I have yet to figure out why to many people - usually liberals - often times when evaluating someone for a position, it is much more important to focus on the race or gender of a person than on their qualifications.

I have seen it many times, in particular when people talk about the makeup of public safety agencies, or in sports leagues. We need more women, more blacks, more whatever - basically, anybody but white males. That is much more important than the person's qualifications.

Even though it is illegal to discriminate against people based on their race, gender, and other characteristics, for some reason that doesn't stop people from using that as a criteria.

Today's Fish Wrapper editorial is a perfect example of this hypocrisy. The whole point of the piece is how great it is that a woman is Speaker of the House. The subtitle - "Breaking through the glass ceiling" - is the first clue.

A woman is now the most powerful elected official in Congress, and second in the line of succession to the president. This moment has been a long time coming -- far too long. This "first" for the United States comes decades after other nations have chosen women as their top elected leaders.

Why "far too long"? Apparently the fact that maybe there hasn't been someone qualified enough - or power hungry enough, like Mrs. Pelosi - until now? Or maybe a woman hasn't been in the right place at the right time. Why is is assumed that it is because America so sexist?

Pelosi takes the House gavel at a time when the candidates are beginning to line up for the 2008 presidential election. Already the news magazines and television pundits are wondering aloud whether the nation is finally prepared to elect the first woman (Hillary Clinton) or the first African American (Barack Obama) to the highest office in the land.

No one knows for sure. But one thing is certain: The day cannot come soon enough when those kinds of questions are answered, once and for all, and when there are no more gender or racial "firsts" to acknowledge.

Maybe we shouldn't be making such a huge deal out of this in the first place, then.

But here's something for the Fish Wrapper editors - and those who are drooling all over themselves with excitement - to think about; what if it was a woman Republican who was becoming Speaker? Would there be all of this fawning coverage of her? No, not at all. When Condolezza Rice became National Security Advisor, and then Secretary of State, where was all the press attention then? Not only is she a woman, but she is black (if she was lesbian, then she would have been perfect for the liberals). In addition, she was eminently more qualified that Nancy Pelosi to be one of our leaders. And yet, the AP and all of the other liberal bastions of news reporting were eerily quiet back then.

I guess for the Fish Wrapper and the rest of the MSM, it's only worth fawning over a woman if she is a liberal.