Althouse: "Cécilia Sarkozy acts so American, while Hillary Clinton acts so French."

October 31, 2007

"Cécilia Sarkozy acts so American, while Hillary Clinton acts so French."

Sex, politics, women...

45 comments:

Bob said...: French? Hillary is the Democrat version of Richard Nixon, with all the coldness, unfriendliness, enemies list (vast right-wing conspiracy!) and sexual aloofness. The portrait of Nixon as described by Florence King in With Charity Toward None: A Fond Look at Misanthropy could just as easily describe Hillary.; 10/31/07, 9:03 PM
rhhardin said...: Misstresses keep the man from chasing the wife around the house ; it's a kindness to the wife, in the French view.

It's Americanized as a bimbo eruption.; 10/31/07, 9:20 PM
George M. Spencer said...: From the Dowd column...

"That tack, Caitlin Flanagan writes in The Atlantic, would only work if she were “willing to let us women in on the big, underlying struggle of her life that is front and center in our understanding of who she is as a woman. Her husband’s sexual behavior, quite apart from the private pain that it has caused her, has also sullied her deepest — and most womanly — ideals and convictions, for the Clintons’ political partnership has demanded that she defend actions she knows to be indefensible. To call her husband a philanderer is almost to whitewash him, for he’s used women far less sophisticated, educated and powerful than he — women particularly susceptible to the rake’s characteristic blend of cajolery and deceit — for his sexual gratification.

“In glossing over her husband’s actions and abetting his efforts to squirm away from the scrutiny and judgment they provoke, Hillary has too often lapsed into her customary hauteur and self-righteousness and added to the pain delivered upon these women.”

There's more gas in that passage than there is in a can of pork and beans.; 10/31/07, 9:20 PM
Jeff with one 'f' said...: Please post a warning the next time you link to Dowd!; 10/31/07, 9:28 PM
Unknown said...: for he’s used women far less sophisticated, educated and powerful than he — women particularly susceptible to the rake’s characteristic blend of cajolery and deceit — for his sexual gratification.

It never occurred to this idiot that those women might have been using him for their own gratification?

What a condescending ass...

Wow...; 10/31/07, 9:28 PM
Revenant said...: Hillary is the Democrat version of Richard Nixon

And, eerily, may very well be the successor to the Republican version of Lyndon Johnson.

Does this mean we're doomed to have a Democratic Ford and a Republican Carter? The latter would be Huckabee, I guess.; 10/31/07, 9:29 PM
Revenant said...: I'd never actually seen a photo of Maureen Dowd before. She's kind of a cutie. I'd expected someone... dowdy.; 10/31/07, 9:32 PM
rcocean said...: "Ms. Flanagan is not so sure. She was particularly bothered by Hillary’s callousness in dumping Socks, the beloved White House cat and best-selling author, on Bill’s former secretary Betty Currie."

Maybe Socks *wanted* to leave. Maybe Hillary! was just a little too ruthless and unethical for Socks. Even cats have standards.

"But maybe the qualities that many find off-putting in Hillary — her opportunism, her triangulation, her ethical corner-cutting, her shifting convictions from pro-war to anti-war, her secrecy, her ruthlessness — are the same ones that make people willing to vote for a woman."

That's what they said about Hitler in 1933. Well, except for the "anti-war" part.; 10/31/07, 9:34 PM
Anonymous said...: Sex, politics, women... Those are your words Ann,

But I love women, sex...and politics is unavoidable, whether
you live in a democracy or a dictatorship. For all politics is about those who got -and those who want.
Indeed, you wanna get laid, the wife/woman has to agree. The only problem is when the female gets too uppity and thinks she is better than a man -or that she can get along without a man. Then you have chaos and anarchy -such as we in the "West", the so-called developed world, have today (and I include Japan,India,Russia,China...).
Tsk, tsk, these stupid women who believe such putrid garbage and nonsense as feminism.

Tom; 10/31/07, 9:40 PM
Anonymous said...: Revenant said..."I'd never actually seen a photo of Maureen Dowd before. She's kind of a cutie. I'd expected someone... dowdy."

Okay.

Now keep in mind, there are people HERE...who read this (cave person's comments?) and think they have a fucking clue?

*Concentrate on..."I'd never actually seen a photo of Maureen Dowd before..."

