Bozell Column: A Complete Hillary Whitewash

Feminism has been a very disgraced brand for decades. The final nail was placed in the coffin when feminists tried so athletically to see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil with Bill Clinton’s record of serial adultery, sexual harassment, and even a credible accusation of rape. But now that Hillary Clinton has finally conceded to Barack Obama, the media elites have suddenly discovered the glorious and militant cause of women.

Hillary Clinton’s failure wasn’t her fault. It was sexism that ruined her chances.

Feminists have blamed everyone for this crushing burden of sexism. It’s most fun watching them savage the press, the amazing thing being that the media just play along, as if they deserve it, with self-loathing males like CBS’s Harry Smith sitting in their studio chairs cheering them on. "Talk from your gut," Smith urged to ex-Congresswoman Patsy Schroeder, to which she responded as if afflicted by rhetorical rabies, as well as historical hysteria: "It was like they made a witch out of her, some people! You know, we thought the Salem witch trials were over!"

A wee bit excessive, that. In Salem, the accused witches were executed. Hillary lost a campaign because for the first time in her career, the media liked another candidate even more – period. Smith should have demanded that Screeching Schroeder consent to a urine test for crack cocaine instead of encouraging her to spew.

An authentically sexist media would have taunted Hillary for not having the brains to be president, which no one did. A sexist media would have said at the very beginning of the race she didn’t have the toughness because she was a woman, which no one did.

All this feminist whining suggests that it was apparently just sexist to oppose Hillary or even question Hillary in any way. It was "sexist" to suggest Hillary had no mathematical chance in the last few months. It was "sexist" to imply Hillary was putting her own dreams ahead of her party’s chances for victory. It was "sexist" to state Hillary was cold and robotic compared to Barack Obama, a smoother, more natural candidate and speaker.

There is no question that the media evinced a deeper love for and a spiritual bond with Obama. But doesn’t anyone on the Democratic side want to vomit when Bill Clinton laments that the Clintons once again have suffered "the most biased press coverage in history"?

Feminists cried foul when female Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan wrote about Hillary showing a bit of cleavage on C-SPAN. The rest of the media didn’t follow up until after Hillary’s campaign raised hell – and raised money – off this supposed male-chauvinist offense.

Feminists cried foul when a couple of reporters discussed the Hillary "cackle," or how she would laugh inappropriately and artificially when asked a tough question. Feminists found "sexism" where other political observers saw that which most politicians get accused of – faking sincerity.

Here’s where the complaints of the feminists and Bill and Hillary all collapse. In Hillary’s last few days, as pundits wondered whether she would become Obama’s running mate, suddenly a couple of members of the Sexist Media suggested it might be a major obstacle that the Clintons had failed to disclose anything about the mega-bucks donors (including mysterious foreigners) to the Clinton Presidential Library. This issue of non-disclosure surfaced just barely in the campaign (Tim Russert raised it a few times on "Meet the Press"). If the media were so opposed to a woman being president, why was it that this library-donor issue wasn’t raised over the year and a half that Mrs. Clinton was running hard for the nomination?

Feminists look especially ridiculous when they claim Hillary was singled out for abuse when it came to reminding voters of the Clinton Scandals. What about the Hillary Scandals? Did the media make a stink about her mysterious $100,000 bonanza in the cattle-futures market in the ‘70s? No. Her sleazy lawyering for the corrupt Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan and the Whitewater real estate flop in the ‘80s? No. Her role in the White House Travel Office fiasco and the illegal White House retention of FBI files in the ‘90s? No.

Hillary’s oil slick of scandals were almost completely undiscussed by the oh-so-mannerly media. Right up to the end, on the most damaging issues of political ethics, the Hillary whitewash continued.