Putting a Smiley Face on Anger

Hillary Clinton has obviously been stung by the "angry" charges leveled by Ken Mehlman of the GOP. She's now attacking that charge directly by claiming her anger is justified and that attacks against her are gender-based:

Responding to Republican claims that she may be too angry to win national office, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told an audience Monday to wear such criticism as "a badge of honor" and suggested that gender played a role in the attacks.

"When you run as a Democrat, and in particular, when you run as a Democratic woman, whether you're running at the local, state or national level, it's likely you're going to draw some unfriendly fire," Clinton said at a breakfast fundraiser hosted by black and Hispanic women supporters. "People will be attacking you instead of your ideas, they may impugn your patriotism, they may even say you're angry."

That may play well with the base, but I'm not sure she's going to convince anyone else that she's being unfairly criticized.

She may have something else to be mad about - she has a new opponent in her Senate run:

A former Pentagon official under President Reagan said Monday she will seek the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's re-election bid this year.

"I am running to be my party's nominee for the United States Senate from the state of New York," Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland wrote in a letter to supporters. "Toward that end, I have formed an exploratory committee, which I expect to upgrade to a full Senate campaign committee in the coming days."

We'll see if this challenger has more political ability than the last one.

UPDATE: Great minds think alike - from James Taranto:

Hillary's pride in being described as angry will doubtless endear her to the Angry Left, but unless the majority of Americans are at least as angry as she is, it will not broaden her appeal.