Superficial Idea

Anyone remember Babe Dahlgren?

Of course you don't, even if, unfortunately, you are a Yankees fan. Dahlgren is the fellow who replaced baseball legend and Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig at first base in 1939. Still, we can't quite shake Dana Perino, who replaced as President George W. Bush's press secretary the late Tony Snow, certainly not the equal to Gehrig in longevity, but a giant at his position.

Perino posts at The Corner on National Review Online relative to the Governor Sanford affair:

While I am not able to explain, I do think I know the answer to all of this: Elect more women. No woman I know has the time for such trysts, nor do I know any who say the desire one. They’re too busy trying to keep all the plates spinning at home, at work, and at the gym to make sure none fall and break.

She is partially correct- she is "not able to explain," because there is no sensible explanation. In fact, her prescription makes no sense, given that electing someone precisely because she (or he) has little time for the job is counter-intuitive and reflects little concern for the position she (or he) would be assuming.

There is, as you are thinking now, a better, and more global, reason to reject Perino's thinking. As blogger Kate Klonick, inspired by the words of the 37th president, writes (posts?)

That argument strikes me as awfully similar to that made by Richard Nixon, in his recently released tapes. “I don’t do it because I’m for women,” he said to then GOP Chairman George H.W. Bush, about supporting women for election. “But I’m doing it because (a) woman might win some place where a man might not.” Doesn’t seem like the Republican backing of women in office is any less utilitarian now than it was then.

As for Mrs. Perino's remark that she knows of no women who "desire" to have "such trysts," one (rhetorical) question jumps to mind: wasn't the individual with whom the South Carolina governor having a "tryst" a woman?