Ann Romney's fauxrage

Related to my rich mom/poor mom post, Ann Romney was leading the right wing fauxrage in response to Hillary Rosen. But Mrs. Romney isn’t really just the meek little loyal housewife she plays on TV. Apparently, not realizing reporters waiting outside of a high stakes fundraiser could overhear her, Ann showed her foxy political operative side to the big money donors.

Maureen Dowd explains:

But at a fund-raiser at a private home in Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday, the night before her 63rd birthday, Ann made it clear that she wasn’t really aggrieved. She was feigning aggrievement to milk the moment.

“It was my early birthday present for someone to be critical of me as a mother, and that was really a defining moment, and I loved it,” a gleeful Ann told the backyard full of Florida fat cats, sounding “like a political tactician,” as Garrett Haake, the NBC reporter on the scene, put it.

It’s important when you act the martyr not to overplay your hand. If you admit out loud to a bunch of people — including Haake, who was on the sidewalk enterprisingly eavesdropping — that you’re just pretending to be offended, you risk looking phony, like your husband. (It also doesn’t fly to tell Diane Sawyer that your dog “loved” 12 hours in a crate on top of the car or that it’s “our turn” to be in the White House.)

You do have to give Ann some credit though. She’s a lot better at faking it than Mitt. Meanwhile, not sure if this is real but Twitter tells me this was Ann’s birthday cake.

Seems perfect for that “stay-at-home” Mom.