CONNIE CHUNG: Mrs.Gingrich, what has Newt told you about President Clinton? K ATHLEEN GINGRICH: Nothing, and I can’t tell you what he said about Hillary. CHUNG: You can’t? GINGRICH: I can’t. CHUNG: Why don’t you just whisper it to me, just between you and me. GINGRICH:“She’s a bitch.” About the only thing he ever said about her. I think they had some meeting, you know, and she takes over. 1 W hen Kathleen Gingrich, mother of Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, called the first lady of the United States a “bitch,” her comment was treated as an aberration of public discourse and a sign of her political naiveté. Connie Chung was lambasted by the public and professional colleagues alike for compro- mising journalistic ethics by “tricking” Mrs. Gingrich into an embarrassing disclo- sure. 2 The morning after the interview Newt Gingrich lamented, “I think it is unprofessional and frankly pretty despicable to go to a mother, who is not a politi- cian,not in public life,and say‘whisper to me’and then share it with the country.” 3 Others viewed the incident as merely a sign of Mrs. Gingrich’s lack of sophistica- tion.Emory linguist Lee Pederson concluded,“I can’t imagine Rose Kennedy saying anything like that publicly.” 4 Whether or not Kathleen Gingrich’s revelation was an unwitting disclosure or a deliberate jab at the first lady, it revealed the challenge Hillary Rodham Clinton had been battling since her entree onto the political stage—how does a woman in a public position of power cultivate an image of com- petence and leadership without being dismissed as a “bitch”? “R HYMES WITH RICH”: “B ITCH” AS A TOOL OF C ONTAINMENT IN C ONTEMPORARY A MERICAN POLITICS KARRIN VASBY ANDERSON Karrin Vasby Anderson is a Lecturer in the Department of Speech Communication at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. This essay is part of the author’s doctoral dissertation, completed at Indiana University. The dissertation advisor was Robert L. Ivie.The author wishes to thank Robert L. Ivie,J. Michael Hogan, Cindy L. Griffin, Patricia Vasby, and Thad Anderson for their contributions to this project. Editorial suggestions provided by the editor and the anonymous reviewers for Rhetoric & Public Affairs were particularly helpful. © Rhetoric & Public Affairs Vol.2, No. 4,1999, pp. 599-623 ISSN 1094-8392