It’s sad.

Republican definition of misogyny: Failure to appreciate how Sarah Palin’s hotness outweighs her empty-headedness.

I’m sure I’m not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, “Hey, I think she just winked at me.” And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can’t be learned; it’s either something you have or you don’t, and man, she’s got it.

Starbursts!

And, during the campaign, it was the right that brought up Palin’s “Hotness” over and over and over.

Take, for instance, neo-con radio host Chris Baker who said, after the Palin-Biden debate, that Palin “shouldn’t had a little cleavage going….”[d]istract [Sen.] Joe Biden a little bit,” and added: “[S]how your stuff, you know what I’m saying? Use all your assets.” He then said: “By the way, I noticed a panty line on her. … When they turned to walk to the podium, I saw a panty line.”
(h/t: media matters)

When Republicans say this stuff, it’s support for Palin; when Democrats say it, it’s MISOGYNY. In all caps.

Nemski pointed out there are way more accomplished women in the Republican party like Jodi Rell, who until recently was the most popular governor in the nation and some of the others he pointed out.

The problem is part from our sexist culture and part from the misogyny of the right. Pandora wrote just last week about another article from a conservative “our women are good looking and your women aren’t, neener neener.” Perhaps if conservative punditry would stop saying things like that we might take their arguments about women a little more seriously.

Jason,

Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder but you can’t seriously argue with me that Ann Coulter didn’t rise to prominence because she was willing to act as a female misogynist (she once argued women shouldn’t vote) while having long blonde hair and wearing black cocktail dresses. She hasn’t aged all that well but that is how she came to be noticed.

but are they good looking? Does being good looking make you incompetent?

I spin it as sexist because the women who have risen to the top are in this system are incompetent.