Ladies and gentlemen,
We've now been told by all respectable parties that kids are "off-limits" in political discussion. I agree with this, for the most part. And I want to honor what Barack Obama has asked of his supporters.
But I don't think we should let this moment pass without reminding ourselves of what disgusting, lying hypocrites we're dealing with in the Republican party.
(more)
Let's roll the clock back ten years ago, to 1998. From a SALON article at the time, by David Corn:
Earlier this month, at a Republican Senate fund-raiser, McCain told a downright nasty joke making fun of Janet Reno, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton.
The fact that McCain had made the tasteless joke was reported in major newspapers, as was the vain attempt by his press secretary to initially deny what McCain had done. But in several major newspapers, the joke itself was kept a secret. When McCain subsequently apologized to President Clinton, the Washington Post, in its personality section, noted the apology but said the joke "was too vicious to print."
The Los Angeles Times, in its Life & Style section, provided an oblique rendering of the joke that did not fully convey its ugliness. When Maureen Dowd penned a column in the New York Times about the joke, she wrote that McCain "is so revered by the press that his disgusting jape was largely nudged under the rug." But Dowd chose not to relay the joke, either.
The joke did appear in McCain's hometown paper, the Arizona Republic, and the Associated Press did report the joke in full, so everyone in the press had access to McCain's words. But by censoring themselves, the Post, the Times and others helped McCain deflect flak and preserved his status as a Republican presidential contender.
Salon feels its readers deserve the unadulterated truth. Though no tape of McCain's quip has yet emerged, this is what he reportedly said:
"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."
At the time, Chelsea Clinton was around Bristol Palin's age now.
Did John McCain feel the need to leave kids out of it back then? Was family off-limits for John McCain?
Of course not. In fact he told a crude, nasty joke about the President's teenaged daughter in front of hundreds of witnesses.
And while I wish young Bristol Palin and her new family all the best, we all KNOW very well what we'd be hearing from every single Republican scumbag if this was a Democratic VP candidate whose 17-year-old daughter had just announced she was pregnant.
Three-times-divorced drug addict / Viagra prescription forger LIMBAUGH would gas off for days about how this shows the moral bankruptcy of ALL Democrats, especially the parents.
Phone sex freak Bill O'Reilly, who paid millions to stop the truth about his perversions and infidelities from coming out in a court of law, would say something like this:
On the pinhead front, 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. The sister of Britney says she is shocked. I bet.
Now most teens are pinheads in some ways. But here the blame falls primarily on the parents of the girl, who obviously have little control over her or even over Britney Spears. Look at the way she behaves.
...which is indeed exactly what he said when he wasn't sucking up to his Republican masters.
(Hey O'Reilly, you sick freak, I don't suppose it's too much to ask that you explain how the Palin situation is one iota different? Of course it is, Loopha Man. You have the morals of a dung beetle.)
So let's be compassionate to this poor girl, Bristol, who is saddled with parents who have put her and her siblings second to their political and business ambitions. Yes, let's leave her out of it.
But let's not forget the rank, stinking hypocrisy and dishonesty of John McCain and his partners in this Republican crime racket -- including Sarah Palin --who are HAPPY to go after people's children, time and again.
Let's crush them in November.