Who Wears the Pants in the New Congress?
Ryan Lizza has an article in today's New York Times Week in Review, "The Invasion of the Alpha Male Democrat," where he discusses the "new macho men" of the Democratic Party. Lizza seems to be questioning whether the presentation of the first woman speaker, bedecked in pearls and surrounded by her own and other members' children and grandchildren will clash with the new breed of men elected to Congress. According to the article, the Dems, led by Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer, no shrinking violets themselves, intentionally recruited former CIA agents and war veterans to run this round--and many of them won. But, let's not forget that women also serve in the CIA and have been war veterans for quite a few years now-and a string of pearls, no matter how decorative, certainly don't mark the measure of a woman's ability to be as tough as any guy in Congress today. Nancy Pelosi is a perfect fit actually, herself bred on knee-knocking politics by her father when he was Mayor of Baltimore with Rahm Emanuel, who studied dance at Sarah Lawrence College (our time overlapped on campus, although I didn't know him there), and Chuck Schumer, the Brooklyn-bred Senator. Don't let the Armani fool you.
