast a vote for the candidate of my choice and not of MSNBC's), actually have shaped what happened on Tuesday in New Hampshire in a similar fashion? Exit polling and analysis be damned, we'll likely never really know what electoral alchemy landed Hillary Clinton an unexpected victory. Finally, around 11:30, Matthews was forced to suck it up. Looking like he was chewing on a lemon, he said of his nemesis, "She stood there and took the heat under what looked to be a difficult time. I give her a lot of personal credit. I will never underestimate Hillary Clinton again."

An unlikely promise. But here's a message from the women of New Hampshire, and me, to Hillary Clinton's exuberant media antagonists: You have no power here. Now be gone, before somebody drops a house on you!

From Maureen Dowd to Chris Matthews, we've seen a microcosm today of exactly what happens in this society to women who talk too much, who don't look like supermodels, who have reached an age when all the botox in the world won't make them 25 anymore. And it isn't just Hillary. If you saw Chris Matthews with Elizabeth Edwards (another tough old broad, albeit one with a warmer demeanor) last week (I'll try to dig up the video), you know that while he reserves his worst barbs for Hillary, any woman will do.

All of this may have made me angry, but it hasn't made me stupid. Hillary is still the candidate who voted for Kyl/Lieberman, something we shouldn't forget while George W. Bush is thrusting his defiance at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again just when the election season is getting going. But while I may disagree with Hillary Clinton on policy, and I may not be willing to vote for her, I'm damn well going to defend her right to be a candidate.

Especially if it means I get to rip Tweety to shreds.