The wars on Fox

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Battle for the War on Women
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Yeah, on Fox, there's a 'war' on everything else, but calling Republican efforts a "war on women" is just ridiculous, huh?

I thought that was really funny, but the first part of The Daily Show was pretty good, too.

Jon Stewart's first segment was about the media firestorm over that comment by Democrat Hilary Rosen that Ann Romney had "never worked a day in her life."

A media circus ensued, and included a conference call on which women supporters of Romney’s insisted Rosen’s gaffe represented the official opinion of the White House, and a kiss-off of the “Hilary whatserface” incident from Barbara Bush, who liberally tossed around the word “whatever.”

But just as Republicans were basking in it all — Rosen had apologized by the afternoon — the Catholic League For Religious and Civil Rights, a conservative group, lashed out at Rosen for being a lesbian, and caught all adoptive parents in the crossfire.

“Lesbian Dem Hilary Rosen tells Ann Romney she never worked a day in her life,” the Catholic League tweeted. “Unlike Rosen, who had to adopt kids, Ann raised 5 of her own.”

And so, less than 24 hours after the leadership of the Democratic Party had to disavow the comments of a person not at all involved in their presidential campaign, the Republican Party had to do the exact same thing.

Crazy, huh? Especially since Rosen was right. After all, no one is saying that raising kids is easy - certainly not Hilary Rosen, who's a mom, herself.

I'm sure it wasn't easy for my parents, both of whom also worked full-time jobs. Indeed, most mothers do have to work, as well as raise their children.

I don't know how it is in the jet set, but among people I know, "work" is usually something you have to do so you can do the things you want to do, such as raising children.

But even if you consider raising children to be "work" - and there's no way I'd argue that with you - most stay-at-home mothers aren't multimillionaires who can afford cooks, maids, and gardeners.

Maybe it's a bit easier when you can send your kids to boarding school, too. (Mitt Romney attended a private boarding school. I don't know if his sons attended school there, but they could certainly afford it.)

None of this is meant to criticize Ann Romney, who's volunteered for charities and struggled with some really serious diseases. But when she's supposed to be the one advising her husband about women's economic issues, it's certainly fair to point out that she's never shared any of those issues.

After all, Ann Romney has always been rich. I don't know if it's literally true that she "never worked a day in her life," but it's certainly true that she's never had to work a day in her life, as most people mean that. As far as I can tell, she's never worked for a paycheck and never needed to. That doesn't make her a bad person, but it does mean that she's probably not the best adviser on women's economic issues.

And the really hilarious thing, as Stewart pointed out in his second segment, is that Mitt Romney himself - not three months ago - seemed to deny that raising children was "work." He wanted poor moms to have the "dignity of work." But just poor and middle class moms. For rich people, I guess, money is "dignity" enough.