What...no cable?; 10/31/07, 9:42 PM
Anonymous said...: Ann,
I've always wondered what your infatuation is with TC...

10/30/07
"To my dear lassie, Ann Althouse, Your advice about writing (1-i) and your comment (1-d) are appreciated. You will note that all of my comments are pointed and direct (1-b,f,g) and comments by others (1-c,e,h,g) are accomodated here as well as in past postings."

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh....does he get another cookie?; 10/31/07, 9:46 PM
Anonymous said...: "She is cold-eyed about wanting power..."

That's what's wrong with Hillary. She doesn't seem to be in the game for anything but the power.

On another item Dowd raises, it's disgraceful that anyone would vote for her simply becaue she's a woman. Substitute "man" or "white man" and see what you'll get called. Either Hillary is the right man for the job (that's a joke, btw), or she isn't, regardless of her sex.

Hillary's philosophy of the role of government is too Marxist for me--and what disqualifies her, not her sex.; 10/31/07, 9:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Windbag said..."That's what's wrong with Hillary. She doesn't seem to be in the game for anything but the power."

Unlike...who??; 10/31/07, 9:51 PM
jane said...: "Cécilia at one point left her marriage to go to New York and seek love American-style, while Hillary lost the public love in the ’90s when she tried French-style health care reform."

More joie de vivre in the one than the oppressive policy wonked other.; 10/31/07, 9:52 PM
Unknown said...: Hillary's philosophy of the role of government is too Marxist for me--and what disqualifies her, not her sex.

It's amazing your brain generates enough energy to move your fingers to type that.

Hillary a Marxist? Would that it were true...; 10/31/07, 9:56 PM
garage mahal said...: "She is cold-eyed about wanting power..."

You guys have some major Daddy issues. I get a kick out of these tough guy Republicans afraid of a 60 year old woman that put her own promising career on hold for 30 years, in bum fuck egypt, for her husband. Yet she's a steely eyed power hungry monster for having the audacity to run for office in her twilight years.

Your wives are luuuucky girls!; 10/31/07, 10:06 PM
rcocean said...: "You guys have some major Daddy issues."

Please explain the connection.

"I get a kick out of these tough guy Republicans afraid of a 60 year old woman that put her own promising career on hold for 30 years, in bum fuck egypt, for her husband."

We're not afraid of her beating us up, we're afraid of what she'll do to the country as POTUS.

"Yet she's a steely eyed power hungry monster for having the audacity to run for office in her twilight years."

No she's a steely eyed power hungry monster, as evidenced by her behavior ever since she left Yale Law school. As for "audacity" the whole Liberal establishment is behind her, not to mention every Chinese-American waiter and Buddhist monk.

"Your wives are luuuucky girls!"

My wife thinks so. But then she's a strong woman.; 10/31/07, 10:39 PM
Cedarford said...: The woman is pretty hot, but Sarko is going to be pretty fun to watch as a Free, unattached President of France...We will see what sort of company flocks to him with what Nancy Kissinger called "The Ultimate Aphrodisiac" - A Man of Great Power.

I don't see Hillary as French at all. Methodically German...maybe.

**********************

As for Bob's Nixon comparison:

Hillary is the Democrat version of Richard Nixon, with all the coldness, unfriendliness, enemies list (vast right-wing conspiracy!) and sexual aloofness

We should care more if she can lead and fix things and less about how "un-Oprah like" she may be and just as little about how "warm and nice" the Republican is.

As his era receeds we look back and get a fuller picture of the man, not just his accomplishments in office and the detriments older Americans were told existed, by the media of the time.
With each year, Nixon and his accomplishments look bigger.

And his critics smaller.

And driven by revenge against Nixon for going after members of the Left revealed with the fall of the Soviets - to have been true Fellow Travellers. Their friends and relatives from NYC - who joined the media and campus intelligensia - never forgave Nixon for that and worked a quarter century to destroy him as they got McCarthy....

Nixon remains unlikeable, but other greats in our history have absolutely been hated by a large portion of the public - like Jefferson, Hamilton, Jackson, Lincoln, FDR, Truman, Carnaghie, MLK.

The old Lefty saw of trying to tar anyone by calling them "Nixonian" may be as outdated as use of "groovy".

