RE: [Marxism] National Security vs Health Care

["Tony Abdo" <gojack10@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Liberal DPers are like an overdose of laughing gas....   Here's the lead
'story' at alternet.org

The Incomparable Judy Steinberg Dean
By Mary Lynn Jones, AlterNet
December 26, 2003

Meet Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean, career woman. Busy balancing her own
thriving medical practice and raising her two children, she keeps up with
what her husband does at work, but it is not her main priority. And the fact
that her husband is the frontrunner in the race for the Democratic
presidential nomination isn't going to change that.

Judy Dean is a historical anomaly among political wives ? the
stand-by-your-man spouses who drop their own careers at the first whiff of a
presidential run and devote themselves solely to their husband's election.
She has instead opted to continue seeing patients who, as she put it in a
recent fundraising letter, "want and need to see a physician who knows them
when they're ill."

"She's definitely a trendsetter in choosing her role, which is exactly what
the women's community has been talking about for a very long time," said
Roselyn O'Connell, president of the National Women's Political Caucus.

While the Dean phenomenon may be new in presidential campaigns, it is merely
the most public manifestation of the transformation of the institution of
marriage that has created greater acceptance for women's careers. A majority
of married women and mothers in America now work, as families increasingly
need two incomes to stay afloat. This shift in demographics may in turn have
created greater acceptance for the idea of a working First Lady.

"[Dean] is saying, I'm going to live my own life. A lot of men and women
will admire her for that," says Larry Sabato, who heads the University of
Virginias Center for Politics. Sabato notes that many women married to
governors, including Dean and Hillary Rodham Clinton, have chosen to
maintain their own careers.

Other spouses of candidates have kept their day job, but not during their
husband's campaigns. In 1996, Elizabeth Dole took a leave of absence from
the American Red Cross to help her husband, Bob Dole. "The fact that both
Dole and Clinton, an attorney, had worked professionally opened
opportunities for candidates who have spouses outside the home," says Dianne
Nystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics
at Iowa State University. More important, the presidential ambitions of
their spouses did not make a dent on the long-term aspirations of either
woman, both of whom now serve in the U.S. Senate.

"Two other factors are also likely to play in Dean's favor," according to
Nystrom. First, the respect many physicians enjoy and, second, the
groundbreaking role of fictional first lady Abigail Bartlett on the
television series "West Wing." Bartlett, like Dean, is a physician.

Yet Dean's decision is not without risks. "Her role may be acceptable during
the Democratic primary, when the pool of people paying attention is smaller
and more liberal than the general electorate," says Amy Caiazza, study
director of the Institute for Women's Policy Research. But as more voters
tune into the race later on, some segments of the public may have trouble
accepting the idea that a woman can love and support her husband and still
have an identity separate from his. "I'd be really surprised if that doesn't
become an issue," Caiazza says.

Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, agrees. "It was
not too long ago that Hillary [Clinton] was being pilloried for not baking
cookies," she says. In the White House, most recent political spouses,
including Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush and Laura Bush, have adopted pet causes
that reflect their own interests, such as campaigns to curb drug use and
promote literacy. But their principal role consists of supporting and
counseling their husbands.

When Hillary tried to take a different tack, she ran into trouble. In 1992,
Bill Clinton showcased his wife by promising voters they would get two for
the price of one ? a promise he came to regret early in his first term when
Republicans attacked him for allowing his unelected wife to control his
administration's policies. "While Dean is making reasonable choices about
her career and personal life, the same people who were so angry about
Hillary are going to go after Judy Dean as well," says Gandy.

The role of the "wife" remains a potentially explosive issue for a
presidential campaign. John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz, added Kerry to her
last name after campaign officials thought it would be a good idea for her
to show support for her husband. The outspoken Heinz Kerry had already
raised eyebrows thanks to a 2002 Washington Post interview in which she both
made fun of her husband's Vietnam nightmares and referred to her deceased
spouse, Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.), as "my husband."

Dean is likely to find herself in a Catch-22 situation as the campaign
progresses. It is very possible that working women will identify with Dean
and therefore vote for her husband. But, as Gandy points out, such an upside
is only possible if voters get to know her, which ironically requires her to
take a more active role in his campaign.

Howard Dean's campaign has acknowledged that she'll have a more noticeable
presence later in the campaign. As Caiazza says, she's not going to have a
choice. The media will be interested in talking with her and people are
going to be interested in hearing about her.

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