Ana Navarro is a "moderate" Republican strategist that liberal journalists like, one who calls the social conservatives "GEICO cavemen."
So it wasn't completely surprising when she gaffed on Sunday's Meet the Press, suggesting that while working moms "lean in" to work, stay-at-home moms "lean back...on a rocking chair with a mint julep." She then added that they are "kept women," which is usually defined as a mistress!
Meet the Press host David Gregory brought up a Pew Research Center survey on how women are emerging as the primary breadwinners in many families: "Look at the percentage of the mothers as the sole or primary breadwinner in the families. Back in 1960 if you look at this chart, 10.8 percent. And now here we are in 2011, it`s at 40.4 percent. Ana, there`s a lot of discussion within marriages now that`s a bottom line discussion, about who should be working based on who`s earning." Then came the gaffes:
ANA NAVARRO: And I think that`s where the discussion should be amongst marriages. There has been an evolution in the American family. You know, I think what we have to be as a society is accepting of what couples decide to do for themselves. There are some people who want to lean in. There are some people who want to lean back and be on a rocking chair drinking a mint julep. Whatever works for every couple...
GREGORY: Enough about your Sunday afternoon. (LAUGHTER)
NAVARRO: When I say in my house that I want to be a kept woman, the answer I get back is I want to be a kept man. So, you know, that`s not working -- it`s not working in my house.
Perhaps realizing how insulting that sounded, Navarro inserted a few moments later: “I think we, women that work, need to be not judgmental of women who don`t. I think men who are Mr. Moms need to be accepted by those who are the alpha-male breadwinners.”
Navarro’s still sounding a bit like Hillary Rosen, suggesting stay-at-home moms have "never worked a day in their lives."
