We get it, she's a woman, she has a womb, she squirted out some babies.

Do you know why the Dems and others on the left can't get the attention and support of so many voters in the South and Midwest?

Do you know why "liberals" get characterized as anti-family, anti-American, snotty, overeducated, baby-killing eggheads?

Well, in part, it's because of stupid statements like this.

Most women in this country will give birth to one or more babies at some point in her life. Almost all will do so in the intimate company of men with whom they are emotionally, and maybe even legally, connected. It's something they are proud of. It's a life they cherish. When they watch/read the news, and they see political officials with children, or political candidates with children, who are proud of their children, they see that offical or candidate as a person. Someone who is in at least some respects just like them. A Democrat who is an honest-to-god appealing human being that a red-state moderate might even vote for.

But if that politico on TV is a Democrat, and especially if she is a woman, the right wing will attack her for using her children and grandchildren as an accessory. They'll nitpick at any detail they can about the presentation of her family in the media to try to make it look like this female, Democrat candidate or officeholder is an opportunistic harpy who only produced children to further her career, and will probably eat them when they start to get too big to look cute on TV.

And lefty and Democrat mediawhores, bloggers, and assorted little yapping letter writers will happily help them out by AGREEING with them. By implying that family and motherhood might be something a respectable woman shuld be ashamed of. By jumping on the bandwagon with a bunch of nasty, disreputable right-wing halfwits and agreeing that Nancy Pelosi's claim on family values is tenuous at best.

I grew up in Oklahoma. It does not get redder than that. Let me tell you: many, many people in Oklahoma, and other states like it just do not really believe that people in states like California and Massachusetts have real families like they do. They believe themselves to be disenfranchised from the liberal parts of the country, which they believe to be the power centers responsible for making things so hard for the honest, hardworking red staters. Contemptuous statements like the one quoted above make it hard to gain any credibility there.

And you would attack those representatives that would make an attempt to reach out to and relate to those millions and MILLIONS of voters in those states, AND in the blue states (almost NONE of which are truly, safely "blue", if you haven't noticed)? Those representatives who, just by the way, will protect the reproductive rights of those woman, as well as their reproductive health and safety, in far better fashion than anyone else on the ballot?

If that is what you would do, fellow Democrats and lefties, than you are for more stupid than any child any trailer-dwelling red state momma ever managed to "squirt out".

Really. Think hard. Read what people are saying here. A lot of it's harsh, but how much of that sting you're feeling is the sting of truth? If this were really your "calling", you'd be too immersed in it to be pining and kvetching, and the apparent dichotomy between helping youself and helping others would have long faded away.

And newsflash: people in third-world countries don't appreciate it when stupid gringos show up wanting to use their personal heartache as an opportunity for growth, self-discovery, and fulfillment.

If you can help, fine (though there are plenty of indigent women right here in the comfy USA that could use the services of a good doula willing to volunteer some of her time). But these people are not roadkill for you to pick at for nourishment. Please, yank your head out of your butt before one of these people eats you alive.

I mean Vera-Ellen AS Judy Haynes. Ahem.

You are writers there at Salon, right? Or was I mistaken?

I know it's Christmas, but could you please, please maybe plan ahead (maybe put the reminder in your 2007 calendar now) and please WRITE SOMETHING NEW NEXT YEAR. Something besides a recap of what I can already find in my TV guide?

Reading this article every year is starting to cause me considerable pain. And I don't like that movie either.

Let's all go watch White Christmas instead. Young and hot Rosemary Clooney and Judy Haynes in a much more burlesque environs would hit the spot right about now, wouldn't it?

Yeah, see, that's better...