Clinton takes charge at State

How happy am I that she’s in the news again??    I’m such a fangirl!

“There are three legs to the stool of American foreign policy: defense, diplomacy and development, and we are responsible for two of the three legs,” said the former New York senator and one-time first lady. “And we will make clear as we go forward that diplomacy and development are essential tools in achieving the long-term objectives of the United States.”

Yay development!  Equitable human, social and community economic development that is!

More Hillary Clinton Love

My handful of readers are probably already soaking up the Clinton praise at Shakesville.  Here’s a round-up of pro-Clinton posts at my new joint, Change.org.

From the End Human Trafficking blog:

Hillary Clinton Gets Trafficking!

From the Stop Genocide blog:

Hillary’s Hearings: Who Knew Power Could be so Smart?

Team Hillary: Darfur and the Clinton Confirmation Hearings

From the Peace in the Middle East blog:

Clinton Addresses Palestinian Suffering

Out With the Old…

…people, that is.

In People’s 2009 “Yearbook” – first “celeb” story – Barack Obama/The Obama family.  Second “celeb” story – Sarah Palin.

Senator Hillary Clinton?  18 million cracks?  What?  Who? Wasn’t she on some reality show about working women?

As for Gramps McCain, who wants to read about the elderly???? Gross.  Unless it’s Helen Mirren’s surprisingly perky cleavage, of course.

Obama Cabinet Round-Up: Wives & Mothers

Courtesy of FDL, I see the Charlotte Observer has an interactive graph of Obama’s Cabinet nominees.  It’s a handy little summary of professional and personal info on the 15 nominees, who are listed in order of presidential succession.  Here’s a summary of a fairly well-rounded Cabinet:

Obama has nominated three women: Clinton, Solis (Labor), and Napolitano (Homeland Security).

Obama has nominated:

• one African-American (Holder for Justice; Holder is also Caribbean-American),
• one Mexican-American (Solis),
• one Arab-American (LaHood – Transportation),
• two Hispanics (Salazar – Interior, Richardson – Commerce),
• one Japanese-American (Shinseki – Vet Affairs), and
• one Chinese-American (Chu – Energy).

Think the 6 white guys can handle all this diversity? 

Two GOP nominees (Gates at Defense and LaHood), two House Reps (LaHood and Solis), two Democratic Senators (Clinton and Salazar), and two Democratic governors (Richardson and Napolitano) have been nominated.  Richardson, Geithner, Holder and Donovan all worked in the Clinton Administration.  Solis and Vilsack supported Sen. Clinton during the primaries.

State/regional representation includes:

• New York (Clinton, Donovan at HUD and Geithner is from the NY Fed),
• the West (Salazar from CO, Napolitano from AZ, Richardson from NM, and Solis and Chu are from CA),
• Illinois (Duncan at Education is from Chicago, and LaHood) and the North Midwest (Daschle at HHS is from SD and Vilsack at Agriculture is from Iowa).

Dr. Chu (Energy) is from academia, and a Nobel Prize winner.  Donovan is an architect.  Clinton, Napolitano, Vilsack, Holder and Salazar are lawyers.  Daschle was in the Air Force.  Shinseki graduated from the U.S. Military Academy.  Gates was career CIA.  Duncan, Donovan, Clinton and Holder are Ivy League alums (Harvard, Harvard, Yale Law, and Columbia).

Donovan is the youngest Cabinet member at 42; Shinseki is the oldest at 66.  The average age is 56 (54 for the women, 56 for the men).

Of the three women candidates, Clinton is married with one child, Solis is married without children, and Napolitano is never married and has no children.  Three working women = 2 husbands = 1 mother = 1 child.

All the men are married.  Richardson has no children and Holder has one.  LaHood has four kids, Daschle has three.  The remaining eight men have two children each.  12 working men = 12 wives = 12 dads = 24 kids.

Fav’s Style

I’m so relieved to hear WaPo isn’t letting grope-gate go!!

What’s that, now? I should read the actual article?  What?  Say that again? They called the whole incident “silly?”

Oh.

At least he isn’t the Bostonian of the Year.

As Red Queen notes, it’s all about the straight dudez – hope and change, bitchez!!

Welcome to the Obama White House, where boyz will b boyz, don’cha know it!  Excuse my edits and snips, I just want to accurately re-cap the WaPo piece for ya.

Three months ago, Favreau lived in a group house with six friends in Chicago, where he rarely shaved, never cooked and sometimes stayed up to play video games until early morning. Now, he has transformed into what one friend called a “Washington political force” — a minor celebrity with a down payment on a Dupont Circle condo, whose silly Facebook photos with a Hillary Rodham Clinton cutout created what passes for controversy in Obama’s so far drama-free transition. …

He listens to Obama tell stories in his office and spins them into developed metaphors, rich in [patriarchal] historical context. …

“The president-elect understands that Jon is a rare talent. He knows what he’s got,” said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor, who also worked in the Senate office. “There’s a mutual respect and appreciation between them, and the president-elect trusts Jon’s instincts and ability. It’s a partnership.” [Man hug!  Chest bump!  I bet Favs can totally crush more beer cans against his forehead in a row than Obama.]

