Bush, Condi & The "S" Word

I love it when a writer makes a point and doesn't even know they've made it. Ann Coulter does something like this in Godless with her endless obsession with "excrement." God alone knows what the significance of it is -- I'll leave that to Coulter and the therapist she so badly needs.

But Peggy Noonan does it in her column this week. She makes a point and doesn't even realize that she's made it.

This is what I mean:

"Why does President Bush refer in public to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as "Condi"? Did Dwight Eisenhower call his Secretary of State "Johnny"? Did Jimmy Carter call his "Eddie," or Bill Clinton call his "Maddy," or Richard Nixon call his "Willie" or "Hank"? What are the implications of such informality?"

Should I tell her, or should I let her linger?

Well, Peggy, the implications of this particular informality is that George W. Bush is a sexist pig who subtly demeans and disrespects his own Secretary of State by not giving her the verbal and titular respect that her office would seem to demand.

Got that, babe?

Tom Moran