But Rush Limbaugh has more gall than Victor David Hanson by far

(title references previous post)
Echidne catches Rush ripping into people who’ve taken shots at New Jersey governor Chris Christie for his weight problem and adding that “The truth and the fact of the matter is that female politicians get a pass on every aspect on their appearance. You would never have stories about how some female politician’s fat like there are stories about Christie being fat.”
While I agree with Limbaugh that Christie’s weight is irrelevant to his fitness for office (no pun intended), I’m fascinated that he threw in the lie about women. He didn’t need it to make his point, so I guess it’s just point-scoring——take shots at women wherever possible.
As Echidne notes at the link, Limbaugh has routinely made sneering remarks about Michelle Obama’s weight. And who can forget that when Bill Clinton was elected, Limbaugh put up a photo of Chelsea Clinton as the White House dog (that man is all class).
And it’s not as if Limbaugh’s alone in this. Hilary Clinton got dissected by several pundits on her looks, how much cleavage she was showing, her body language; Christ Matthews once said he thought there was something creepy about her laugh.
Sarah Palin gets it in reverse. Republican pundit mouthpiece Ron Hart loves discussing what a totally, drool-worthy hottie Sarah Palin is, as if that trumps any other consideration in her fitness as a candidate. Yes, I know she’s not fit, but that doesn’t affect the fact that it’s yet another female candidate being judged on her appearance (though I concede Hart was much, much more gushing about her political ability when she was an actual Republican candidate——and I’m sure he’d have gushed again if she’d decided to run). Lord knows, Bush wasn’t fit, but the gush for him (excepting Chris Matthews and Liddy discussing his package) ran to his qualities——his manliness, his ability to clean brush, his dedication to war and conservatism (before he became wildly unpopular and we suddenly had lots of Repubs insisting he wasn’t conservative at all).
In a sense, that’s the Scylla and Charybdis for female politicians (as Echidne pointed out a few years ago): As females they have to be hot enough that mean find them attractive, but not so hot that men don’t take them seriously. It’s a treacherous and narrow road.
And Limbaugh constantly mocks the appearance of any woman who travels it, no matter how much he lies and says otherwise.