“A speech can broaden the circle of people who care about this stuff,” Favreau said. “How do you say to the average person that’s been hurting: ‘I hear you. I’m there. Even though you’ve been so disappointed and cynical about politics in the past, and with good reason, we can move in the right direction. Just give me a chance.’ “[Relax!  You just might enjoy it!]

“I think this is going to work,” Obama said.  [Bros before hos!]

Friends joke that Favreau suddenly turned 40 this year — but he still shows flashes of 27.  [Boyz Kids today!]

At a party at his parents’ house over Thanksgiving vacation, he danced and posed awkwardly next to a cardboard cutout of Clinton. A buddy uploaded photos onto Facebook, reporters discovered them, and suddenly experts were debating Favreau’s maturity on television. Favreau called Clinton and Obama to apologize. They told him not to worry, but he still does. [So thoughtful!  So glad he managed to laugh and smile through those "awkward" moments!  Seriously, can't we cut him a break already?]

When the pressure wore on Favreau, he unwound like a 27-year-old, sending prank e-mails to friends at the Obama offices or playing the video game Rock Band in the Lincoln Park group house he shared with six campaign staffers [or mimicking sexual assault on senior women colleagues].

How is this supposed to work, anyway? Do Favreau and the rest of Obama’s young staffers transform to meet the formalities of the White House, or does the White House change to accommodate them?  [Duh, obviously it's the latter.]

“We know that we’re going to have to approach the White House our way and have some fun with it,” Favreau said, “because that kind of attitude is what made us successful.”  [My point exactly.]

Favreau said. “You had a bunch of kids working on this campaign together, and it was such a mix of the serious and momentous and just the silly ways that we are. For people in my generation, it was an unbelievable way to grow up.” [Wait a minute, I thought you were still just an innocent, misunderstood, impish 27 year old.  My lady-brain is confused....]

inappropriate

warning: long post

Count me as one of the “humorless feminists” who can’t “get over” grope-gate.  This is mainly because I’m increasingly infuriated at the defensiveness I’m reading from (mostly) men over Favreau’s “private” behavior and our societal imperative to leave him alone to act out occasionally.  If you haven’t been following NYC Weboy’s “debate” with Adam Serwer at TAPPED (one, two, three, four, and five), do it now.

Lest you think we’re making any progress in opening people’s eyes to this case of sexual harrassment and the creation of a hostile work environment (not to mention how Favreau’s terrible judgment defies the stated essence of Obama’s candidacy and governance), before I continue with my rant check out this smattering of comments from the peanut gallery of liberal dudez who just wish we’d leave them the f— alone and spare them our puritanical judgy-ness – and didn’t you know, Clinton’s a racist anyway, and don’t we have more important things to gripe about,  like world peace and hunger, or something???

Cardboard

For the record, there are three issues I see with grope-gate:

a) the misogynistic implications of a woman being felt up and force fed alcohol into her pulled back head by two men (yes, this is sexual harrassment);

b) the “frat boy” culture alleged by the party atmosphere, presence of booze, and casual style of two white men raucously ganging up on a woman, even if it is a cardboard cutout, and then publishing it on a social networking site as evidence of their supposed hilarity; and

c) the complete lack of judgment evidenced by an important member of the Obama team, a young man who has been covered in The NY Times and elsewhere as largely responsible for Obama’s words and eloquence.  Favreau is the speechwriter for a candidate who won in large part because of his ability to draw enormous crowds to hear his electrifying, inspiring speeches.  He’s a player on the no-drama Obama team, a team that invested tremendously in crafting an image and a brand in their candidate.  And this is how a key image-maker behaves?

If Samantha Power is banished for calling Clinton a “monster,” then shouldn’t Favreau be kicked off the bus too?  Given the willfully public nature of his actions; their offensiveness (even if you believe it’s just “boys being boys,” this does mean you realize it’s behavior that requires rationalization, which suggests there’s something going on that needs to be acknowledged, dismissed, possibly forgiven, scolded, etc.); and Favreau’s immaturity and crudity versus Obama’s poised, professional and unruffled demeanor, I can’t believe Obama wouldn’t want to sanction this clown for his embarrassing and uncalled for behavior.

Didn’t Obama run on and beat Clinton and McCain in part because of his better judgment and cool and collected nature?  Yet, he’s got dudez like this working for him?  I listened to Tracy Morgan on TBS’s Laffapalooza for about five minutes the other night, as he painfully tried to layer one black stereotype after another ghetto behavior trope on to the Obamas and their future White House life.  Epic FAIL, as teh bloggerz say.  I don’t see how Favreau’s behavior is any less inappropriate for our President-Elect.  Although Larry Summers and Rick Warren (and Donny McClurkin) suggest otherwise, I do hold out hope that Obama is not “palling around with” men who fail to see women (and gays/lesbians) as their equals and as fully human, versus just cardboard cutouts, punching bags, helpmates, child-rearers, she-devils, and sandwich makers.

