Like Jessica, I also think Tina Brown’s big, bad, quasi-racist swipe at Hillary Clinton was opportunistic and somewhat misguided. But Mark Landler’s New York Times piece, penned seemingly in response to Brown’s potshot, raises an interesting history, and attempts to answer fair questions about the obviously awkward role in which the Secretary of State finds herself vis-a-vis her formal rival and his foreign-policy heavy White House. It’s not necessarily melodrama, but, for instance, the fact that George Mitchell, special envoy to Israel/Palestine, and Karl Eikenberry, ambassador to Afghanistan, report to both her and to president Obama, could get messy once in a while. Add to this the need for foreign diplomats to believe with absolute clarity that Clinton speaks for the president, and you see how Foggy Bottom would want to nip any accusations in the bud.

However—bureaucratic hierarchies aside—when it comes to the actual projection of strength as Secretary of State, Clinton has a mixed record. Ben Smith at Politico makes a great point about spin surrounding Clinton’s speech at the Council on Foreign Relations this week. I watched the speech in Washington, which countless commentators described as “muscular” (After Mark Lynch, I put this performance in the “swagga” category previously reserved for flashy rappers). But, he says

The focus on Clinton's strength is familiar. Mark Penn's leaked campaign memos show an obsessive—and very successful—focus during her campaign on showing strength at every pass, a major reason she refused to apologize for backing the Iraq war. The focus is an understandable effort to combat gender stereotypes, and a cornerstone of remaking Clinton's image after she left the White House.

But the early spin gave, at best, a very partial and misleading sense of what Clinton actually said yesterday. The most "muscular" portions were the carefully-drafted signals to Iran and Saudi Arabia, which represent the White House's formal stance, not Clinton's personal vision. The more personal elements of the speech—the ones that actually carry some meaning for her stature and role as Secretary of State—were in the realm of what used to be called "soft power," and is now called "smart power."

Though she stood up for American hegemony a few different times, insisting to American enemies that “our willingness to talk is not a sign of weakness to be exploited,” Clinton has always been a fan of this more cerebral methodology. So it’s fascinating—and on some level, totally awesome and welcome—to see her affect a “tough guy” posture at the slightest sign of a challenge. Even if the provocation was silly, yellow journalism.

Tags: catfights, Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, Tina Brown, white house

• 
• |
• 
• |
• |
• 0

When a pack of smartly-uniformed firefighters strode out of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing Thursday, they were greeted by a throng of reporters—and six girls in green t-shirts, their point-and-shoots at the ready. The members of Greater King David Baptist Church's Girl Scout troop had just listened to two of the firefighters testify, and now they crowded together, photographing the firemen as they walked by. This was the best day of their trip.

The girls paid their way from Baton Rouge to Washington selling Girl Scout cookies (their chapter is in the Cookie Hall of Fame) to learn something about how government works. On Thursday, they met La. Sen. Mary Landrieu and then filed into Sotomayor's hearing. The nominee herself was already gone; she had finished testifying earlier and been replaced by a slate of outside witnesses. But the girls and their chaperones were still interested. They've been following the hearing on T.V. and the radio for the last four days, and they paid close attention to the Ricci v. DeStefano case.

Never mind that the part of the hearing they watched involved the plaintiffs in a case they thought was without merit. They were just glad to be part of the process. "This is history," troop leader Virginia Castle said. "We are sitting in on history." The girls said they hadn't been forced to come to the hearing of the nominee who could become the first Hispanic and the third woman to sit on the Supreme Court—they wanted to. Two of the six want to be lawyers, and they said they'd learned something about what it might take to make it to the top of the judiciary someday. "I learned color doesn't matter," Katelyn said. "And the Senate is really important."

