(Photo: AP/Jim Cole)
However unlikely it is that Carly Fiorina, the fired Hewlett-Packard CEO and loser of a U.S. Senate race, will win the Republican presidential nomination, there's a very good chance she could be the GOP running mate. The best card in the hand she has to play is that of gender, and she obviously knows it. Call it her anti-Trump card (if you can bear to).
In presidential contests, the role of the vice presidential candidate is typically to attack whoever's at the top of the other party's ticket. That allows your presidential candidate to look like a nice person, while the running mate lobs some mud-or to use Fiorina's parlance, "throws a punch," which she promised the fancy-pants crowd at the Koch brothers' confab last month that she knew how to do. And who might she be dreaming of throwing punches at? Why Hillary Clinton, of course.
The problem with being an anti-woman male politician-such as each of the Republican presidential contenders, save Fiorina-is that when you "throw punches" at a female opponent, you risk being perceived as the misogynist you likely are. So, if your opponent is a woman, you really need a misogynist woman to do the punch-throwing. And there Carly Fiorina no doubt sees her opening.
She's clearly thought this thing through.
In fact, she's gone so meta in her singing of her "any misogyny you can do, I can do better" song that she's turned the tables on the GOP itself, elbowing her way into the next Republican presidential debate in defiance of the original set of rules agreed to by the CNN and the Republican National Committee.
Those rules would have hinged the candidates' eligibility for participation in the September 16 top-tier debate on a set of national polls taken before Fiorina's star began to rise with her performance at the second-tier debate that aired hours before the prime-time main event on Fox News Channel last month.
Fiorina's people began an offensive to get her onto the main stage this time, not simply prevailing on CNN, but on the RNC, as well. And the surrogates Fiorina chose to argue her case included not only the usual sorts of pols, but rather the anti-women women of the religious right, among them Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List (the ironically named anti-choice group), and Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America.
A letter penned by Indiana Lieutenant Governor Sue Ellspermann to CNN President Jeff Zucker, according to Politico's Katie Glueck, bore the signatures of Dannenfelser and Nance, as well as those of right-wing members of Congress. (Ellspermann, in addition to being anti-choice, supports her state's controversial anti-gay law, which classifies businesses as people in matters concerning religious freedom, thereby granting them a figurative state seal of approval for discrimination against discrimination. In Indiana, Mitt Romney would actually be right, my friend.)
Ellspermann's letter lambasted Zucker for allegedly siding with the Republican establishment over the grassroots, according to Politico, but she also set her sights on the RNC. Here is an excerpt, as reported by Glueck:
"Make no mistake, the RNC-which decided how many GOP primary debates there would be and who would host them-holds considerable influence over this process. Its continued silence is tantamount to turning its back on Republican voters who overwhelmingly want to see Carly on the debate stage," Ellspermann wrote.
CNN's change in tune came after the Fiorina campaign released Ellspermann's missive to the media. Vox's Andrew Prokop reported it this way:
So the network executives said, "We now believe we should adjust the criteria to ensure the next debate best reflects the most current state of the national race." Translation: They'll change the rules so Fiorina has a better shot at getting in.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was quick to chime in with his two cents, according to the Associated Press:
"I applaud CNN for recognizing the historic nature of this debate and fully support the network's decision to amend their criteria," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.
And odds are good that Priebus is truly grateful for CNN's change of heart.
After all, who in the GOP would want to be seen as picking on a girl, er, rather, an anti-woman woman.
I mean, this is the woman who essentially told the right-wingers gathered at CPAC, as reported here by Kristen Doerer, that a woman who wants protection from sex discrimination on the job is a wimp; she just needs to bring a lawsuit against her employer after the fact.
Carly Fiorina is the GOP's creation, both an asset and a danger to the Patriarchy Party.
I hear she throws a mean punch. Isn't that right, Reince?
