Quote of the Day (Millicent Fenwick, Setting Straight a Male Dimwit)

“That's the way I've always felt about men. I only hope you haven't been disappointed as often as I have."—New Jersey politician Millicent Fenwick, telling off a male colleague who objected to the Equal Rights Amendment she advocated because he had “always thought of women as kissable and cuddly and smelling good," quoted in “House Freshmen Enliven the Capitol Singles Scene,” People, February 24, 1975

It’s inconceivable to imagine the patrician, outspoken, decidedly uncuddly Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick—born on this date 100 years ago—in today’s Republican Party. But in her way, she was every bit the character that Sarah Palin is—but the creator of witticisms rather than the subject of them.

How many pipe-smoking grandmothers do you know, for instance, who inspire a comic-strip character—i.e., Lacey Davenport of Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury”?

Oh, by the way—Frank Lautenberg, after pouring huge amounts of his personal fortune into the campaign, defeated Ms. Fenwick for a seat in the U.S. Senate in the 1980s, pounding home the notion that at age 72, she would be too old to be a freshman senator.

One wishes the ailing senator, a speedy recovery these days as he battles cancer, but it is curious to note that he did not believe age disqualified him from running for reelection for the same office again a couple of years ago, at age 84. Something about “experience” being an advantage, even, I think was his argument…