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Battle Of The Blondes, Redux

Wow. How in the hell did I miss this latest development in the ongoing feline smack-down among conservative pundettes? I saw, of course, the Meghan McCain slap at Ann Coulter. But then on Thursday, Laura Ingraham apparently fired back on behalf of skinny, right-wing demagogues everywhere, taking direct aim at McCain's thighs. First Ingraham, in her best Meghan-McCain-Valley-Girl impression, offered up this catty "self-analysis":

Ok, I was really hoping that I was going to get that role in the "Real World", but then I realized that, well, they don't like plus-sized models.

Followed by this trenchant bit of insight:

Ok, Meghan. Do you think that anyone would be talking to you if you weren’t kind of cute and you weren’t the daughter of John McCain? 

Now, I know Ingraham hasn't exactly been the postergirl for traditional feminist sisterhood over the years, but a fat joke? Laura Ingraham is 44 years old and a professional political commentator, and she can't come up with any better form of mockery than cracking on the weight of a young woman 20 years her junior? Clearly, someone identifies a little too much with Rachel McAdams's character in "Mean Girls."

Weirder still may be Ingraham's pivot to then snark that no one would much bother with McCain if not for her famous dad (which is true, even if it applies to half the conservative punditocracy) and the fact that she's "kind of cute."

Um. I'm sorry, but if I were a blonde, leggy conservative pundette best known for having risen to prominence by appearing on the cover of a 1995 New York Times magazine in a leopard-print miniskirt, I just don't think I'd be going down that particular road.

--Michelle Cottle