The Heels Dig In

The oxymoronic Christian Science Monitor reports

Michelle Bachelet made history Jan. 15 by becoming Chile's first female president.

Monday, she chalked up yet another precedent: naming a cabinet of 10 female and 10 male ministers. It's the first of its kind in the entire western hemisphere - and one of few examples in the world.

...some experts question whether she'll sacrifice competence for image.

"I think it's a grave error," says Ignacio Illanes, an analyst with the right-wing thinktank Liberty and Development (Libertad y Desarrollo). He puts it bluntly: "There's only one way to have a 50-50 cabinet and that is by lowering the quality of the cabinet."

Let us hear no more from those Friedmanite types praising Chile for its wonderful free market ideas. This sexist reaction is the reality from the economic elite that welcomed the rightist dictatorship there.

Personally, I'm not as generous as President Bachelet. One of the few things I would enjoy about even briefly becoming the Prez here would be appointing a cabinet that was all women. I'm sure I wouldn't have to wait long for a question about this, so that I could listen to the screams when I gave my long-saved reply: "It's just so hard to find a qualified man."