Susan Estrich Challenges for Uber Harpy Status

You may or may not have seen this letter from Susan Estrich to the LA Times. That letter is the culmination of a liberals gone wild flame war between Estrich and Michael Kinsley of the LA Times.

The bruhaha started with this email (via Cathy's Page). I'll leave it to others to discuss and describe how unhinged Susan Estritch has become - what caught my eye was this paragraph:

The article last Sunday was penned by a feminist-hater I have never heard of, nor probably have you, by the name of Charlotte Allen... her only book was about Jesus and religion written eight years ago, and as far as I can tell what she does is to edit a blog for the Independent Womens Forum which is a group of right wing women who exist to get on tv and get in newspapers attacking the likes of us. Wendy Kaminer did a wonderful piece a few years ago, pointing out how this group, which has no members, no constituency, no events, no nothing except media contact sheets-- (a lot of them turn out to be the wives of the guys you see on right wing talk shows)... was created to give these women something to put under their names so they could get into the media. Since they have no jobs, standing, professorships, etc.... they put the IWF. It certainly works with the boys at the LATimes.... (a google search produces nothing else on this woman other than co-editing the blog for the Independent Womens Forum; her most recent entry comes close to celebrating Susan Sontag's death....

I don't know the name Charlotte Allen but many bloggers have defended both her character and scholarship. The name I thought of when I read that paragraph was Martha Burk. You remember Martha Burk - right?

She was the woman who the New York Times made a media darling because she stumbled onto the cause of trying to force Augusta National to have a woman member. She was front page news to the NY Times even though her National Council of Womens Organizations (not to be confused with the North Carolina Wind Orchestra) had no events or real standing (the only events on their calendar had to do with protesting at Augusta). Burk became a liberal media darling based upon taking a stand that the liberal media thought should be pushed. In the end more reporters showed up for Burk's protest than protesters. The NY Times was revealed to be a shill and this daft advocacy is one of the things that cost Howell Raines his job. Everyone involved in the "protest" became a punchline.

Now it looks like Estrich is looking to take the title of Uber Harpy from the discredited Martha Burk. The last staw for Burk came when she tried to link the war in Iraq to no women members at Augusta. How long before Estrich claims that not getting her letters printed is somehow related to women wearing Burqa's?

Good luck with all that.

(hat tip to The Anchoress for some of the links)