You can read my interview with Judith Warner about writing her new book, We’ve Got Issues at She Writes!

I had a great chat a few weeks ago with Amy Tiemann from MojoMom about our collaboration on the soon-to-be-released Courageous Parents, Confident Kids. (Don’t forget — you can register to get the e-book free for a limited time — just send me your e-mail adddress to joanne (at) punditmom (dot) com).

As for what others are writing, my fellow MOMocrat Karoli has a great reminder on just how evil Michelle Malkin is.

Fast Company has a great interview with my financial girl crush, Elizabeth Warren.

And Howard Stern?  Did you really want to go there about Gabourey Sidibe?  When was the last time you were nominated for an Academy Award?  And if you really want to go there on appearances, maybe you should take a good long look in the mirror.

This  book is an amazing source with advice from many women I know you’ve probably heard of in these parts, including Cooper Munroe and Emily McKhann from The Motherhood and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner from MomsRising!  And the exciting news is that Amy and the other authors, including myself, are offering a free (yes, I said free!) e-book version will be available for a limited time before the paperback version of the book is released in April.  The chapters in the book include:

Introduction by the Editor, Amy Tiemann, Ph.D., author of Mojo Mom: Nurturing Your Self While Raising a Family.

Part 1: The Courage to Invest in Your Own Development

The Transformative Power of Self-care by Renee Peterson Trudeau, life coach and author of The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal.

Tools for Career Reinvention by Kella Hatcher and Maryanne Perrin, founders of Balancing Professionals.

Part 2: Developing Your Own Courageous Parenting Style

The Courage to Let Our Kids Solve Their Own Problems by Maya Frost, international lifestyle design expert and author of The New Global Student.

The Courage to Become Your Own Parenting “Expert” by Melissa Stanton, author of The Stay-at-Home Survival Guide. Visit Melissa at www.RealLifeSupportForMoms.com

The Power of Personal Significance for Kids of All Ages by Amy McCready, parent educator and founder of Positive Parenting Solutions.

I’m Worried I Worry Too Much, But How Do I Stop? by Jamie Woolf, leadership expert and author of Mom-In Chief.

Part 3: Real-world Safety Skills for All

Kidpower: Skills for Safety, Skills for Independence by Irene van der Zande, co-founder and Executive Director of Kidpower, Teenpower, Fullpower International.

How to Say Yes to Your Kids’ Online Activities by Linda Criddle, internet safety expert and creator of iLookBothWays.com

Part 4: Finding Your Voice and Raising It for the Community

Becoming a Political Parent: PunditMom on Mothers Raising Their Voices Online by Joanne Bamberger, journalist and founder of PunditMom blog (that’s me!) 

Building a Family-friendly America: Challenge and Progress Through the Eyes of MomsRising.org by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, co-founder and Executive Director of MomsRising.org

It Takes a Motherhood by Cooper Munroe and Emily McKhann, co-creators of the award-winning online community, TheMotherhood.com

If you want to get a free e-version of the book, send me your name and e-mail address to joanne (at) punditmom (dot) com no later than April 15, and I’ll make sure you receive an E-mail with the information to access the E-book on April 19!

You remember Jenny Sanford?  The wife of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford who coined the now-euphemistic phrase “hiking the old Appalachian Trail?”

I Initially applauded her decision in the wake of the bizarre outing of her husband’s affair to refuse, as many other political wives have done before her, to give a free relationship pass to her husband.  It seemed that Jenny Sanford was a strong woman who wouldn’t take any crap from a man who walked all over her and who made it clear that he had no concern for her, their relationship, or the example he was setting for his sons.   I wrote at the time that Jenny Sanford might even be a potential role model for my daughter.

Now that I’ve read excepts of her book, I take it back. And it’s yet another lesson that even when we think we know who someone is, we really don’t and should be careful about jumping to any conclusions.

Jenny Sanford may not have been standing by her man as he embarrassed her and their family with talk of his Argentinian soul mate, but by her own admission there was a mountain of evidence that she ignored over her entire relationship with him that should have sent up big red flags, blaring horns and might even have caused a brass brand to go by with a banner that read, “GET. OUT. NOW. THIS. SCHMUCK. IS. NOT. WORTHY.”

In her review of the book, Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post suggests that instead of of choosing the title Staying True, the book should be titled Smart Woman, Foolish Choice, after the 1980s self-help book.  Her review recounts story after story of crazy warning signs in the relationship from the get-go — how Mark Sanford  presented Jenny with a faux pre-nuptial agreement that required they take the promise of fidelity out of their wedding vows.  Shortly after their wedding, he gave her a birthday gift of a drawing of  half of a bicycle, giving her the other half of the drawing at Christmas and months later presenting her with a used bike he bought for a pittance. Mark Sanford refused to attend her grandfather’s funeral.  When visiting with family, he insisted on sleeping in a room with his brothers just months after their marriage, leaving her to bunk with others. And my favorite, two weeks after one of their children was born, he took off to hike with some friends, leaving Jenny to deal with the newborn on her own.

Hm, what’s with all the hiking?

All these anecdotes have me asking, what kind of example has she set for her sons about how women should be treated in relationships?  By marrying him and allowing her sons to see her treated in such a casually neglectful way, it sure doesn’t seem like she stayed true to herself or to her obligation as a parent to give her children an example of what a healthy marriage should look like.

I’m hardly perfect, but Mr. PunditMom and I try hard to make sure our ten-year-old daughter sees that we love and respect each other, treat each other well and that we can have disagreements and still love each other.  I guess it’s hard for me to not sound like I’m judging the Sanfords here, but there just are certain expectations that it’s OK to have in a relationship, especially when it comes to respect.  When we let go of those expectations, others will walk all over us.

