Limbaugh and McCain United - Against Chelsea Clinton
As the war of words between Rush Limbaugh and John McCain reached a fever pitch this week, it took MSNBC reporter David Schuster to remind Americans that the two right-wing titans share some common values. For all of their current disagreements over the direction of the Republican Party, Limbaugh and McCain agreed on one thing. They both called a young Chelsea Clinton ugly - and worse.
As Molly Ivins recalled, Rush's 1993 slur against the 13 year old daughter of the new President was signature Limbaugh:
On his TV show, early in the Clinton administration, Limbaugh put up a picture of Socks, the White House cat, and asked, "Did you know there's a White House dog?" Then he put up a picture of Chelsea Clinton, who was 13 years old at the time and as far as I know had never done any harm to anyone.
When viewers objected, he claimed, in typical Limbaugh fashion, that the gag was an accident and that without his permission some technician had put up the picture of Chelsea--which I found as disgusting as his original attempt at humor.
Five years later, John McCain got into the act with a slander of Chelsea Clinton that was infinitely more vulgar. Appearing at a 1998 Republican Senate fundraiser, McCain reached into the gutter to show his conservative family values with this:
"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."
As David Corn reported in June 1998, John McCain the aspiring presidential candidate as usual got a free ride from the press in extricating himself from the hole he dug himself:
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 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.
Unlike Limbaugh, McCain at least apologized to President and Mrs. Clinton. (Should Senator Clinton win the Democratic nomination, John McCain should have plenty of chances to repeat that apology during the fall debates.)
David Schuster's comment about the Clinton campaign "pimping out" Chelsea Clinton was shockingly inappropriate and utterly offensive. (It's all the more disappointing given his excellent reporting on the Libby case and other White House scandals.) His suspension by NBC was well deserved.
As for Rush Limbaugh, he remains #1 on talk radio. And far from slinking back to Arizona, John McCain will be the 2008 presidential nominee of the Republican Party. But while the two men are at odds now, they can look back on happier days in the 1990's when they shared a common foe. Rush Limbaugh and John McCain will always have Chelsea Clinton.
UPDATE: Hillary Clinton responds to NBC, writing "Nothing justifies the kind of debasing language that David Shuster used and no temporary suspension or half-hearted apology is sufficient." Based on her comments earlier today about John McCain being "legendary," as well as Bill Clinton's earlier description of the Arizona Senator and his wife being "very close," Mr. Straight Talk has apparently been forgiven.
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Oh merciful God. Please make it stop.
Posted by Thor_a_zine on February 9, 2008 2:30 PMOk Hill is upset that she pimped out her daughter? I don?t see bill beating his chest and pounding the table over this nonsense!
What if china calls her daughter a name ? Is she gonna ?George Bush? the ?Button? on them. As far as the MSNBC debate threat..Ob is sick of the debate nonsense?.he may not even agree to do it. Hill needs to WOMAN-UP! I don?t remember her putting chel on the ?strole? for other campaigns ?why now? Oh yea desperate times call for desperate measures
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Here is the funny thing?.Clintons own Press Sec did not even know what the term ?Pimped Out? meant!
Riddle me this?How can you be upset about a term that you don?t understand???
If the Press Sec googled the term the 1st hit reads??.
From-Urban Dictionary: ?pimped outpimped out cool pimp awesome tricked out nice phat pimpin ride ? By the amount of bling-bling he was flashing, we knew he was pimped out. ??
www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pimped+out ?
?cool? ?awesome? does not sound bad to me?.
Now we all know there are other connotations but why take the low road? Maybe Hill wanted to play the sympathy vote??
Original Message??
From: Philippe Reines
To: David Shuster
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 7:14 p.m.
David - how hard is it for someone, anyone, in the vast MS/NBC universe to contact any one of us at the campaign for comment about Chelsea before going on air and saying that she is being ?pimped out? ? It?s absurdly offensive. And what the hell does that even mean?
I just don?t get MSNBC - does GE not allow you to make toll calls? What?s the problem.
Philippe Reines
Posted by sal on February 10, 2008 11:47 AMPress Secretary
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
is that press secretary letter real it is awesome! is there a lesbian connection here?
Posted by edd on February 11, 2008 5:39 PMThis is all so childish
Posted by dirtyelection.com on February 11, 2008 5:43 PMWhat a couple of pigs. Limbaugh and McCain are perfect for each other
Posted by Mary on February 12, 2008 2:17 PMI think Chelsea just showed how pimped out she was.
Posted by search engine placement on March 26, 2008 10:23 PMI think John McCain will be our next president. I don't even think that Hillary will be the Democratic Nominee. That is why they are pimping out Chelsea.
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