There's more than a hint of a double standard in the response of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign to the criticism of her at the MSNBC debate on Tuesday night. The campaign quickly put together a video called 'the politics of piling on' that shows the male candidates focusing ominously on her:

Also, in the campaign's conference call the next day, chief strategist Mark Penn talked about a "backlash" to the attacks, with women flocking to support Clinton. According to Penn, female voters are saying, "Sen. Clinton needs our support now more than ever if we're going to see this six-on-one try to bring her down." Penn clearly didn't look at this development unfavorably. Credit Sam Youngman of The Hill for his scoop in reporting on the call.

What's the double standard? It's the old feminist one in which women must be treated as equals - except when they're criticized by males. When men criticize, that amounts to unfair picking on a woman, or "piling on" as the Clinton campaign puts it, or "ganging up" in the metaphor used by others. Naturally, Clinton supporters say she stood up to the attacks. And she did, but her responses were lame and evasive.

That Clinton took a beating in the debate had nothing to do with gender and everything to do with the fact that she's the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. Frontrunners are always attacked by the other candidates in the runup to actual voting in the primaries. If a male candidate were leading, he'd have faced a similar barrage. Just ask Howard Dean, the frontrunner four years ago.