If only female victims of violence didn't make such poor decisions.
George W. Bush's former press secretary Dana Perino, the one who rose to prominence taking the job after the shame of Bush's 30% approval presidency left everyone else ducking for cover and who has parlayed that position into a Faux News pundit gig, blames female victims of violence for getting attacked, beaten, and killed.
This discussion came up in the context of the Jovan Belcher - Kassandra Perkins murder/suicidethat has made headlines this week.
Where Bob Costas risked being attacked, using his time on the national stage (strictly in the context of a sports forum, not general news) to make a comment about gun violence and culture in America and elicit a conversation about the subject (or at least try to), Dana Perino used her position and influence, such as it is, to blame victims.
Perino made the comment on Fox New’s “The Five,” in the middle of a discussion of Kansas City Chiefs Line Backer Javon Belcher, who murdered his girlfriend before killing himself over the weekend. While her co-hosts were discussing the merits of female gun ownership as a way to avoid violence against women, Perino was quick to blame women themselves for being victims:
PERINO: I think it skirts the issue that women are victims of violence all the time –
CO-HOST: They should have guns!
PERINO: Well, maybe, or make better decisions.
Perino does not elaborate what poor decisions these victims have made, or at least the clip cuts off after she shares her brilliant pearls of wisdom. Perhaps it's the same logic that rape is the victim's fault for walking outside with a vagina. Or perhaps she is suggesting women follow her path of selling her soul and any shred of integrity she ever had to become a spokesperson for a perpetrator of evil such as George Bush, thus insuring her personal financial independence and professional wellbeing. Maybe you're still alive, in a strict corporeal sense, but is there anything left inside? Perino's decisions aren't exemplary by any stretch and she has no right to be lecturing anyone.
This is Dana Perino's contribution to the possibilities for this incident presented for discussion. With friends like these, who needs enemies.