Via Timothy Noah of Slate: Condoleezza Rice’s promotion creates a void
With Rice departing the White House for Foggy Bottom, President Bush isn’t just losing a national security adviser. He’s losing his work wife.
Why is it that we haven’t gotten to the point that we ignore the gender of someone, and just comment on their qualifications? Further, why do I have a hard time thinking that the condescension that some in the press have applied to Rice (such as Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC referring to her as Bush’s “sidekick") if this were a Democratic administration? The laurels that Kerry would have received for appointing the first African-American female to head State is missing here, which I would like to think it simply a sign of the times that we no longer have to worry about such thing, except for the fate of things like Noah’s “work wife” analysis and all the need that MSNBC and others have had in describing Rice’s relationship with the Bush’s as “familial.” Henry Kissinger was clearly one of Nixon’s closest advisors, yet I suspect he was never called Nixon’s sidekick, nor do I suspect much time was spent analyzing his personal relationship with the President.
Really, the treatment of the female/minority issues says a lot about the press.
And I must say: I find the whole “work wife” thesis to be a bit ridiculous. And when part of one’s analysis includes a reference to Mary Richards and Murray Slaughter from the Mary Tyler Moore Show as the exemplar of one’s position, one has to wonder how seriously one really ought to expect one’s analysis to be taken. However, I think that Noah is quite serious.
Sigh. Office romances never last.
Comment by John Lemon — Thursday, November 18, 2024 @ 1:10 pm
You did the same by saying female/menority
we are not a menority
there are more of us in the world than males
my reason is we live longer than males
so by reason that leaves more females
more males go to war than females
so by reason that leaves more females
just to name a few reasons why we are not the minority
Comment by MsPell — Thursday, November 18, 2024 @ 5:30 pm
Is a “menority” when you have fewere Mennonites than other religions?
Comment by John Lemon — Thursday, November 18, 2024 @ 6:27 pm
Or maybe it is a shortage of Jewish candle holders.
Comment by John Lemon — Thursday, November 18, 2024 @ 6:37 pm