SwiftVets.com

[fortdixlover]

On the confused, confused state of the Left and its Avatar ("John Kerry President"). Sad, sad, sad.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/
June 14, 2004

Something called Women's eNews has a dyslogy for Ronald Reagan by a woman who thinks she's a piece of furniture. Martha Burk, the "chair" of the National Council of Women's Organizations, denounces Reagan as "the most anti-woman president of the 20th century."

Burk justifies this characterization with the predictable tired litany: Reagan did not support the Equal Rights Amendment, whatever that was. He opposed abortion; never mind that many women oppose abortion too. He favored smaller government, which means bureaucracies that supposedly fight discrimination weren't as big as Burk would like. He didn't want to raise the minimum wage, which would increase some women's pay even as it put others out of work.

The best bit is when she turns to disparaging the current president. "Reagan-era tenets have become reality under W," she complains. "Look at the anti-woman roster he has racked up: the first federal abortion ban, federally funded abstinence-only sex education and marriage promotion for welfare recipients." So promoting marriage and discouraging premarital sex are "antiwoman"? You can bet a lot of noncommittal single guys hope the gals are buying what Burk is selling.

Anyway, there are a couple of interesting things about this. First, Burk is best known for her crusade to force the Augusta National golf club to admit women as full members--a crusade that became famous because the news pages of the New York Times took it up, publishing scores of stories about it. The Times has dropped its Augusta obsession since the ouster of Howell Raines as executive editor, but it remains a big strike against any claim the Times may make to be an objective purveyor of news.

Also, if you scroll down to the bottom of the Burk piece, you see a list of sponsors of Women's eNews. Among them: the Teresa and H. John Heinz III fund of the Heinz Family Foundations. Teresa Heinz, of course, is the Democratic nominee for first lady, and her husband was seen last week saying nice things about Reagan. Amusingly, one of Burk's complaints about Reagan is that he tried to have "catsup" declared a vegetable. That's really how she spells it--catsup. Does this strike anyone as a transparent attempt to conceal the connection to Heinz, which uses the more common spelling ketchup?

The Burk piece is silly, but here's something shocking from this Heinz-funded Web site: a puff piece, by one Sarah Smiles, about widows of "martyrs" from the terrorist group Hezbollah. "Deified in paradise and venerated on earth for fighting Israel, Hizbullah's martyrs are nothing short of heroes in southern Lebanon," Smiles rhapsodizes. "Their wives are in turn admired, because of their husband's sacrifice."

Why would Women's eNews want to promote terrorism, which after all kills Israeli women as well as men? Maybe the answer is in the opening anecdote:

Like many Shiite Muslim girls in southern Lebanon, Rima Naji was married early, at the tender age of 13. By 15 she had delivered her first child--a healthy boy--and by 19 her husband Sheikh Fadi Abboud was dead.

"He was martyred on the 10th of February 1995. He was 21 years old," she says. "Thank God he died according to the objectives of Hizbullah."

If promoting marriage is antiwoman, as Burk claims, then promoting widowhood must be pro-woman.