No President I am aware of faced the multitude of challenges from different directions while still hoping to move the nation forward to better ways of doing things as Nixon.
Energy Crisis. Soviet tanks in Czechslovakia. MAss pro-Communist rallies in the West in 1968.
China's Cultural Revolution underway. Proliferation of Chem, Bio, and Nuclear WMD. Israel's existence threatened. Inheriting a war LBJ thoroughly fucked up. A drug crisis. Cuba spreading revolution. America at the peak of racial and cultural troubles.
Nixon faced all of them and other than wage & price controls and the DEA...did from an OK to superior job in fixing the problems.

Nixon ended school segregation systematically over 5 years - not JFK or LBJ. Creation of nuclear, bio, chem NPT - including Nixon unilaterally getting us out of the nerve gas and Satan Bug business. The Volunteer military was created. Israel was bailed out despite Kissinger's advice to let them go down. CAFE standards. Creation of the EPA and most strange, Nixon starting affirmative action. Full work on new energy sources, and the War on Cancer started with Nixon leading on it..Cuba was temporarily checkmated. And slowly but surely, Nixon extricated us from Vietnam until the project was trashed by post-Watergate McGovernites stabbing the military and the S Vietnamese in the back. NIxon created Detente and through triangulation, and disarmament - greatly reduced the risk of a nuclear conflict.

Hillary! or her Republican challenger will take over when America is in the biggest mess it has been in from a whole pile of major problems, since 1968.

Let's pray both Hillary! or the Republican is as good as Nixon was.
That neither can be as bad as Jimmy Carter or Dubya. I personally don't want her in. NOt just the Dynastic politics that may signal our decay as a Nation, but dynastic succession with the expectation that First Ladies are now Queens expected to inherit the throne if their husband goes???????

But if the Republicans come up with a dog, I think, at least she is smart enough not to fuck it all up the way Jimmy or Dubya did. Her getting elected, despite her lack of military or executive experience would not be as bad as Kerry, who dishonored his Vietnam comrades...becoming President. I understand why some people dislike her, but as a Vet, I can say I hated Kerry in a way I could never see feeling the same way about Hillary!..; 10/31/07, 10:48 PM
Anonymous said...: rcocean responds to..."You guys have some major Daddy issues."

With: "Please explain the connection."

This from a man who refers to Hillary Clinton as a "bitch."; 10/31/07, 10:52 PM
Palladian said...: "This from a man who refers to Hillary Clinton as a "bitch.""

That was someone else, not rcocean. Why don't you READ A BOOK, stump-head!!1

"Your wives are luuuucky girls!"

I'm a homosexual. Are you going to tell me I have Daddy issues? Because if you do, I'll report your hate speech against gay people to Hillary's Tolerance Squad of earth-toned woolen body-stocking-clad lesbian snipers.

I don't have daddy issues. The young men call me Daddy.; 10/31/07, 11:10 PM
Unknown said...: As for "audacity" the whole Liberal establishment is behind her, not to mention every Chinese-American waiter and Buddhist monk.

Where do you guys get this shit?

Hillary's a triangulating centrist like her hubby.

I can count the number of actual liberals excited about her being president on the fingers of one hand.; 10/31/07, 11:11 PM
Swifty Quick said...: Hillary has nothing in common with Juliette Binoche and Audrey Tatou. And they can chase me around the house all day long.; 10/31/07, 11:13 PM
Unknown said...: I don't have daddy issues. The young men call me Daddy.
11:10 PM

You have more serious issues.

The whole being in bed with the Official Party of Homophobia thing, for example.

The young men I know call you Roy Cohn.
:-); 10/31/07, 11:14 PM
Anonymous said...: Luckyoldson...unlike who? Unfortunately, most (okay probabaly all) politicians seem to only be in it for the power. Goodness, I thought I was cynical. Also, unfortunately, the ones who appear passionate about positions rather than power also appear to be insane (e.g. Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich).

