KEITH OLBERMANN AS WIFE-BEATER

I've somehow missed Keith Olbermann's "final solution" for Hillary Clinton. And it's totally reflective of the attitudes so many of the out-of-the-closet misogynists this election cycle.

I probably wouldn't go so far as to say, as did Anglachel did, that Keith has effectively called for Hillary's murder. But let's think about that for a minute. Keith suggested that to bring her campaign to an end, some unnamed superdelegate (but definitely male -- "he") take Hillary into a back room, from which only one of them would emerge -- and it wouldn't be Hillary.

This scenario sounds disturbingly like the words of an abusive husband/partner/boss who does his ugly business in the dark corners where nobody can observe. It reeks of violence, of coercion, of the insecure but domineering male who, when challenged by a female, interprets that as an attack upon his masculinity for which he is justified in whatever action he decides to take in order to "put [her] in [her]place" (shades of enabler Maureen Dowd!)and set his world aright.

How many wife beaters actually intend to murder their spouses from the outset? I would venture to guess that the great majority tell themselves they're doing the world, their wife, and/or their family a service by maintaining what they believe to be the correct order of things (i.e., man on top, woman subservient). But while society looks the other way, their violence escalates, and at the end, when the wife is dead, society cries out, "We didn't know!"

This is what is happening now. The media and political opponents have treated Hillary Clinton like a punching bag for so long and so incessantly, with hardly any consequence, that they now feel as if they have a right to do so. And as their anger/outrage builds up as a result of her successes, their rhetoric and attacks increase in fervor until it seems completely acceptable in their little Village to call her a murderer, or suggest that she deserves a good whacking.

So maybe Anglachel is correct after all. After all, it's an oft-heard refrain of the murdering husband who cries out in his defense, "She wouldn't stay down after I hit her!" and not so very different from what KO was suggesting ON THE FACE OF IT, without any analysis of his deeper meaning.

Who would have thought that the "progressive" movement would have taken us so many steps backward? I'll never use the term to refer to myself again. I will not be associated with a movement so wholeheartedly in favor of the sexism of a century ago.

I think it's about time we women (and the admirable men who support gender equality) begin our own protest, our own boycott. Maybe we could call it, "A DAY WITHOUT A WOMAN."

See what that gets you, boyz.

UPDATE: Chilling commenter on Anglachel's Journal.

From a perspective that isn't very familiar with Olbermann, other than from quotes, I could try to express my "he said 'what'?" reaction, but I find words fail me, except for these four:

Benazir Bhutto
Indira Gandhi

Yes indeed, a very funny, witty observation from mr. Olbermann...

UPDATE #2: Was listening to the Hugh Hewitt show on my commute home tonight (yes, I know, but I'm obsessed with right-wing talk radio -- it's like spying on the enemy), and he had two guys on his show (Jim Geraghty of NRO and someone else, I forget because right after this I had a flat tire ... but that's another story) talking about KO's remarks. One of the two guests said he'd written about a UK (I thought it was The Economist, but I can't find any reference) journal in which someone suggested that (this is from my pretty reliably accurate memory) "Hillary should retire to a dark room with a glass of wine and a gun."

Never in my memory has a viable OR unviable presidential candidate been subject to repeated suggestions in the MSM that he (never been a she before) should be subjected to intimidation, probably violent, in order to force him out of the race.

Maybe it's only come up now because we HAVE a she.