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Two ways of looking at Hilary Rosen's remarks—Ann Romney "has never worked a day in her life"



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By now everyone with too little to do has heard about Hilary Rosen's comments about Ann Romney (see below), and many electrons have been killed in tweets, posts, and otherwise weighing in.

In among the mush, I found these two posts — at the extremes of the spectrum and fully mush-free — enlightening. I agree with both, actually.

First, what Rosen said:

“What you have is, Mitt Romney running around the country saying, ‘Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues. And when I listen to my wife, that’s what I’m hearing.’ Guess what: his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She’s never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and why do we worry about their future.”
Click here to see the CNN video.

Now comments from tbogg, my favorite blogging prose stylist. The whole post is worth reading — it's a brief, well-structured piece with classic beginning-middle-end in a tight bundle. A taste (asterisks and paragraphing mine):
The Umbrage Game

Conservatives are working themselves up into another one of their poutrage lathers because Hilary Rosen said something truthful, and hence, mean about Ann Romney whom Mitt Romney has recently tried to pass off as I’m Every Woman because Mitt has lady problems outside the home and they’re not the buy-your-mistress-a-bauble-to-make-it-go-away kind.

By the time you read this in the morning, conservative moms and the usual cast of professional conservative aggrievement mongers will be in high dudgeon proclaiming how stay-at-homedness has been slandered and impugned and maligned and how Hilary Rosen (and therefore all Democrats) might just as well have s**t all over little Austin and Madisyn’s after-school Rice Krispie Treats.

Because there is no greater calling than to stay at home and raise your children, providing of course that you don’t have to make ends meet by taking a minimum wage job, maybe two if you’re a single mom, and also there are those times when you skip a meal so that your kids can eat because there isn’t enough food in the house for everyone, and also you hope that none of the kids gets sick because you can’t afford health insurance and, oh yes, the car has been making a funny noise lately and … well, you get the idea.

Which was Hilary Rosen’s point.

Ann Romney is a nice lady. I know lots of nice ladies like Ann Romney who, as it so happens, live in the same neighborhood as Ann and Mitt Romney because my daughter went to the same private schools and played soccer with their sons and daughters. ...
Again, read the whole thing. The part that follows this is very well thought through, and there's a nice surprise ending.

At the other end of the Rosen spectrum, here's Zaid Jilani at the amazing Republic Report. He says, yes, Rosen is a Democratic strategist, but she's also very much more (h/t nignog63, one of my favorite Twitter tipsters):
Hilary Rosen Thinks Moms Don’t Have Real Jobs, But She’s The Corporate Mouthpiece Who Killed Napster

... [H]er real job — the way she has made money for a long time — has been advocating for the positions of wealthy corporations, sometimes to the detriment of consumers, including those hard-working stay-at-home parents.

As head of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Rosen engaged in hyper-aggressive lawsuits and other tactics to force the closure of the popular file-sharing service Napster. She also pushed for draconian laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that helped stifle free expression and fair use of files.

Rosen currently works at SDKnickerbocker, a “strategic communications and public relations” firm that fronts for powerful corporations like the controversial Washington Post-owned Kaplan subprime for-profit colleges and food companies looking to weaken the administration’s nutrition goals. ...
As if that's not enough (subprime for-profit colleges? eww) Jilani has more; for example, the phrase "BP" comes up.

It's a sterling career, lobbying. The business of doing anything for money is a fine little business indeed.

Offered for your amusement.

GP

(To follow on Twitter or send links: @Gaius_Publius)
 


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