Christopher...ad hominem attacks right off the bat. Please refute what I wrote, if you possible can (lack of evidence implied, not ability). Let's see...Hillary declared that we should ""take away those profits" that the oil companies make. Hmmm...sounds pretty Marxist to me. Unless, of course, that's not left-enough for you.

garage mahal...daddy issues? Based on what? Did you read my post? I don't give a flying monkey about someone's sex. All of your post attributes attitudes not found in my post or mind. Maybe you have some unresolved issues you're trying to work through? No, that's not an accusation, just a guess as to what prompted your comments.; 10/31/07, 11:21 PM
Anonymous said...: Palladian,
Wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll, excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me...asshole.; 10/31/07, 11:22 PM
Anonymous said...: Windbag,
If it came to it...would YOU vote for Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich?

I would.; 10/31/07, 11:24 PM
Anonymous said...: lucky,

Dennis seems absolutely batty.

Ron Paul, at one time long ago, seemed to be a sane libertarian. Unfortunately, I think he's tried to cast such a wide net, hoping to capture as large a market share as possible, he's become unfocused and incoherent on too many issues. I could still be persuaded on Ron Paul, if he'd come out and shed some of the peripheral craziness and run on a limited government, supply side platform.

For the record, the US Constitution Party is my party of choice. Our two-party system, prompted by our founding fathers, is, in essence, a one-party system. They are two sides of the same filthy coin. I actually voted for Howard Phillips for President in '96--a throw-away year anyway, with Dole (cough, gag) representing the red states.; 10/31/07, 11:30 PM
Palladian said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/31/07, 11:33 PM
Palladian said...: "The whole being in bed with the Official Party of Homophobia thing, for example."

How am I "in bed" with the "Official Party of Homophobia"? If that's the Republican party you're referring to, I'm not a Republican. It's hard to discern which party you're referring to, since the leading Democratic candidate seems to support the same policies as the current Republican President in regard to the issue of "gay" marriage.

Anyway, whichever party or candidate I support, I'm not "in bed" with them. I don't get that intimate with politicians or political ideologies, and if I did, I'd have to let them know that I'm certainly not monogamous. In fact, I often choose who to vote for rather like a drunken bar-goer chooses who to go home with. Pick someone with acceptable looks who's willing, flexible and doesn't look like they're going to beat them up and rob them afterwards. In that situation one is not looking for perfection or grand ideas. One is looking for someone who'll get them through the night without any drama.

"The young men I know call you Roy Cohn.
:-)"

Well the only "young man" I know who's called me that isn't young by his admission, nor very creative. You need to start hanging around with a better class of young men.; 10/31/07, 11:37 PM
Anonymous said...: Windbag..."Howard Phillips...???"

I see.; 10/31/07, 11:42 PM
lee david said...: Hey Jane, we missed you.; 10/31/07, 11:43 PM
Anonymous said...: Palladian,
You're actually trying to compare the Republicans to the Democrats...regarding gays and gay rights?; 10/31/07, 11:44 PM
Anonymous said...: Jane,
Vous êtes plein de lui.; 10/31/07, 11:48 PM
Unknown said...: Palladian said...

"The whole being in bed with the Official Party of Homophobia thing, for example."

How am I "in bed" with the "Official Party of Homophobia"?

Oh for crissakes.

Did you vote for Bush? Once? Twice?

Do you support his war?

If the answers are no, then I apologize.

If not, you're a self-hating gay guy in bed with the Official Party of Homophobia.

Lie down with dogs, etc.; 10/31/07, 11:52 PM
Palladian said...: "Palladian,
You're actually trying to compare the Republicans to the Democrats...regarding gays and gay rights?"

They talk different talk, but with some notable exceptions, they're basically the same in action.

"“I don’t think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that’s what a state chooses to do so,” Bush said in an interview aired Tuesday on ABC. Bush acknowledged that his position put him at odds with the Republican platform, which opposes civil unions.

"I don’t think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that’s what a state chooses to do so...I view the definition of marriage different from legal arrangements that enable people to have rights... States ought to be able to have the right to pass laws that enable people to be able to have rights like others."

"...marriage means something different. You know, marriage has a meaning that I... I think should be kept as it historically has been, but I see no reason whatsoever why people in committed relationships can't have, you know, many of the same rights and the same, you know, respect for their unions that they are seeking..."

So, without Googling, which is which?!; 10/31/07, 11:59 PM
Anonymous said...: Palladian said..."They talk different talk, but with some notable exceptions, they're basically the same in action."

