Roundup for Tuesday, May 27: Gender politics

After a long weekend, these stories bubble up:

Photo by Win McNamee, Getty Images

• Slate, playing off a Grimes profile last week in The Washington Post, says in a headline that the race "tests how far Democrats can take the 'war on women' rhetoric." Amanda Marcotte writes for the "XX Factor" column research "shows that when attention is drawn to a female candidate's gender, especially her clothing choices, it tends to hurt her in the polls," except "when she's accusing her opposition of sexism," as Alison Grimes is. The caption for the Getty Images photo with the story says Grimes is wearing "a very effective dress."
• In a look at top reporters covering Senate races around the nation, Hadas Gold of Politico finds some feeling in Kentucky that the state's two major newspapers lean opposite ways in news coverage: With Sam Youngman coming to the Lexington Herald-Leader "from Washington, some politicos said his stories tend to lean toward McConnell’s point of view, while others said it appears as though [Joe] Gerth and The Courier-Journal are looking to take down the Senate minority leader. . . . The reporter nearly every Kentucky politico mentioned at first, though, is [cable] station cn|2’s Ryan Alessi, who is leaving this summer to pursue a graduate degree, though he said he may continue freelancing during the election." We hope so!
• Former Clinton administration trade official Ira Shapiro writes in an opinion piece on CNN.com, says McConnell has been the Senate's most destructive leader by doing "everything in his power to keep the Republicans in lockstep opposition" to President Obama. McConnell has said that if he becomes majority leader, he would try to make the Senate operate more like it did when Democrat Mike Mansfield held the job in the 1960s and '70s.