NO SHIT, SHERLOCK

I rarely use the "s-word" in the title to a blog post, but an article in today's Washington Post merits it - in spades.

The article in question was displayed below the fold on the front page, and concerned the fact that, even though women are a majority population in Virginia (as they are everywhere else, big duh), no woman has held "statewide elected office" (by which is meant Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General) since Democrat Mary Sue Terry was elected Attorney General back in the 80s.

 

The article then went on to (of course) insinuate that the big bad Republicans were deliberately discouraging women from running. That's the impression one would get from the portion of the article appearing on the front page. Naturally there was no mention of the fact that female legislators are well represented in both houses of the General Assembly.  And of course the Post took pains to mention Republican Gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli in the same paragraph as the failed (and we detested this proposal) attempt to require trans-vaginal ultrasound before an abortion.

 

However, when one turned to the page on which the article was continued, the banner over the article announced that "one reason" there are few women in "statewide office" is because 'few run".

 

No shit, Sherlock.

 

The article is disingenuous because it does not recognize members of the Virginia House and Senate as "Statewide" elected officials even though their decisions affect every resident of and place in the Commonwealth. Really, we here at the Alexandria Daily Poop are more than a bit tired of the Post's sniping at the Commonwealth all the time. If the people at the Post can't just report facts and not try to twist them for partisan political purposes, then we invite them to butt out.