Thanks to Sarah Palin, the culture war has become a civil war—on the left. Mika Brzezinski bravely opened a new front in the conflict during today's "Morning Joe," repeatedly going after two female MSMers for suggesting Palin is taking the working-mom thing too far.
And, mirabile dictu, Mika even admitted to sensing MSM unfairness to Republicans.
"This is an argument Joe and I have about fairness and whether or not there are some sort of underlying unfairness when it comes to Republicans. And I just, you know, I feel it here," Brzezinski said referring to a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. Full text and commentary after the jump. View video here.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: I've got the Wall Street Journal: "Let's talk about Palin's Family Challenges," and this is written by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, Claire of course from ABC, Katty from the BBC; two women in journalism. This stuns me [emphasis added]:
(Quoting from article) It's important to understand why, then, Mrs. Palin has hit a nerve. It's not because she's a woman with children trying to do a man's job. It's because she's actually pushing the combination of professional and personal ambitions beyond the sensibilities of this generation of working moms. As women, we may be awed by her, but she's not necessarily a role model for so many professional women who now say they want to do it differently, that they don't want to do 150% of everything all of the time.
So what you are hearing is less condemnation than a collective gasp of amazement -- and exhaustion -- at the thought of juggling five children, one of them an infant, and the most extreme example of a job with little or no flexibility. It would make supermom feel feeble. And we should celebrate the fact that all of this can now be discussed openly.
BRZEZINSKI [sardonically]: Great.
WILLIE GEIST: Aren't they just saying they marvel, that they are in awe, that they thought the lives were complicated?
BRZEZINSKI: What they say in the article is that Women have come so far, that they can be CEOs and we can do anything that a man does but we've decided we don't want to. And I think that's speaking for all of us and that may not be fair.
MIKE BARNICLE: A little editorial opinion there from Mika!
BRZEZINSKI: Well I'm just saying, I think there was a little veiled judgment that I don't appreciate, and I think that was incredible coming from two women that have benefited from the advances we have made and quite frankly the ability to bring our families forward and educate our children in ways that we wouldn't be able to if we didn't better ourselves.
PAT BUCHANAN: This is a surprising attitude from them, isn't it?
BRZEZINSKI: Thank you.
BUCHANAN: Why do you think they said it in this case? Is it because Sarah Palin happens to be one of us [conservatives] rather than one of them?
BRZEZINSKI: This is an argument Joe and I have about fairness and whether or not there are some sort of underlying unfairness when it comes to Republicans. And I just, you know, I feel it here. I'm not sure where this is coming from. It may be a woman thing.
Mika took up the theme again when NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd appeared later in the show. Mika read from the Shipman/Kay column, observed "there is some veiled criticism there, then continued.
BRZEZINSKI: Let me counter this with some thoughts of my own. Because what I feel I'm reading here is liberal elite women, who can give 150%, who have the opportunity to give 150%, but don't have to. What about the women out there who work three jobs? The woman who has three children and works the night shift and has to give 150% at work because she has to feed her children? See, I think the choices are there for many reasons. And we're going to have a small group of ultra-educated, uber-excessive women in terms of judgment, judging her for this choice, as opposed to applauding her for it.
At one point during the opening segment, Mika said of Palin "I am her." If Mika can identify with the Palin as she does, and if others in the MSM will take on the Palin critics as she has, it spells deep, deep trouble for Barack Obama.