This is a great point:

If you’re going to fight about politics, fight about politics. Here’s a useful litmus test: As long as the media continue to cover women’s political differences in their “Health” sections, we are probably doing something wrong. Just as Michelle Obama has been reduced to a perpetual fashion story, the fight for the future of young women in the GOP has now become a body-image story. Well done, ladies! Way to get your thoughts and preferences taken seriously!

Michelle Cottle suggests that Ingraham’s mistake lay in the criticism by one leggy, blond sex kitten of a younger leggy, blond sex kitten. Perhaps. But I’m uncomfortable taking Anne Baxter’s* side over Bette Davis’ or vice versa where spectacularly pointless catfights are concerned. My view is generally that an eyelash for an eyelash leaves the whole world blind.

Were Ingraham’s comments about McCain’s weight thoughtless and stupid? Of course. Are McCain’s hands lily white in the catfight rules of engagement? No. Don’t believe me? Consider that her first column on Coulter attacked the Republican pundit for, among other things, her “voice.” It reminded me of nothing so much as Sarah Palin’s claim that she couldn’t stand Clinton’s “whining.” When women, or men, criticize women’s voices—whether we’re going after Michelle Obama’s allegedly angry one or (forgive me, Tina Fey!) Sarah Palin’s allegedly crazy one—it’s not all that different from going after their weight. It’s a way of reducing what they have to say to what they sound like. It’s a way of questioning their entitlement to speak at all. Which is why it’s not something men typically complain about in other men.