Tags: Sonia Sotomayor; Supreme Court; judges

• 
• |
• 
• |
• |
• 2

Sen. Lindsey Graham has had many patronizing moments during the Sotomayor hearings, and I've been cutting him a break because the substance of his questions has been interesting even if the tone has been off. But this afternoon he got to me. Graham spent much of the day making the point that discrimination against minorities is a real problem. Good. I was rooting for him, too, when he cut off Linda Chavez's attack on Sotomayor with, "Let’s make sure everyone in the country knows we aren’t just a party of short white guys." But then he went after his own real-person, New Haven firefighter witnesses. He started by lecturing Frank Ricci, the white firefighter who is the named plaintiff in the case the Republicans have been bashing Sotomayor with all week, about how the country is one generation away from discrimination and ended with, "I hope you don't forget that." This is a seriously misplaced bit of lecturing. And then, worse, he asked Ben Vargas, the one Hispanic among the firefighters who sued, if people had called him an Uncle Tom. Vargas murmured yes. Graham switched to, "I think you've done a lot for America and the Hispanic community." If that was his message, why did he make Vargas go down the self-shaming path? If these were experienced Washington player kind of witnesses, that would be one thing. But these guys will probably never be in the spotlight again. They don't need their own side wrecking the moment.

Photograph of Frank Ricci and Ben Vargas by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Tags: ben vargas, frank ricci, lindsey graham, Sonia Sotomayor

• 
• |
• 
• |
• |
• 1

Jonah Hill (Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) says his Twitter impersonator—"some kid in Alaska"—is screwing up his life, by feuding with Iron Man director Jon Favreau and confusing 100,000 people into following him. Actually, looks like around 12,000, and fake Jonah says she's a gal who lives in Ohio. Real Jonah handled impersonation by getting dragged into starting his own account. He told David Letterman he'd never go on the site, but it looks like he's there now, 739 followers and counting. I sympathize. I wonder, though, whether the doppelganger payoff is greater than the cost. Twitter impersonation is on its way to becoming the latest version of the dog ate my homework. I didn't do it—my fake Twitter self did. A fabulous new media excuse. Plus great talk show and dining out chatter..

Photograph of Jonah Hill by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images.

Tags: impersonation, jonah hill, twitter

• 
• |
• 
• |
• |
• 1

Jess, here's a theory: Tina Brown told Hillary to take off her burqa in hopes of starting a rumble. Once the Sec of State has derobed, she and Obama can start the fight Washington watchers expected them to have when she took the job. Cue Season 3 of the Barack and Hillary soap opera: Inside the White House.

Melodrama is what this pairing is supposed to produce for us, after all. The projected series of plot twists: Which donor thug would embarrass Bill? Which Hillary staffer would trash-talk Obama? Which photo-op with her would Obama flub? Instead, there's been practically nada. No leaks, no complaining. Even Bill has been muzzled. And so maybe Tina, like any good troublemaking journalist, is trying to goose some action. "It becomes clearer by the day how brilliantly Obama checkmated both Clintons by putting Hillary in the topmost Cabinet job," Brown writes. Maybe. But so far it mostly looks like he checkmated the gossip mongers. Which is a real problem, don't get me wrong. Sometimes I think this administration is too disciplined for its own good.

Photoraph of Hillary Clinton and President Obama by Peter Souza/The White House via Getty Images.

Tags: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Tina Brown

This Sunday's New York Times Magazine has an excerpt from Frank Bruni's forthcoming memoir, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater. He writes candidly about his recurring bouts with bulimia, and his account may make male eating disorders less stigmatized.

Last month in Double X, Kate Taylor wrote about how Michael Jackson's alleged eating disorder may have contributed to his death. As she noted:

If it were determined that anorexia contributed to Jackson’s death, it would change the popular image of the illness forever. Many Americans had never heard of anorexia before Karen Carpenter died. Now the disease is well-known, but it’s mostly associated in people’s minds with young, white women, not middle-aged, black (or formerly black) men.

Frank Bruni's honest and often funny assessment of his body image woes and how, in a roundabout way, they led him to become a food critic, could do wonders for other men suffering from anorexia and bulimia. Bruni's story might inspire them to find a way out, too.

