The Monday letter was written by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), chairman of a House subcommittee on terrorism. Those that signed the letter are among the most conservative House Republicans, and at least 10 of them lost reelection bids this month.

Neither is Lindsey Graham. The rest of the Republicans who persist with smear campaigns against U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and other women, especially women of color, aren't too smart either. To the 97 members of the House , who wrote a letter to President Obama attacking Rice, I say, you are even stupider.Buh bye.

They should have figured out by now that women go to the polls more than men, and more black and Latina women voted for Barack Obama than did their male counterparts.

But men like McCain who are ruled by an overweening sense of personal privilege are not very bright. Though they sit on committees with the word "intelligence" in the name of the group, it doesn't seem to have rubbed off. In fact, all this macho posturing and bluster in front of the cameras may put the nation at risk. Loose lips sink ships.

My assessment has nothing to do with his courage, or past service to the country in war.

Men who feel threatened by women of strength and superior intelligence, who resort to bullying, bluster and lying when challenged by said women, are simply lacking smarts.

Their bigotry tends to crowd out brain cells.

I have a rule of thumb when judging the males of our species. I choose to look at their behavior towards women to understand their character. Men who exhibit bonhomie towards other men, yet choose trophy wives (who they demean while pimpin' off of them), who can't or won't deal on a level of equality with women (especially women of color), or accept that there are women who are smarter than they are, have a part of the brain that has never fully developed. It has been culturally limited, constrained, constricted and shaped by our cultural gender norms and as such many would never even recognize it as a failing.

In fact, there are those who see it as admirable. They see them as "manly men."

I'm not one of them.

I'm happily married to a man who is pleased as punch to tell his male friends that his wife is smarter than he is. He isn't the least bit uncomfortable about it. In fact, he thinks he's pretty smart for marrying me. I agree. I'm pleased that he is more talented than I am. We respect each other. That's what makes a good partnership.

Politics is about partnerships. Political leadership requires selecting and building a smart team. If your team doesn't have smart women in it, you won't get my vote.

Let's take this latest Benghazi bullcrap being used to taunt and demean U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice. It has nothing to do with Benghazi really, which I wrote about in Black Kos last Tuesday. The racism, blended with their sexism is blatant.

By now those who didn't know her credentials are aware of them. Those of us who have her back, from the president on down to a coalition of congresswomen, to bloggers and commentators like Soledad O'Brian and Rachel Maddow, have made it clear that she is not only a brilliant Rhodes scholar, but is an astute diplomat, with an important background in not only international affairs in general, but Middle East terrorism specifically.

President Obama is not afraid of strong smart women. He's surrounded by them.

Republicans have attacked his wife, his mother-in-law, his daughters, appointees like Valerie Jarrett, Susan Rice, Melody Barnes and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Republicans have gone after Tammy Duckworth on her military record. Teh stoopid ruled. Scott Brown went after Elizabeth Warren on her pride in having Native American ancestry.

So McCain lost an election partly because of his choice of a female running mate. Her selection—based on her having a uterus rather than brain cells—was stupid.

The War on Women launched by the Teapublicans was stupid.

Escalating that war to target Susan Rice is the height of stupidity.

Targeting women of color is political suicide.

Keep it up.

See how well stupid works out for you in 2014 and 2016.