You're either not really gay or just plain stupid.; 11/1/07, 12:01 AM
Palladian said...: "Do you support his war?"

You mean like the Holy, Good, and Tolerant Democrats overwhelmingly did? And it ain't Bush's war no more, baby. My support of it is irrelevant. It's our war, and will be the war of whoever takes office in January of 2009.

But that has nothing to do with the topic at hand, does it? The last thing we need here is another boring war argument. You're a nonsensical, non-serious person. So go f**k yourself, because you're not likely to find someone to do it for you.

:); 11/1/07, 12:03 AM
Anonymous said...: Palladian,
Here are some of your fellow Republican quotes:

Responding to a proposal to rename Houston's Intercontinental Airport after a black congressman, Jim Westmoreland, a Republican city councilman, had a better idea: "The idea now is to name the airport Nigger International. That way it would satisfy all the blacks."

The airport was eventually named after George Bush 1.

"There are more American Indians alive today than there were when Columbus arrived or at any other time in history. Does this sound like a record of genocide?" --Rush Limbaugh

"There were no politics to polarize us then, to magnify every slight. The negroes of Washington had their public schools, restaurants, bars, movie houses, playgrounds and churches; and we had ours." --Pat Buchanan, reflecting on 1950s race relations in his autobiography.

"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual gay sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything." Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum

"Fuck the Jews. They don't vote for us anyway." James Baker to George Bush Sr. in 1992, as relayed by William Safire in the New York Times

"Do you have blacks, too?" George W. Bush, to a shocked Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cordoso, in a meeting in March 2001 (Brazil has approximately 170 million black citizens--half its total population); 11/1/07, 12:07 AM
Palladian said...: "You're either not really gay or just plain stupid."

If you had a discernible dick, weren't 75 years old and didn't smell like a ham hoagie that's been in the trunk of a Dodge Dart since late September, I'd show you just how gay I am.

You're a nonsensical and non-serious person as well, but it's fun to bat you around sometimes! You're more entertaining than christopher!; 11/1/07, 12:09 AM
Palladian said...: Why are you talking about blacks?! I'm not black! No one was talking about blacks!

Did I say that some Republicans weren't capable of being reprehensible douchebags? No, I didn't say that. They're not my "fellow" Republicans anyway; I make no fellowship with any political parties. But douchebaggery doesn't limit itself to only the right or the left.

You're spewing nonsense, as usual.; 11/1/07, 12:13 AM
Anonymous said...: Palladian,
if you are indeed gay, you're certainly one of most unsophisticated and crass gays I've ever encountered. What would possibly make you think having sex with straight person would somehow prove your "gayness" is rather bizarre to say the least.; 11/1/07, 12:19 AM
Anonymous said...: Palladian,
Can you read?

"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual gay sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything." Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum

Bigots are bigots...; 11/1/07, 12:21 AM
Anonymous said...: Palladian...know him?

A state legislator who yesterday insisted he was “not gay” was being blackmailed by a young man he had engaged in “sexual activities” with after the two met at a Spokane Valley adult bookstore last week, court documents filed today allege.

State Rep. Richard Curtis, a Republican from the Vancouver, Wash., area, met Cody Castagna at Hollywood Erotic Boutique on East Sprague Avenue at 12:45 a.m. Friday before the two went to Curtis’ room at the Davenport Tower in downtown Spokane, the documents say. Castagna told investigators Curtis agreed to pay him $1,000 for sex, the documents allege.

No criminal charges have been filed in the case. Castagna, 26, has been questioned by police but not arrested.; 11/1/07, 12:31 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Palladian,
Here are some of your fellow Republican quotes:

a Republican city councilman, had a better idea: "The idea now is to name the airport Nigger International. That way it would satisfy all the blacks."

Hey Lucky, you do know that the only member of the Senate who was a KKK member is a Democrat right?

Tell me, have any of the current crop of Dem candidates come out and said they would support a same sex marriage amendment?

Palladian's point, if you were paying attention, is that neither part with some exceptions, won't support it. There is a difference between paying lip service to an issue and actually doing something about it.; 11/1/07, 7:44 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Darn NY Times Select was good while it lasted. It gave me the illusion Maureen Dowd had fallen off the edge of the Earth.

How's LUCY today?; 11/1/07, 3:29 PM