First Lady a sexist

Pat Buchanan lends support to what I said previously:

Asked on NBC's "Today" show if criticism of the Harriet Miers nomination might be rooted in sexism, first lady Laura Bush seemed to welcome the question.

"I think that's possible," she purred, describing Miers as "an extraordinarily accomplished woman" who had "broken the glass ceiling." Thus did Laura Bush associate herself with the stand of Ellie Smeal of the Feminist Majority Foundation, who has branded critics of Miers' meager credentials a pack of sexist males.

"I think that essentially that this hue and cry that she isn't qualified, there's a sexist basis to it," Smeal told The New York Times. "Does she have the mental capacity? Give me a break. Would they say that about a man? I don't think they would."

Sen. Barbara Mikulski also waded in: "I am shocked at the sexism ... coming out of the far right."

Ed Gillespie, the former RNC chair with the unenviable task of shepherding Miers through confirmation, told a gathering of conservatives last week his sensitive nostrils had also picked up a "whiff of sexism and a whiff of elitism" among them.

What the first lady and Gillespie seek to accomplish by tarring critics of Miers' nomination sexist – i.e., men bigoted against women – thus impugning the motives and character of conservatives who have loyally supported President Bush, escapes me.

But if there is sexism in this nomination, it is transparently not the critics of Harriet Miers who are the guilty party.

Indeed, if one defines "sexism" as denying consideration for high office of all members of one gender, regardless of ability, or a conscious favoritism rooted in gender alone, it is President Bush and the first lady who are guilty of sexism in the nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court.