"Uh....shouldn't that be: DR. Rice? (vs. "Condi" Rice?) -- Rush's sentiment...and mine too!"
In most places -- and most certainly in the media (AP style, which is followed by ALL media) -- "Dr." is not used unless the person is a medical doctor. I'm sure Rush is quite aware of this but has decided not to tell his audience. There's nothing racist, leftist, or denigrating about it.
I work for a university and we don't use "Dr." for anybody but the veterinarians in our publications. Not even the president (notice the lower case "p"). In fact, most people, including most of the Ph.D.s, think that the people who insist on the title are generally insufferable snobs.
"Uh....shouldn't that be: DR. Rice? (vs. "Condi" Rice?) -- Rush's sentiment...and mine too!"
Granted, it's not required that a PhD be addressed as "Doctor" in the academic environment, but that would seem to be more because the place is overrun with PhD's.
The point in this issue is rather that Ms. Dr. Condoleeza is entitled to her credentials, and her authority is enhanced globally by her having earned the PhD, from Stanford no less. (Could this be a reason her degree is being ignored?) I have heard endless references to "DOCTOR Henry Kissinger; in fact, I rarely hear him being addressed as "Mister".
A further point involves the left's childish and mean-spirited refusal to address the president of the United States as anything but "Bush", while Bill Clinton is infernally addressed and referred to as "President Clinton". Yes, a former president is entitled to that. But first and foremost, so is the sitting president.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but academia has lost so much of the public's respect that most people are really not interested in its pronouncements on protocol. Their motives are suspect and their conduct of late has besmirched a formerly revered segment of our American life.
***I work for a university and we don't use "Dr." for anybody but the veterinarians in our publications. Not even the president (notice the lower case "p"). In fact, most people, including most of the Ph.D.s, think that the people who insist on the title are generally insufferable snobs.***
OH? Try leaving the title of professor off a professor's name and you'll be looking for a new job. It's taken for granted that most people who have a position of any importance in a univesity have a doctorate. Dr. Rice is NOT employed at a university, and therefor her title becomes important to indicate her education.
Implying she's only gotten where she has by sleeping her way there IS sexist, however. Calling her "brown sugar" and casting her in the role of a slave is racist.
Where did Dr Martin Luthor King, who's title IS published by the mass media, get his medical degree?