"Thelma and Louise" and Hillary

Two Congresswomen, Sen. Susan Collins and Rep. Jane Harman, hosted a bipartisan screening of “Thelma and Louise” this week, but Hillary Clinton was too busy running for president to attend.

The movie is a Feminist antique from 1991, but the Congresswomen seem to feel the subject of women fighting back still has relevance in the era when we have learned to say “Madam Speaker” and are rehearsing “Madam President” but there are still headlines about the “D. C. Madam.”

Collins is a Republican whose re-election next year is endangered by the recklessness of her man, George Bush. Harman, who was passed over for chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee, has let it be known there is still prejudice against women “who talk tough and smart on security issues.”

Collins and Harman may be sending the message that, unlike the movie heroines, they are not planning to go off the cliff in a Thunderbird.

On her New York Times blog, Judith Warner argued that “Thelma and Louise” was primarily about sexual violence, not sexual politics, and is “like a relic from the past, a buried memory...dark...disturbing.”

But is it? The Republicans running against Hillary Clinton keep flaunting testosterone for NASCAR voters and their ladies. If they hold any screenings of “Thelma and Louise,” it will be billed as a comedy.