NOW: All Women are Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others

Anyone who has read George Orwell's Animal Farm knows this headline is a parody on a core theme of the book, which was written to describe the functioning of a communist totalitarian state. Several days ago, Bill Maher used a vulgar term referencing a part of the female anatomy to insult Gov. Palin. NOW stood silent, till yesterday when Lisa Bennett, the organization's media director responded, according to Fox News:

“Listen, supposedly progressive men (ok, and women, too): Cut the crap! Stop degrading women with whom you disagree and/or don’t like by using female body terms or other gender-associated slurs."

“You’re trying to take up our time getting us to defend your friend, Sarah Palin. If you keep us busy defending her, we have less time to defend women’s bodies from the onslaught of reproductive rights attacks and other threats to our freedom, safety, livelihood, etc,” wrote Bennett. “Sorry, but we can’t defend Palin or even Hillary Clinton from every sexist insult hurled at them in the media. That task would be impossible, and it would consume us. You know this would not be a productive way to fight for women’s equal rights, which is why you want us stuck in this morass.”

By using "even" in naming one of two women NOW apparently has no time to defend, they imply that Gov. Palin is somehow lesser than Hillary Clinton - a lesser woman, a lesser person. Translation: "Palin? Pfft! We don't have time to defend that. We don't have time to defend Hillary Clinton either and we think so much more highly of her as a woman."

How else can the National Organization for Women's (NOW) half-hearted defense of Gov. Palin be characterized than a case of all women being equal, but some women are more equal than others?