News from Around the World

Perhaps equally disturbing is the tendency of the media to “marry off” prominent unmarried women to the men they work for—as if to underscore that their power is actually negligible, that they are merely the pawns of powerful men. Condoleeza Rice is the example that comes to mind. Also “unmarried and childless,” she is portrayed as a fawning syncophantic devotee of the president, unhealthily attached to him, in a way that is a little pathetic, like a schoolgirl with an inappropriate crush on a teacher. Miers is already being characterized this way. And again, my problem with this is that it undermines the seriousness of the cronyism charges that have been leveled against her.