I’ve noted, in recent years, a certain tendency among left-wingers. When confronted with a woman offering a conservative view, the tendency is to refuse to address the argument. Instead, there is a concerted effort to denigrate that conservative woman as a woman – by sexually degrading her.

Such is the case with the current Miss California.

Miss California Carrie Prejean says a website has posted racy photos of her in an attempt to belittle her Christianity. "Recently, photos taken of me as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid website that openly mocks me for my Christian faith," Prejean said yesterday in a statement. A photo of Prejean wearing only pink panties with her back turned to the camera appeared Monday on a gossip blog. In explaining the photos, Prejean said, "I am a Christian, and I am a model. Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos."

Add to that the issue that was made over her breast implants and it is pretty clear what the lefties who support gay marriage want us to believe – Carrie Prejean is a whore, and therefore her words should be disregarded and her position is discredited. In other words, rather than engage in a well-reasoned attack on her position on gay marriage, they choose to instead engage in an ad hominem attack on her person. And in this case with photos that I don’t see as particularly scandalous.

Now I might let this go without comment, were it not that this is a part of the pattern of attacks on conservative women that has to do with their gender and sexuality.

Consider, for example, the sort of crap unleashed against Michelle Malkin – fake photos and comments about her alleged sexual antics

Then there were the disgusting sex-based attacks on Senator Fred Thompson’s wife, Jeri.

And don’t forget the fake Sarah Palin photos that were somehow supposed to discredit her candidacy for vice president last fall.

So I guess the question that has to be asked is this – why do leftists hate women so much that they attack them on the crudest of sexual levels rather than engage them on the battle of ideas? Could it be that, despite their constant claims to worship at the altar of female empowerment and liberated sexuality, that too many folks on the Left are simply misogynistic patriarchs who insist that women keep to their proper place -- which is silent and in the background unless they are mouthing liberal political philosophy.

UPDATE: By interesting coincidence, Joshuapundit just posted a wonderful quote from one of the twentieth century's greatest conservative women.

"I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left."

- Margaret Thatcher

Indeed -- hence this move to sexually belittle conservative women by the intellectually bankrupt American Left.