bricking over the ceiling

In an election year where the New York Gubernatorial election has taken on all the subtlety and maturity of a fraternity brawl, the Times notes a significant overabundance of testosterone at the highest level of the two main campaigns:

In the race for New York governor, women are suddenly popping up everywhere — everywhere, that is, except inside the campaigns’ inner circles.

Even as Mr. Paladino, the Republican, and Mr. Cuomo, the Democrat, embrace women’s causes, they rely on strikingly few women as key advisers.

Neither of them selected a woman as his running mate or campaign manager, and the top ranks of their political operations are conspicuously dominated by men. The scarcity stands out in a state where the modern women’s rights movement was born and where female voters play a crucial, and at times decisive, role in elections.

This isn't just an issue of catering to one of many constituencies. It's important because in an election that will see a notable rollback of women's representation in Congress for the first time in a decade -- at a time when vital issues like all women's reproductive rights and gay women's civil rights will come under pressure -- women are increasingly being spoken at by men or, worse, by barely competent ciphers.

What does it say about the national party's estimation of the value of women when this woman, this woman, and this woman form the vanguard of the GOP's female ranks? (This isn't just a difference of opinion. Fellow brown people, show of hands: who wants to cast their lot with Alvin Greene? Hint: if you think the candidate that looks like you is a plant by the other side, then they're probably not moving your agenda forward.)

You know the Equal Rights Amendment still hasn't been ratified, right?