Why have men become so hostile toward women?

Hillary Clinton has fought for womens rights around the world. But who would have dreamed she would have to fight for them at home?

Why extremists always focus on women remains a mystery to me, she told an adoring crowd at the Women in the World Summit at Lincoln Center on Saturday. But they all seem to. It doesnt matter what country theyre in or what religion they claim. They want to control women. They want to control how we dress. They want to control how we act. They even want to control the decisions we make about our own health and bodies.

Yes, she continued to applause, it is hard to believe that even here at home, we have to stand up for womens rights and reject efforts to marginalize any one of us, because America needs to set an example for the entire world.

As secretary of state, Clinton is supposed to stay out of domestic politics. But this was a moment pregnant with possibility, a titanic clash of the Inevitable (Hillary) and the Indefensible (Republican cavemen).

The attempt by Republican men to wrestle American women back into chastity belts has not only breathed life into President Barack Obama, it has roused and riled Hillary. And that could turn out to be the most dangerous thing the wildly self-destructive GOP leaders have done.

In some kind of insane bout of mass misogyny, Republicans are hounding out the female voters -- including Republicans and independents -- who helped them gain control of the House in 2010.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, who is fed up and leaving Congress, told The Washington Posts Karen Tumulty that it feels as if we are going back to another era, warning that Republicans could drive women into Democratic arms.

And whose arms would be more welcoming to the sisters than Hillarys? The woman who has been mocked as the sex-retary of state by Rush Limbaugh would know just where to hit back..

There has been fevered speculation about Hillary ascending. Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen suggested in The Wall Stre! et Journ al that Obama should take the moral high ground and step aside for his secretary of state. Hillary, they argued sanguinely, could break the gridlock in Washington.

Its an amusing but absurd scenario.

Al Hunt of Bloomberg News wrote this week that Hillary could waltz past Larry Summers into the presidency of the World Bank and that she is the automatic front-runner for 2016.