She-Males

Not the cross-dressing kind. The political kind. My wife calls female politicians that attack like men, but faint in a vapor when similarly challenged, "she-male politicians." And she finds them utterly contemptible

A ready example of this phenomenon came in the 2000 New York senate race between alpha she-male Hillary Clinton and Little Ricky Lazio. In their first debate, Hillary attacked Lazio relentlessly:

Well, in fact he was a deputy whip to Newt Gingrich. He voted to shut the government down. He voted to cut $270 billion from Medicare. He voted for the biggest education cuts in our history

Lazio, looking like a high school debate captain, walked over to Hillary's podium in his khakis and suede bucks to ask Queenie to sign a no soft-money pledge.

Well. You'd have thought Lazio had marched across the stage in chain mail carrying a mace, or wearing leather chaps and nothing else. "He invaded her personal space!" "He physically intimidated poor sweet Hillary!" Here's what Slate said at the time (emphasis mine):

Hillary's popularity with women voters soared for the first time in this election when, in their first televised debate, Rick Lazio rushed her lectern, brandishing a proposed soft-money agreement, and gave her no choice but to look terrified. That one act may have tipped the scales in this election.

Pundit Joseph Mercurio said this:

It was a well-executed debate tactic. But it also was a risky gambit against a female candidate -- he invaded her space. As sexist as it sounds, no one would have questioned the move against a male candidate.

Now we have Barbara Boxer challenging Hillary for the alpha slot. She interrogates Condi Rice calling her a liar:

"I personally believe - this is my personal view - that your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell this war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth," Mrs. Boxer told Miss Rice, who has been President Bush's national security adviser since 2001.
Miss Rice responded that she "never, ever lost respect for the truth in the service of anything. It is not my nature. It is not my character."
"And I would hope that we can have this conversation and discuss what happened before and what went on before and what I said without impugning my credibility or my integrity," Miss Rice said.

Now Boxer comes back with this little gem:

Sen. Barbara Boxer says she is the real victim of last week's confirmation hearing for Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice, yet continued yesterday to question the national security adviser's honesty.
"She turned and attacked me," the California Democrat told CNN's "Late Edition" in describing the confrontation during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Oh, please. Take your sensitive, weepy, vote-challenging self back to California.

P.S. - Blogger's spell check routine wants to replace "Hillary" with "Hilarious." Now that's artificial intelligence!