Tags: anorexia, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater, bulimia, eating disorders, frank bruni, michael jackson

• 
• |
• 
• |
• |
• 0

Apparently, anything from "Sudden Rains" to "Gaining Weight" can get a woman's waterworks going. And then, of course, there are the tears of laughter. Via the blog “Easily Mused” comes this hilarious little bit of kitsch: “Why Chicks Cry.”

The series of 66 panels from early 20th century comic books features women in various stages of crying their eyes out, paired with attempts to infer, Jeopardy-style, what’s behind the blubbering. Check them all out—you won’t be disappointed.

Clearly, the project seems to be mocking its distraught, two-dimensional subjects, whose sobbing motivations seem to fall into one of three categories:

Woman problems: “Gaining weight,” “Being rejected,” “Loving Dick too much.”

Natural disasters: “Ants,” “Fear of leaves,” “Snowflakes” and “Sudden Rains”

Existential Ennui: “Disillusionment,” “Indecision,” “Foolish, Shallow Dreams”

In a metaphysical twist, one of the sobbing women is pictured clutching some pulp fiction of her own, which prompts the caption “Reading romance comics.” (Apparently, they’ll get you every time.)

But what about having to tolerate the rude questions of Senators Jeff Sessions, Orrin Hatch and Lindsey Graham? Having watched hours and hours of judge Sonia Sotomayor’s grilling before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I want to cry for her.

Happily, I suppose, she's evidence that today's women are made of tougher stuff.

Tags: comics, pulp fiction, romance, Sonia Sotomayor

Dash Snow was the sexiest guy on the downtown art scene. He was the bad boy who ran away from home and started living on the streets at around 13, the rebellious heir to the de Menil fortune, and the nephew of Uma Thurman. With wild long hair, a penchant for tattoos and graffiti, he cut quite a swath—almost a parody of an art star, except that he was actually talented. Women practically convulsed at the mere mention of his name. I remember his art opening at the now-defunct Rivington Arms gallery a few years ago. It was packed, and everyone was waiting for Dash, who—appropriately—dashed in and out, back to his friends who were gathering outside drinking beer, about to take off on skateboards.

When he died, at 27, this week of a heroin overdose, he had been married and divorced to one woman and fathered a daughter with another. He also left behind a burgeoning urban mythology that will likely only amp up his reputation for being the next Basquiat, another graffiti artist turned gallery gold.

But what will become of his crew? A few of Dash’s friends are hooked on heroin, too. They often hit art events and the dance floor at the Beatrice spun out on drugs, looking more lost than usual in a rarefied world where everyone knows their names. Will their truly fearless leader’s death scare them straight, or encourage them to spiral down deeper?

I’ve heard of a few cases where someone went to rehab to kick heroin, just like Dash did in March. That person gets clean and gets out. Then he tries heroin one last time. It really is the last time. I hope the talented group that hung close to Dash doesn’t follow his lead this time.

Tags: Dash Snow, de Menil, heroin, Uma Thurman

Earlier this week, Tina Brown referred to Hillary Clinton as Obama's submissive "foreign policy wife" in a Daily Beast column. In that same space, she urged Hills to "take off her burqa." Though Brown scored some points in her critique of Clinton's invisibility (where was she this week in Russia?), those critiques were somewhat buried in deliberately provocative and arguably racist asides about how Hillary is Obama's "Saudi" spouse. The whole thing was insulting toward the women of Islam, and I'm not sure why Brown felt it necessary to make those repeated analogies.

Anyway, the column clearly hit a nerve with Hillary, because today, Clinton had her aides respond to Tina's jabs in the New York Times.The Times article says that Hillary has been absent of late because she's nursing a severely broken elbow, and Clinton "professes to be amused, if baffled," by Brown's recent takedown. So what do you think, ladies? Was Tina Brown just giving Hillary much-needed straight talk, or was she just deliberately provoking the Secretary of State for pageviews?

Tags: foreign policy, Hillary Clinton, Islam, secretary of state, spouses, Tina Brown