Stay at Home Moms Don’t Matter to Ryan Lizza

Stay at Home Moms Don't Matter to Ryan Lizza

UPDATE: Unleashing the wrath of stay-at-home moms.

“Liberal bloggers descend on Las Vegas for some heavy petting.”

I can't believe I actually have to write this post.

The above was the subheading in the email The New Republic sent out
to subscribers, of which I am one. To quote a friend, “what is this, high
school?” You have no idea.

I'm not going to talk about Mark Warner's big bash, which I didn't attend and
Ryan Lizza covers in his article “Wag the Blog.” Or the comments Warner
made and Lizza quoted that went like this: “If somebody is going to
make the judgment, 'I don't like Warner,'” he says, “I want him to
make that judgment based not on something that they have read about me–I want
them to look me in the eye, let me try to answer their questions, and, if they,
at the end of the day, don't agree, that's fine. But I'm going to feel like
I've given them my best shot.”

Until Mark Warner and other Democratic “leaders” learn to speak straight
on Iraq, they can buy all the sushi they want but they'll never get my vote or
my endorsement. I'm sure they'll sleep at night without it, even get elected. I also don't think
Warner's ick factor has anything to do with the consultant class or that he
spent $70,000 on a blogger bash. If those guys could win instead of making our
candidates into mush we'd sing their praises and purchase the champagne. But
they can't, so we don't

I'm also not going to talk about the Armando coverage in the article.

The mention about the real look and age of bloggers is something I now deal
with all the time, so it's not worth mentioning in detail. Even today, I was
interviewed on the Mike Bunge show (out of Iowa) and he asked about the bloggers
in “pajamas.” Of course, Mike knows we're not in pajamas, or I assume he does because he's not stupid; thus it's
always fun to enlighten his audience, which likely believes that malarkey. Thanks
to Markos and The Amazing Gina Cooper, the secret's out. God bless 'em both.

In fact, there was not much wrong with the article, even after I finished it
and went back through it, UNTIL…

I read again the 8th paragraph, wherein the continuum of my thought processes
were immediately obliterated and I found myself screaming inside my head, WHY
YOU ELITIST MALE SCHMUCK, who do you think you are? Because whomever you think
you're channeling doesn't come close to being anyone I'd want to be. Hey, but
that's me. Evidently, Mr. Lizza is comfortable with his wonderful self.

Here's the paragraph that blew my inner sensibilities to smithereens, pay firewall,
be damned.

The flesh-and-blood mingling with the reporters they excoriate and the politicians they prod is causing some cognitive dissonance. One night, I sit across the dinner table from Christy Hardin-Smith, a former prosecutor who blogs under the name of ReddHedd at firedoglake, the go-to site for all things Valerie Plame. We dine on a five-course meal at a swank trattoria in Mandalay Bay that was paid for by a liberal Washington organization. The next day, at a panel devoted to political journalism, Hardin-Smith insists that the problem with Washington reporters is they are addicted to the “cocktail weenie” circuit in Washington. The previous night's dinner was off the record, but I can say without breaking any rules that the appetizer was beef carpaccio, not pigs in a blanket, and Hardin-Smith seemed to enjoy every bite. Her point about the Washington press may be valid–getting too close to those you cover can poison good journalism–but most reporters are about as compromised by weenies as Hardin-Smith was by her carpaccio. Later, passing her in the hall after one of the conclaves of bloggers and 2008 candidates, she seems glad to be out of the house, learning a few things. “I'm a stay-at-home mom who blogs all day and isn't used to being around this many people,” she says, noting how exhausted she is after doing four press interviews in one day. “This is freakishly large.” LIBERAL ACTIVISTS ON THE STRIP. Wag the Blog by Ryan Lizza

Now, mind you, I wasn't there, but my first lurch came at the line “I
can say without breaking any rules that the appetizer was beef carpaccio, not
pigs in a blanket,” because I knew this had to be the stem winder.
Never mind that Lizza was blathering on about a conversation that was supposed
to be off the record. Minor detail, so what the hell, right?

I was right in my assessment, but I had no idea Lizza was about to go where
no MAN should ever go.

“…she seems glad to be out of the house, learning a few things.”

Excuse me? Let me read that one again. He couldn't…

“…she seems glad to be out of the house, learning a few
things”?

Well, well, Mr. Lizza, aren't you the little pit viper.

Deigning to drop Mrs. Hardin-Smith's bona fides as a “former prosecutor”
one minute, while then mentioning it must be nice for the former career woman,
WHO HAS NOW CHOSEN THE MUNDANE, DEMEANING, LESS THAN YOU
profession of —here it comes— “stay at home mom” the next.

Yes, poor Christy, stupid ass hick chick that started at Smith, then sashayed
over to get an MA at UPenn, with all sorts of other things in between, before
completing her JD, while spending spare time arguing cases before the WV Supreme
Court. The woman is finally out of the fricking house learning a few things
in Las Vegas, because Lord knows MOTHERHOOD AND STAYING AT HOME is just for
the weak minded women who can't find any better way to contribute to society
than suck up funds her husband makes because, after all, being a mom is just
so their thing, as in Republicans do it, but real Democratic women
get out of the darn house and do something important. (whew!) Priorities, Christy, I
mean seriously, woman. What were you thinking?

Now, I'm child free by choice, but I can smell a slam on a mom a mile
away and I just don't like it. Let me also say that even though I guest blog at
FDL, Christy doesn't need me to come to her defense, nor did I feel compelled
because of my FDL relationships. This issue is huge for me and every other liberated
woman who wants to make choices and be respected for them. It's the reason we
don't like Joe, but Lizza's evidently too damn dumb to get that, so maybe this
will register. Feminists screwed up the whole mom message the first time around
and having Democrats deliver the same stupid message a second time, frankly, just pisses me off.

And just for the record, I'm giving Lizza a pass on the whole food dig, which
was obviously intended as a slam to any female who enjoys her food, which means
most of us; real women who don't look like the stick shiksa, Ann Coulter. I'm also leaving
alone the slight that the only thing people go to FDL to read is the Plame posts.
Hello, Jane, never mind your hours of work, babe. You're just so not there.
So, since Rove's escape, FDL will now just shut down and go do whatever
women writers do when they've been told we don't matter, right?

Let's get real. The New Republic's subscriptions are dropping like
a stone, so it's not too far a stretch to think that it was Jane Hamsher's campaign
against their boy Joe that likely has Lizza's nails sharpened like a teenage
girl's. After all, serious Democrats like TNR love Joe; while silly
bloggers like us back Ned. After all, women's issues are just so 1970s. Maybe, but holding the lousy women's special interest groups accountable is not, which is exactly what Jane did. Something I've wanted to do forever but never had that kind of power.

But in the end, I'm glad Mr. Lizza finally got out of his office to actually
meet the hick from the sticks, Christy Hardin-Smith, who worked for years and
years to have her “miracle” child, with her husband
Bill. No doubt is was good for Lizza to get out of the TNR offices and learn a few things
about how modern women live and work and juggle and balance and strive and thrive
and contribute and move and shake and stir the world, all the while never making
a fuss about all it takes to do everything that women do while choosing what
type of life to lead and build and create, while some raise their children in modest
anonymity.

So, Ryan Lizza, a man who thinks Christy “… seems glad to be out of the house, learning a few things,” because God knows, raising a family
will teach her nothing. You just explain so much about Democratic Party insiders and why bloggers, a group to which I'm now proudly associated, have everyone's attention.

And the DC Democrats and The New Republic lecture us on why we lose
elections.

I still can't believe I had to write this post.