Conservative columnist defends report on Obama admin official's 'fabulous shoes

Wall Street Journal Opinion Editor James Taranto defended a recent Washington Post story that was entirely dedicated to White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler's shoes.

"[V]ery few men collect shoes," Taranto wrote Wednesday. "If one did and he ended up in a prominent government position, the shoe collection would be newsworthy simply by virtue of being so weird."

The Post story, published Monday, opened by noting that Ruemmler is... "known in the West Wing for her fabulous shoes." Other journalists on the left, right and center were critical of the story, saying that it played to stereotypes at the least or was all-out "sexist" at the most.

But not Taranto. "If a puff piece on a male official opened with, say, his intense interest in sports, would anyone complain about the stereotype?" he wrote. "Doesn't it diminish women to treat feminine trivia as more offensive than masculine trivia? When did liberals stop caring about 'a woman's right to shoes'"?

@eScarry