War Against Women

New York Times columnist Gail Collins has a running shtick of always including the story about how Mitt Romney once strapped his dog to the roof of his car during a family vacation. Today was no exception, as she lambasted the freak show that purported to be the umpteenth Republican presidential debate.

And here is part of what The Times moderators saw fit to publish from reader-commenter Richard Luettgen of New Jersey:

But you continue to misinform the public about Seamus, the dog that has achieved immortality by allegedly being strapped to the roof of Mitt's car during a family jaunt to Canada. The only dogs that Mitt ever strapped to the roof of a car were Herman Cain's old girlfriends.

It's posted at Number 15 and as of this writing has six reader recommendations, probably from six conservative men (including its own author).* It's just one small ugly part of the backlash against the victims of Herman Cain's predatory paws. And it's not just coming from men. New York Daily News columnist Andrea Tantoros says that women are hurting "the sisterhood" by coming forward to complain. In an article headlined Ladies: Time to Man Up!, she writes:

Let me be clear: I’m not saying that Cain isn’t guilty of sexual misconduct that took place when he was the head of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s. But this scandal should have every woman asking: At what point do women need to take some responsibility?.... Whining that an off-color comment or a clumsy attempt at a date is abuse undermines real charges of assault, not to mention real issues that this country should be focused on during an election season, like a nuclear Iran, our toxic debt and a sputtering domestic economy.

Tantoros even manages to get a dig in at the OWS Zuccotti Park women. "Rather than go to the authorities," she sniffs, "women have reportedly been told to not take complaints to the police so that the incidents can be handled 'internally,' whatever that means. But the National Organization for Women doesn’t seem to be making a big stink about that."

Even female reporters confronting Cain on his behavior are getting abused. CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo was booed by the audience at last night's Republican debate when she questioned him. (and she's not exactly an anti-greed liberal). And this morning, the right-wing American Thinker crowed: "Weak Field Spanks CNBC Liberals."  

Even worse: in the corporate journalistic spirit of telling both sides of a story, Cain's criminal defense attorney was given a platform in the New York Times to warn women to "think twice" before coming forward. "I'm not here to scare anyone off," Lin Wood smarmily told The Times. "I've been brought in to bring an element of fairness to the accusations being brought." 

In the spirit of independent blogging, I will add that to its credit, The Times also rehashed all the conservative slime from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and even included a few quotes from the victims.  All in the spirit of fairness and accuracy, of course.

* Update: Enough readers have flagged and/or complained about this offensive remark to have it removed from the comments thread. Trust the readers to do the right thing. Hurray for the spirit of interactive journalistic democracy! One small step against misogyny -- one giant leap for human decency.