We’re not in Kansas any more, Dorothy

I’m not sure what made me go read No Quarter first thing this morning. It really isnt’ one of my usual morning haunts but I went there.  I was greeted by and fully linked to this article by Scott Horton at Harper’s Magazine.  This is one of my favorite magazines although I’ve lost touch with it since Katrina.   (Getting fourth class mail delivered here is still an iffy thing.)   Of course, SusanUnPC has been all aglow for Hillary as SOS, as have most of us Hillary fans. I’m not trying to ignite any blog wars here because I really don’t take issue with her at all or actually the posting of the article.  It is what it is: a nice thread on the difference between Hillary and Condi as SOS and what that will mean to the employees of the State Department.  But, it’s the framing of that situation that caught me in my pre-coffee, pre-first class condition. So, here was the eye-catching quote.

“There are great hopes for Hillary at State. I met last week with a number of career State Department employees and was surprised when one said she was looking forward to the “Glinda Party” next week. I asked her: if Hillary was Glinda, the Good Witch of the South from the Wizard of Oz, did that make Condoleezza Rice the Wicked Witch of the West?”

Now, I’m not one to be an apologist for ANY Bush policy, let alone the appalling lack of professional diplomacy, but are we so swimming in the patriarchy that we have to frame two of the most powerful women in the world as the good witch and the bad witch?  Just askin if something smells a little fishy to you …