The antennae of the sexism police should have tingled last week when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was describing a chat between the president and the new secretary of state. Referring to the recently unearthed information about Madeleine Albright’s Jewish grandparents who were killed in Nazi camps, McCurry told a group of reporters. “The president said it was a fascinating story and encouraged Madeleine to find out more.” The president and Madeleine? The secretary of state as Madeleine? Did Ron Nessen speak of ” Henry,” Jody Powell of “Cy,” Larry Speakes of “George,” Marlin Fitzwater of ” Jim”? And while he was at it, why didn’t Mike give the world’s top diplomat a little pat on the rump and murmur, “Good girl”?
Okay, look, we couldn’t care less, except to point out that if a conservative Republican press secretary had referred to the country’s first female secretary of state that way, all the right-thinkers would have gone bonkers.
