OPINION: Barbarianism on the left

Savages on far left blogs, along with cohorts in some of the mainstream media, have stopped at nothing to invade Sarah Palin's privacy and vilify her family.

Unapologetic, overt sexism runs swiftly through the blogosewer. Palin has five children, doesn't like abortion, and her teenage daughter will keep her child and wed the father. Apparently, to an alarming number of antagonists on the left, this makes Palin something less than a woman breaking through the glass ceiling. She should have babies or work.

"After the birth of her fifth child, she was back in the office after a few days," laments Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn, who has long advocated that mothers work and try to have it all.

If Palin is to be a woman in public life, it seems, she must obey the left's prescribed ideology for women seeking power. The same crowd tried to stop the confirmation of conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and it helped foil the election of conservative Lynn Swann as governor of Pennsylvania. The left wants women and blacks to think and act a certain way. It's slavery of the mind.

Susan Estrich, the first female president of Harvard Law Review and former campaign manager for presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, told Fox News on Wednesday that she knows of no attack on a political candidate that comes close to the assault on Sarah Palin. And that's from a liberal Democrat who was politely critical of Palin's appointment the day it was made, writing: "Women are not fungible." She went on to explain that Hillary Clinton and Palin aren't interchangeable.

Well, Ms. Estrich, it seems a sexist assumption that McCain appointed Palin primarily because of her anatomy. One might also credit the fact that she's hands-down the most popular governor in the United States, enjoying a steady approval rating of more than 80 percent. She's the executive of a major energy state, and we're living in an energy crisis. Alaska is the largest state geographically, more than 2.5 times the size of Texas. Sure, it's small in terms of population. But so is Arkansas, which gave us Bill Clinton. So is Kansas, which gave us Dwight Eisenhower. So is Vermont, which tried to give us Howard Dean.

Palin rose to prominence by taking on a corrupt establishment, not playing by its rules. Barack Obama - the head of his ticket - rose to a relatively low-level of power through Chicago's notoriously corrupt political machine. He has never been known for raging at that machine.

Palin manages a $11 billion budget - more than former Arkansas Gov. Clinton, or Mike Huckabee. Obama has never managed public finance. Instead, he has a short political career centered mostly on speaking and writing. Palin is the executive in charge of 15,000 state employees; Obama has employed a handful of government employees in a Senate office. Same with McCain and Obama's running mate Joseph Biden. Palin has dealt with union disputes, lawsuits, oil leases, major infrastructure projects, and hundreds of other routine issues any governor must process daily.

Apparently, if one listens to the critics, none of those characteristics entered into McCain's mind. He picked Palin because she's a girl, but not the right kind of girl.

While the far left blogosewer reeks like never before, even some on the right have criticized the Palin pick - because she's a mom. Laura Schlessinger, a radio host known as "Dr. Laura," has long advocated against childcare. She calls modern day-care centers "day orphanages," and urges mothers to stay home with their kids. She has long acknowledged, however, that sometimes a mother has more career skills and can bring home more money than dad. In those cases, she has been fine with stay-at-home dads - men like Todd Palin.

But here was Schlessinger's reaction to the rise of this conservative, family values wife and mother: "I'm stunned to find out the Republicans couldn't find one competent adult female with grown children."

Right-wing criticism of Palin is hard to find. The left's Web sites and blogs, however, provide endless free entertainment. Palin has been blamed for everything from giving her child Down syndrome, to causing Hurricane Gustav.

Alan Colmes, a full-time liberal commentator for Fox News, used his Web site "Liberaland" to raise the question: "Did Palin Take Proper Pre-Natal Care?" It goes on to criticize Palin for riding on an airplane close to delivery (after consulting with her physician). Colmes would know more than Palin about caring for a child. After all, he's a sensitive liberal man. He'd like us to believe an airplane ride caused Down syndrome.

And then there's this, from a blog known as the Nutroots: "Hurricane Gustav is the fault of John McCain's VP pick Sarah Palin. Extremist conservatives like Sarah Palin have ignored environmental warnings about coastal erosion, climate change and the importance of mangroves and have tried to stop the progress that would halt unnatural hurricane events like this."

There's virtually no limit to the treasures one can find while wallowing deep into the blogosewer. Near the surface, however, is this from Molly Lambert on the popular blog "This Recording": Palin, Lambert wrote, "found out the fetus had Down syndrome, and still popped it out. Am I suppose to respect her for that? I don't."

Then, like Colmes, she tries to blame Palin for the baby's condition, writing: "I am not saying that being old gets you a retarded baby but it certainly doesn't help." She goes on to promote the conspiracy theory that the baby belongs to Palin's daughter, then suggests naming a new band "Sarah Palin's Retarded Baby." So tolerant, so egalitarian the left has become.

Countless other anti-Palin blog entries are too vile for mention. That's because this vice presidential selection just keeps giving. Every minute of every hour, the Palin pick exposes the stench of the hateful leftist assault machine. If these hate-mongers get their way, that high glass ceiling will remain very much intact - especially for mothers with Down syndrome kids.