The Overtime segment of Real Time this week showed that misogyny clings to Bill Maher and some of his guests like ticks cling to the hide of a barnyard dog.
The second topic on the web-based aftershow segment dealt with women in politics. Political scientist Wendy Schiller reckoned that if more women were in national politics, there would be more efforts in finding compromise and also more productive problem-solving, instead of the polarising posturing and posing we're seeing now in an ineffective Washington.
Of course, Bill expostulated that once women entered into national politics, they became more like men, in order to function more successfully, and listed such examples as Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi.
It's then that Sullivan pipes up about his particular favourite, Margaret Thatcher. I had almost forgotten Sully's regular genuflection at the altar of St Maggie, but I remember, before he immigrated, that he was not only a Conservative, but also a staunch supporter of Thatcherism. Of course, he holds Maggie up as the ultimate icon, who achieved her singular success and, braggingly, that she did so off the back of not having a single woman, ever, in her Cabinet during the eleven years of her tenure.
This is true. Margaret Thatcher, a woman, did more to set the course of women's rights on a backward trail in the UK than any Prime Minister, before or after. What was all right for Margaret, simply couldn't be done by any other woman. Maggie could get a double degree in chemistry and law during the fifties and then pursue a political career, whilst combining that with being a mother; but no other woman, afterward, could, according to Maggie. Nope. A woman's place was in the home, looking after the children. That would make her happier.
But Sulllivan made a brilliant error. He said that Mmaggie did all this, on her own, without the help of any man.
Wrong.
Maggie Thatcher was the much younger second wife of an extremely wealthy older businessman named Dennis Thatcher. Dennis saw that politicking made Maggie happy. When Maggie was happy, Dennies was happier. So he pumped money into maids and cleaning ladies, and - in time, when they had twins - nannies. So Maggie could do what Maggie damned well wanted; but if Margaret THATCHER had been plain Margaret ROBERTS, daughter of a grocer from Grantham, without the sugar daddy, how far would she have got?
Answer? Not very.
And Wendy Schiller was right and handed Bill and Andrew Sullivan their collective asses. No Presidential candidate, before or since, has taken such maligning verbal abuse as Hillary Clinton took during the 2008 primary campaign - with, as she states, Sarah Palin coming a close second.
And when she said that, she looked firmly at the perpetrator of most of that abuse ... Bill Maher. Watch below.
Sullivan's arrogance knew no bounds when he took Schiller to task for what he perceived to be Hillary's shortcoming - the fact that she subordinated herself to her husband's career, which, in his opinion, made her the very antithesis of a feminist ... until the only real gentleman on the panel this week, Charles M Blow, had to remind Sullivan that just because people don't choose to play the gender card (as Sullivan said Thatcher did not) or even the race or sexual preference card, it didn't mean that they, themselves, didn't feel these oppressions or weren't aware of them at some point in their professional lives.
At the end of the day, Sullivan might remember, it was those "stupid, old men" around whom Margaret Thatcher ran rings for years, who actually ganged up and played the ultimate sex card, in ensuring that she left Downing Street forever.
And when she left, she was photographed looking just as tearful as ... guess what? ... any woman.
The second topic on the web-based aftershow segment dealt with women in politics. Political scientist Wendy Schiller reckoned that if more women were in national politics, there would be more efforts in finding compromise and also more productive problem-solving, instead of the polarising posturing and posing we're seeing now in an ineffective Washington.
Of course, Bill expostulated that once women entered into national politics, they became more like men, in order to function more successfully, and listed such examples as Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi.
It's then that Sullivan pipes up about his particular favourite, Margaret Thatcher. I had almost forgotten Sully's regular genuflection at the altar of St Maggie, but I remember, before he immigrated, that he was not only a Conservative, but also a staunch supporter of Thatcherism. Of course, he holds Maggie up as the ultimate icon, who achieved her singular success and, braggingly, that she did so off the back of not having a single woman, ever, in her Cabinet during the eleven years of her tenure.
This is true. Margaret Thatcher, a woman, did more to set the course of women's rights on a backward trail in the UK than any Prime Minister, before or after. What was all right for Margaret, simply couldn't be done by any other woman. Maggie could get a double degree in chemistry and law during the fifties and then pursue a political career, whilst combining that with being a mother; but no other woman, afterward, could, according to Maggie. Nope. A woman's place was in the home, looking after the children. That would make her happier.
But Sulllivan made a brilliant error. He said that Mmaggie did all this, on her own, without the help of any man.
Wrong.
Maggie Thatcher was the much younger second wife of an extremely wealthy older businessman named Dennis Thatcher. Dennis saw that politicking made Maggie happy. When Maggie was happy, Dennies was happier. So he pumped money into maids and cleaning ladies, and - in time, when they had twins - nannies. So Maggie could do what Maggie damned well wanted; but if Margaret THATCHER had been plain Margaret ROBERTS, daughter of a grocer from Grantham, without the sugar daddy, how far would she have got?
Answer? Not very.
And Wendy Schiller was right and handed Bill and Andrew Sullivan their collective asses. No Presidential candidate, before or since, has taken such maligning verbal abuse as Hillary Clinton took during the 2008 primary campaign - with, as she states, Sarah Palin coming a close second.
And when she said that, she looked firmly at the perpetrator of most of that abuse ... Bill Maher. Watch below.
Sullivan's arrogance knew no bounds when he took Schiller to task for what he perceived to be Hillary's shortcoming - the fact that she subordinated herself to her husband's career, which, in his opinion, made her the very antithesis of a feminist ... until the only real gentleman on the panel this week, Charles M Blow, had to remind Sullivan that just because people don't choose to play the gender card (as Sullivan said Thatcher did not) or even the race or sexual preference card, it didn't mean that they, themselves, didn't feel these oppressions or weren't aware of them at some point in their professional lives.
At the end of the day, Sullivan might remember, it was those "stupid, old men" around whom Margaret Thatcher ran rings for years, who actually ganged up and played the ultimate sex card, in ensuring that she left Downing Street forever.
And when she left, she was photographed looking just as tearful as ... guess what? ... any woman.
Sully's a dirtbag. He was the guy that thought "The Bell Curve" was an interesting debate. I'm surprised nobody ever brings that up. Nobody seems to bring up how Bill's show enabled people like Breitbart either.
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