Island Dweller reminds us of the valuable word distaff:

Your immenseness: I have been ruminating on something my esteemed associate Esteemed Associate said recently when we were having one of our semi-weekly discussions re: current events. He was struck by how it seemed every time something happened in this Administration, and an explanation had to be given in Congress or a briefing of some kind to the press, it was done by a female. Not to say those performing these actions are not competent – it’s just the frequency of the event that caught EA’s eye. He seems to be much better manicured than the Czar remembers. He’s gone native, all right. Now, EA and I are both of the opinion we could care less what sex or color, or anything else, someone happens to be, as long as they are adjudged truly competent to occupy the office they have been selected to fill. We’d even back Sleestak for occupying a spot in the Federal bureaucracy were he adjudged truly competent to hold it. It might be refreshing to listen to an explanation of some screw-up being given as a stacatto series of hisses instead of nonsensical rhetoric. But, I digress. My point is the Administration may be showing how progressive and open-minded they are by filling positions with women, but they’re also doing something else. Every time one of those women is getting into trouble, their images are posted on every internet website covering the controversy and video of their responses to (for example) Mr. Gowdy’s (genuinely fine man that he is) questioning is posted everywhere. I can just see this peculiarity of circumstance being cynically used by the Democrat party to their advantage in 2016. One of their campaign ads, which will be unleashed aimed at that portion of the electorate with a 10-year-old’s reasoning ability and kneejerk reactions, will talk about the Republican Party’s and conservatism’s War on Women, and will consist of a series of clips showing these frequently unpleasant interrogation sessions, It will be a cynical use of females who in many or most cases will not realize they were cynically used by the Democrat party to this end. ID

The Czar agrees, but is not as worried as you boys. The reality is that the “War on Women” rhetoric finds support only among die-hard liberal voters; Republicans know it’s nonsense, and polls repeatedly confirm that independents (whatever that truly means) also suspect this is a fair amount of hooey, if not bald-faced hypocrisy from the Democrats.

So much so that the Democrats are likely going to play the Class War again; although, you have noticed the rhetorical slant on that has changed as well. Instead of Republicans being out-of-touch with Americans (polls again agree that Americans think DC is asynchronous with common sense), they’re playing up the whole economic fairness argument: higher minimum wage, caps on high-income earners, and so forth. Alas for them, the messaging there is a little wonky, and polls are lining up negatively.

Most Democrats believe 2014 is a write-off year for them, so be ready for the big guns on 2016. While there will be a War on Women message, the Czar feels it won’t be as strong or foolhardy as it was in 2012. A lot of time and money…and money…goes into these messaging wars, and the War on Women has never paid off for Democrats. Class war seems to be the better angle—it’s been slowly working since about 1870—but the Czar half-expects that we might see some brand new approach coming, if not in 2016 then soon after. The trend for liberalism is away from big-spending nonsense campaigns and more toward muted austerity. This sure hasn’t happened in America yet, but America’s liberals must be recognizing by this point, if they have any shred of clue, that the big-spending welfare programs of 1932 aren’t working for the voters anymore. And they need to get a new message out before the voters wake up to this. They need something fresh, something new…and doubtless, something equally dirty.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.