Feminists are at it again...

...this time it's at Elizabeth Vargas's expense.

Of course, Vargas just announced that she's stepping down from ABC's World News Tonight. She's supposed to be the co-anchor, but since her co-anchor, Bob Woodruff, was seriously wounded in Iraq, she's been flying solo. Ratings have taken a nose dive. The woman is pregnant. So, she decided to resign.

However, ask a feminist what her take on it is and she'll insist that Vargas is being pressured out and it's all because she's a woman.

Feminist groups say Vargas is just being publicly graceful about what was really her abrupt removal from the job.

"We see it as a demotion," says Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation and one of the country's most recognizable feminists. "We're worried. Is this a return to the days when it was tougher for women to get ahead?" [Don't feminists argue that it still is tougher for women to get ahead? So we really aren't returning to anything, we're just maintaining the status quo. Or is Smeal admitting that it's not any tougher for women to get ahead?]

Smeal was one of three feminist leaders to sign a letter this week to the heads of ABC, asking them to reinstate Vargas.

"This clear demotion signals a dispiriting return to the days of discrimination against women that we thought were behind us," said the letter. It asked the network to find a work schedule that would allow Vargas to be both a dedicated mother and a dedicated journalist — and even brought a little show business into the equation, decrying ABC's cancellation of "Commander in Chief," starring Geena Davis as the first woman president.

"You have now managed to eliminate two of the country's most visible women role models," said the letter, also signed by Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, and Susan Scanlan, chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations.

A few thoughts here.

1. Bad ratings end anyone's tenure as an anchor. Male or female.
2. Pregnancy and motherhood "slow down" many women's careers. And they choose that.
3. How Eleanor Smeal sees this is completely irrelevant. Being the President of the Feminist Majority Foundation doesn't give her the leverage to say that Vargas's voluntary decision is a demotion.
4. The fact that they even brought Geena Davis and "Commander in Chief" into the equation is ridiculous. Refer to 1. Bad ratings kill shows. Period.
5. If Elizabeth Vargas were the best anchor ever, they should have made sure their favorite anchor was also a feminist whose family took a backseat to her career. Or they could have actually watched Vargas' newscasts.
6. Geena Davis and Elizabeth Vargas are the two most visible female role models? Since when were Hillary Clinton and Cindy Sheehan taken off the list?

Those are my 6 thoughts, for what they're worth.