Rosie the Riveter has given way to Sally the Sniveler.

During World War II, young Rose Will Monroe was the face of American women in adversity: strong, supportive and resolute against the enemy forces that threatened our existence. Tens of thousands like Rosie rolled up their sleeves, gritted their teeth, and flexed their muscles in factories and shipyards and arsenals across the country. They made rockets and rifles and bombs and boats. They painted and drilled and welded. When they got home to their kids, they cooked and cleaned and collapsed in bed after praying for their husbands and brothers and uncles on the battlefield. Rosie and her sisters in arms didn't have the luxury of complaining about their lack of "me time." There was a war to be won. And so, as this presidential campaign season has constantly reminded us, there is today.

But Rosie is gone. And in her place, we have Hysterical Women for Kerry.

They are self-absorbed celebrities who support banning all guns (except the ones their bodyguards use to protect them and their children). They are teachers' union bigwigs who support keeping all children hostage in public schools (except their own sons and daughters who have access to the best private institutions). They are sanctimonious environmentalists who oppose ostentatious energy consumption (except for their air-conditioned Malibu mansions and Gulfstream jets and custom Escalades.)

They are antiwar activists who claim to love the troops (except when they're apologizing to the terrorists trying to kill our men and women in uniform). They are peace activists who balk at your son bringing in his "Star Wars" light saber for the kindergarten Halloween parade (but who have no problem serving as human shields for torture-loving dictators). They are ultrafeminists who purport to speak for all women (but not the unborn ones or the abstinent teenage ones or the minority conservative ones or the newly enfranchised ones in Afghanistan).

In battleground states, the Kerry campaign has dispatched such incoherent nervous Nellies to scare the pantyhose off of young women and moms. Kerry's sister, Peggy, landed in Ohio at a Women for Kerry rally to scare up female votes to oppose President Bush's "war against women." At a time when Islamofascists are chopping off heads and kidnapping aid workers and plotting to kill schoolchildren, and at a time when untold numbers of malefactors are crossing into our borders, Peggy Kerry chose to whine about the alleged gender gap in white-collar salaries. "That is not fair," she said. "Let me tell you what my brother is going to fight for-pay equity." Meanwhile, a teacher for Kerry complained: "If we lose the White House again, it is very possible we will lose public education."

In Michigan, actress/legal observer Christine Lahti rallied Kerry women by warning: "Listen up. If (Bush) is re-elected, he will appoint a (Justice) Clarence Thomas clone and reverse Roe versus Wade." The Kerry campaign has also sent actress Sharon Stone-who recently blamed President Bush for preventing her from kissing fellow actress Halle Berry in the awful movie "Catwoman"-to drum up female votes in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.

But if Hollywood had to crown a poster girl for the new Sally the Sniveler campaign, it would be Cameron Diaz. Rosie the Riveter delivered a unifying message to her fellow American women with simple, rousing clarity: "We can do it!"

In stark contrast, here's a painful partial transcript of Diaz's vote-beseeching appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" last month:

Diaz: "We have a voice now, and we're not using it, and women have so much to lose. I mean, we could lose the right to our bodies. We could lo-if you think that rape should be legal, then don't vote. But if you think that you have a right to your body, and you have a right to say what happens to you and fight off that danger of losing that, then you should vote, and those are the . . .

Winfrey: "It's your voice."

Diaz: "It's your voice. It's your voice, that's your right."

We've come a long way, baby. The wrong way. Get a grip, girls. You are an embarrassment to a nation at war.