"Palin Bashing is Women Bashing." Okay.

Christian Science Monitor: "Langhorne, Pa. - Let's call it what it is: sexism in the media. No matter your political stripe, pundits are skewering Sarah Palin. Again. Back in the media spotlight for announcing her resignation as governor July 3, she's become easy fodder for misogynistic bashing."

Bob Somerby had an interesting column (see 2d half of his piece) on this very same point (emphasis added).

"'COHEN (7/7/09): ...Was it okay with the GOP if the person a heartbeat away from the presidency was—pardon me, but it's true—a ditz with no national experience whatsoever? You betcha. The party had cracked up, accepting a nullity because she was antiabortion over a seasoned senator and former governor because they were not. Ideology won. The nation lost.'

...Palin was a horrible candidate...But someone like Cohen can’t voice such a judgment about a woman without quickly turning to familiar sexist language. He asks our forgiveness as he does, thus showing he knows there’s a problem.

“Pardon me,” the elite pundit says, calling Palin “a ditz.” “Pardon me”—but the statement "is true.”

Now that is a teachable moment.

And, of course, Cohen’s so dumb that he seems to think that a stereotypical insult of that type can actually be a matter of “fact.” You really have to be dumb—and uncaring—to say something like that."

Harsh, but Somerby is right. Someone being a "ditz," by definition, can not be a matter of "fact," but not, apparently, to Cohen, who, um, uh, errr, is a bit of a ditz. In our humble opinion, by the way, as all such proclamations are. As per usual, Cohen's also wrong as to why the "party" accepted the nomination (while at the same time missing the fact that quite a number of very prominent republicans, increasingly, lambasted the choice); because Palin brought an "energy" (manipulative as it is, see this above) and it was McCain's choice, not theirs.

Still, what the Christian Science Monitor is missing, and what the media still has not very well covered, are the facts. Let's take a look back when they really mattered, then and today.

As noted above, the point is...