Clearly, their marriage was lacking. One could say, well that’s just between them, but it isn’t — they have four sons who’ve watched and learned about what a woman is willing to put up with for the sake of keeping her man, even a louse who acts like he couldn’t care less.

There’s a reason I’m not married to the boyfriend who thought it was a good idea to give me a set of kitchen knives at Christmas, a coffee maker for my birthday and thought it was OK to continue seeing his ex-girlfriend “just as friends” when he was dating me!  Clearly, there was something missing in terms of his grasp on what’s acceptable in a healthy, two-way relationship.  Apparently both Sanfords did, as well.

Even worse is that the publisher believes there are loads of women who will relate to this story and will buy the book.  And this Valentine’s Day, that makes me truly sad.

This post is part of Yahoo! Motherboard series.

If this is where we are in 2010 when it comes to permissible portrayals of women, I may have to live to be 237 before we’re treated with even a modicum of respect.

I am SO weary of men journalists (and some women) thinking they can get away with sexist slams of women in the name of political commentary.  The authors of Game Change, the long on gossip, short on real reporting book, apparently want us to believe that all the things we hated about the 2008 presidential campaign can be blamed on the women who were involved.

Yes, ladies — apparently everything you didn’t like in 2008 was all our fault!

Seriously?

The whole John Edwards fiasco was Elizabeth Edwards’ doing?  She bears more blame than her husband in his actions and the potential impact that could have had on our country? That’s just the stuff of fairy tales.  So I have to ask — where is the political or historical value to calling Elizabeth Edwards  names because maybe she wasn’t always nice to staffers.  Sarah Palin is described as Eliza Doolittle and there’s gossip aplenty in describing Cindy McCain and Hillary Clinton and tiffs with their spouses. And they call this insightful political commentary?

The only woman who escapes unscathed is Michelle Obama, but who’s going to bad mouth a sitting First Lady?  Wouldn’t want to have that come out and be in the doghouse with the President.

If this is what passes for political journalism or commentary today, I shudder to think what future generations would think of us if a copy of Game Change lands in some time capsule and ends up being the example of our political world in 2008.

The media has been worshiping at the alter of authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann since the book came out.  But at least there are two voices of reason in the media wilderness that I hope will get through to potential readers — Salon.com’s Joan Walsh and The Plain Dealer’s Connie Schultz.

Walsh really let those boys have it, and I was happy to see she didn’t pull any punches when Ed Schultz on MSNBC was in full  ‘Elizabeth-Edwards-is-to-blame-for-the-downfall-of-the-Democratic-party’ mode. Connie Schultz also weighed in with some plain talk at her column trying to get our focus back were it belongs — on real news and not on the gratuitous attacks on a betrayed wife who is battling cancer.

So what’s the motivation of these authors — two men with high profile journalism jobs who have decided that the villains in the 2008 campaign were the women, even if they weren’t the candidates?  That’s easy — money.  It’s not a good time to be selling books when the publishing industry is going downhill. So it’s not a stretch to think that a book that’s a cross between political commentary and Us Weekly is going to do better in the marketplace than one that actually provides perspective into an historical election.

Game Change isn’t journalism; it is gossip-mongering at its worst. Why do I say that?  Well, essentially the whole book was written on “deep background” — meaning that none of the sources would agree to be directly quoted and the authors would preserve the anonymity of the sources.  No one is accountable for what they said.  The sources could say or make up whatever they wanted.  Campaign staffers who were miffed or bruised over their treatment could vent about anyone with abandon and not suffer any backlash.

Deep background has its place.  After all, it did help Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein bring the Watergate scandal out in the open.  Given the nature of Game Change, I don’t think anyone will be confusing “Woodstein’s” All the President’s Men with “Halpermann’s” book or contribution to investigative reporting.

Between the attacks against almost all the women in the book and the male journos ooh-ing and ahh-ing over this piece of faux-journalism, it’s clear that women in the political world don’t stand a chance to escape the rampant sexism that is alive and well in the 21st century.

The real “game change?”  That might happen if we could lose the sexist rhetoric and drama.  Or maybe I could write a version of this story with another woman and take on the flip side!  I have no doubt we could come up with some irrelevant, misogynistic things to say about the guys, too.  Maybe a dose of their own sexist medicine would get some of these men to understand what they’re doing and why it’s time to let it go.

Something is here that is SO much better than the phone book!

The new Kirtsy book’s here! The new Kirtsy book’s here!

Obviously, I have a little more self-confidence than Steve Martin’s character, so I already know I’m somebody. But I’m too, too excited to be one of over 100 fabulous women to have their inspirational writing included in this book.  The video points out one of the things I often lament about – the small numbers of women’s voices represented in the “mainstream.”

Guess what, boys, we’re creating our own mainstream. And this is just the start.  Welcome to our brave new world of women having a say.  Don’t worry, though. We’ll be a lot nicer to you than you’ve been to us.

Want to get a copy of this beautiful book that includes a version of my essay about how we’ll ever find another “viable” woman presidential candidate, just take a hope on over to Bright Sky Press (the amazing publisher that will be doing my Mothers of Intention book), Barnes & Noble or Borders.  Or, if you’d like to buy a copy directly from me, we can do that if you’ve got a PayPal account!  Just contact my by Email and we can arrange that!

I guess I’d better go get a Sharpie in case anyone wants me to sign my essay! 

I’m SOoooo excitied!  This book, Kirtsy Takes a Bow, has been in the works for some time by those fabulous Kirtsy ladies.  I’m honored that they’ve selected some of my work to be included along with so many great women writers.

I hear these are going to make some lovely holiday gifts!