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WaPo’s Ruth Marcus – the poor woman’s Maureen Dowd – takes a shot at Prof. Harvey Mansfield’s book, “Manliness,” this morning and like MoDo assumes the posture of the hilarious by working so hard to prove men unnecessary by condemning the White House.  Her point, natch, is that manliness is ok so long as it’s under the firm control of what Marcus says this country could use: “a little less manliness -- and a little more of what you would describe as womanly qualities: restraint, introspection, a desire for consensus, maybe even a touch of self-doubt.”

Here’s the cri de coer – er, money quote:

The undisputed manliness of the Bush White House stands in contrast to its predecessors and wannabes. If Republicans are the Daddy Party and Democrats the Mommy Party, the Clinton White House often operated like Mansfield's vision of an estrogen-fueled kaffeeklatsch: indecisive and undisciplined. (Okay, there were some unfortunate, testosterone-filled moments, too.) Bill Clinton's would-be successor, Al Gore, was mocked for enlisting Naomi Wolf to help him emerge as an alpha male; after that, French-speaking John Kerry had to give up windsurfing and don hunting gear to prove he was a real man. And Bush's father, of course, had to battle the Wimp Factor. Mansfield recalls Thatcher's manly admonition to 41 on the eve of the Persian Gulf War: "Don't go wobbly on me, George."

The Democrats aren’t the “Mommy Party” any longer. They’re the “Crazy aunt-in-the-attic party.” And “estrogen-fueled kaffeeklatsch: indecisive and undisciplined”? You said it, lady. We didn't.

topics:
Bill Clinton