Mama T on Moms: "When the would-be first lady decided to take a shot at Laura Bush in yesterday's USA Today by stating that Mrs. Bush had never held a 'real job,' she committed the rarest of things--a triple gaffe. Like triple plays in baseball, these are rarely seen in these days of well-coached candidates and spouses. But Tuesday's was one for the ages.

First, it is bad form--very bad form--to speak in anything other than the most complimentary terms of your opponent's spouse. It's just tacky. But after the assault on Mary Cheney's privacy by John Kerry, Mary Beth Cahill, and Elizabeth Edwards, I guess more appearances of the merely tacky should not surprise.

Blunder two was to denigrate, by omission, the professions of teacher and librarian. Ms. H-K quickly figured out these were interest groups in good standing in the Democratic party and rushed out an apology: She had 'forgotten' Laura's service as both. Not believable, of course, but acceptable damage control.

The worst part of the Ms. H-K triple feature was failing to mention Laura Bush's 'real job' as a mom. The apology crafters were no doubt in a bind when it came time to deal with that oversight. It would be hard to claim that Ms. H-K had 'forgotten' the twins, but she couldn't exactly double-down on the status of mom not being that of a real job. So they said nothing. Mistake again. She ought to have begged the forgiveness of the tens of millions of American moms wondering: 'What am I, a potted plant?'"  ¶ 10/22/2004 12:27:00 AM