Weekend Skirmishes

If you’re not headed out to your local Swedish Christmas Fair today, perhaps you’ll want to catch up instead on the latest action from the Obama team.  Oh teh menz and their vaunted intellect, team-building skillz and decision-making prowess!  Sen. Clinton, Melody Barnes, Susan Rice, Janet Napolitano, etc. should have tons o’ fun working with teh dudez.  Tis an inclusive bunch, that Obama gang.

Treasury Chief designate Timothy Geithner wants to toss FDIC head Sheila Bair out on the street alongside her constituent homeowners.  Take that, Main Street! What’s that now about progressive leadership?  Wait, I mean, team of rivals??

Head speechwriter Jon Favreau has the hots for Sen. Clinton…right?  Wait, this isn’t a show of respect for our SoS designate and former Democratic candidate for President?  You mean, this is bizness as usual?  Silly me!  I guess I was right not to fill out that job application.  I don’t have anything nearly as lascivious as this.  Maybe I’ll go grope some hot Swedish buns this afternoon to try and keep up.

Boys Club

If Sen. Clinton leaves the Senate to become Secretary of State, she leaves behind 16 fellow women Senators (among 82 men) and joins 25 women foreign ministers around the world (5 of whom also came to the post this year).  Assuming the 180 or so country governments worldwide all have this position, Clinton leaves one boys club for another.

Forgive me for not being totally jazzed about this development…yet.

Like many former Clinton supporters, I was enjoying Clinton’s late- and post-primary aggressiveness on reproductive rights and economic justice.  I fancied her hanging out in the Senate alongside Sen. Murray and other allies, fighting the good fight for women, children, families, the uninsured and those at risk for losing their homes and jobs.  Count me in as one of many indulging in the idea that she’d be the next “liberal lion” of the Senate.

Turns out, Uncle Teddy isn’t quite ready to give up the title just yet, and she lacks the seniority (star power just doesn’t cut it, unless you’re Obama) to really rise to the occasion anyway.  Bummer.

As I ponder the idea of Clinton in the SoS role, I picture her, of course, in pantsuits or culturally-appropriate clothing, but that’s about it for the displays of womanhood.  The rest of the image is Clinton negotiating with men, or shaking the hands of men, or posing for photo ops with men, to eventually take back proposals hashed out with men to our President Obama.  Surrounded by men.  Men men men men men men men men.  (Try singing it.)

Believe me, I realize Clinton and her sixteen women colleagues weren’t a monolith or a voting bloc, nor do I expect them to be strictly due to their gender.  Duh.  I also know that the US is no role model in terms of gender parity in politics, and that our SoS will conduct business in countries with far more impressive women’s representation than ours.  It’s just…I was just getting used to Clinton in her new role as the prominent-elected-leader-with-nothing-to-lose-by-being-an-outspoken-powerhouse-for-women’s-rights-and-economic-security Senator from NY.  Or some such vision.  (YMMV.)  I liked it.

But, in our new post-partisan domestic reality, it strikes me that Clinton needs a stronger foil than she’d find in Obama – what could be the equivalent of her partisan rancor towards Bush now?  It’s hard for me to see a similar soapbox for Clinton in an Obama Administration, given how so many of her prominent senior male colleagues rallied around Obama (yes, Kennedy and Kerry, I’m talking to you).  There’s no real space in the Obama-Biden 111th Congress for her to step out of line, if you will; I have no idea what the rules are for Dem attack dogs in the face of a small but hostile GOP minority, Rahmbo notwithstanding.

Despite her and Obama’s mutual calls for renewed diplomacy and engagement with the world, I have a hard time visualizing her not negotiating arms treaties (or withdrawals) or various strategies of aggression or other militiarized concerns.  (Yes, foreign policy is not my area.)  It will take time for me to wrap my head around her new job and its major issue areas and the new cohort of dudes she’ll be running in.  But I do have faith that given her well-regarded work as a First Lady, her selection as SoS indicates women’s, children’s, and human development will be priorities in an Obama Administration.  Which is a potential change in scope and focus that really excites me.

And as an added bonus for Sen. Clinton and President-Elect Obama, should she become SoS, she’s got that helpful wife spouse to support our diplomatic efforts via her his pet projects that showcase the plight of special populations around the world.  Every elected leader should be so lucky!

Obama Campaign knew I was a Clinton supporter before I did

From Ryan Lizza’s piece in the commemorative “O” edition of The New Yorker (a.k.a. the 11/17/08 issue):

On October 10, 2007, less than three months before the Iowa caucuses, Axelrod, Grisolano, Benenson, and other members of Obama’s “message team” distilled several weeks’ worth of polling and internal debate into a twelve-page memo that laid out Obama’s strategy for the weeks leading up to the Iowa caucuses…the memo…argued that, in voters’ minds, Clinton “embodies trench warfare vs. Republicans, and is consumed with beating them rather than unifying the country…” (my emphases)

Yep, sounds about right.

Good times.