Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, in a private meeting last August, referred to liberal opponents of President Obama's health-care plan as "[bad word] retarded."
Well, Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, failed vice-presidential candidate and soon-to-be Fox News commentator, wasn't going to take that lying down, you betcha. Palin (who, you might remember, has a son with Down syndrome), quickly leapt to her recent political forum of choice, i.e., her Facebook page, to call for Emanuel's resignation immediately, if not sooner.
"I would ask the president to show decency in this process by -eliminating one member of that inner circle, Mr. Rahm Emanuel, and not allow Rahm's continued indecent tactics to cloud efforts," Palin wrote.
Emanuel apologized for his comment, but that wasn't enough for Palin, who wrote: "Just as we'd be appalled if any public figure of Rahm's stature ever used the 'N-word' or other such inappropriate language, Rahm's slur on all God's children with cognitive and developmental disabilities - and the people who love them - is unacceptable, and it's heartbreaking."
Doggone right. I'm glad to see that Gov. Palin is taking a stand against the use of the word "retarded" to describe liberals. I look forward to her demand for the immediate firing of conservative radio host Michael Savage, who is constantly referring on his show to "liberal retards."
I also look forward to her calling for the immediate banning from the airwaves of conservative pundit Ann Coulter, who once wrote of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "Is no one going to remark on what a great country it is where a mentally retarded woman can become speaker of the House?"
Coulter is actually pretty fond of using the word; she referred to talk show host Bill Maher's audience as "MoveOn retards." And in an interview on Fox News' Sean Hannity program, she referred to former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan as "retarded." "It's not offensive, it's accurate," Coulter insisted when challenged on it by allegedly liberal co-host Alan Colmes.
Hannity, it should be noted, never said a mumblin' word. So maybe Ms. Palin should be calling for his resignation, too.
Then there's bowtied Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, who's referred to Canada as "America's retarded cousin" not once, but twice. There's also frequently utilized wingnut talking head Dick Morris, who, after he got fired from the Clinton administration for letting hookers listen in on his phone calls to the White House, became the go-to guy for anyone who wanted a sound bite bashing the Clintons, Barack Obama or any Democrat.
Morris, on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor," criticized Obama's stimulus package by saying: "What he didn't quite explain to me - and maybe I'm a little retarded about this - is how are you going to get banks to give people car loans when the government is elbowing them aside?"
I'm sure Gov. Palin missed that slur, but now that it's been called to her attention, I'm sure she'll be calling for Dick Morris to be banned from Fox. It's going to get pretty lonely on that channel, but it's a small price to pay to defend against those who slur "God's children with cognitive and developmental disabilities."
While we're at it, I look forward to Ms. Palin expressing her outrage at every conservative blogger who's ever used the word "libtard" (a combination of the words "liberal" and "retard") to describe anyone to the left of themselves. A quick Google search of the Republican Web site "Redstate" for the word "libtard", for example, turned up five long pages of hits.
And on Facebook, where the Resigning Woman is so fond of holding court, there are groups called "Al Gore is Retarded," "Liberals are Retarded," "Hollywood Is Full of Retarded Liberals," etc. Fortunately, since there's an easy way to ask for the administrators of Facebook to remove offensive groups, she can take a stand right away. There are only about 500 Facebook groups that use the word "retarded" in their names, so it shouldn't take more than a week or so.
If she's going to go after everyone who ever referred to liberals as "retarded," Ms. Palin had better get busy. But I know she will. Because if she's only upset by the use of the word "retarded" when a Democrat uses it, her outrage might seem, shall we say, a bit selective, even a bit hypocritical. And we know she's not a hypocrite, right?
Right?
32 comments:
You forgot to mention Limbaugh, but then Sarah has been backpedaling because she seems to be afraid of him.
I didn't find out about the Limbaugh "retard summit" remarks until after the column was turned in, unfortunately.
Opulently I agree but I about the collection should have more info then it has.
Did you happen to see Rahm Emanual's apology on Saturday Night Live last night?
Seemed sincere ;)
Nice investigative work.
Opulently I agree but I about the collection should have more info then it has.
Uh, what?
And according to the gospel of Levi Johnson (which may or may not be taken with a grain of salt) Palin has often privately referred to her baby as "the retard".
Jerry, I'd heard that, too, but considering the source, I decided to leave that out of the column.
I did like the comment of someone on another blog who said that as much as the Wassilla Grifter trots the kid out for political purposes, she should have named him "Prop."
But the former governor went to great and sometimes awkward lengths to insist that when conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh used the same exact term to describe the same exact group, it was simply in the role of political humorist.
"They are kooks, so I agree with Rush Limbaugh," she said, when read a quote of Limbaugh calling liberal groups "retards." "Rush Limbaugh was using satire ... . I didn't hear Rush Limbaugh calling a group of people whom he did not agree with 'f-ing retards,' and we did know that Rahm Emanuel, as has been reported, did say that. There is a big difference there."
"There's also frequently utilized wingnut talking dickhead Dick Morris . . ."
Fixed it for ya, lol!
Peace,
wolfetone
If Rush Limbaugh is a "humorist", of any kind, then I'm the Queen of Siam.
Great column, Dusty. Palin is the original mean girl. And now she wants to run for president? Oh, hell no. We're having enough trouble trying to recover from eight years of Bush. Having a First Quitter is all we need.
How’s that hopey changey thing workin out for ya?
Todd
I've been trying without much success to persuade my 14 year old daughter to stop using the word "retarded" when she describes just about anything she doesn't like. I'm sure Rahm Emmanuel's mother did the same. It really is an offensive word and shouldn't be used. However, Emmanuel let it slip in a closed meeting which he assumed was not open to public scrutiny. Limbaugh said it, satirically or not, on the air to millions of listeners.
It's Sarah Palin's double standard again. It's OK for SNL to make jokes about incest in her family, (hey, they had her on as a guest) but she wants Letterman off the air for a far less offensive joke about her daughter.
Nice article as for me. It would be great to read more concerning this topic. Thanks for sharing this material.
How’s that hopey changey thing workin out for ya?
As I wrote back during the campaign, Obama's message was based around hope and change, and the McCain message was based around making fun of that.
And THAT is why you failed so miserably.
But please, keep following the same losing themes. And please, please, please, God, let Sarah Palin be the GOP nominee, and let her keep saying stupid shit like this.
“And THAT is why you failed so miserably.”
Two words: Scott Brown
Scott Brown does not equal Sarah Palin.
Martha Coakley does not equal Barack Obama.
Brown didn't run the sort of mean-spirited, divisive campaign that Sarah Palin seems hell-bent on re-creating, nor did he trumpet the virtues of blockheaded ignorance that Palin seems to adore so much.
Anger against incumbents only goes so far if you have a candidate who's so unprepared, not to mention so fucking dumb, that her answer to a softball question like "who's your favorite founding father" is "all of them," and who can't remember what her main priorities are without writing them on her hand.
But please, anonymouse. Keep it up. Keep up the cheer leading and the breathtaking delusion. I hope it works. I really hope that the fawning sycophancy of mindless yay-hoos like you, and Brown's win against one of the worst run campaigns in Mass. history, emboldens the Wasilla Hillbilly to think she can be a viable candidate against Mitt Romney, let alone Barack Obama. The bloodbath in the primaries will be enormously entertaining.
"In short, in Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against woman and against politicians with whom he disagrees. In any other time in our history, this man would have been laughed off the stage as an unqualified and a disaster in the making by the most conservative of conservatives. Instead, the commonwealth of Massachusetts is close to sending this bad joke to the Senate of the United States." K.O.
Is the above why Brown won (i.e., mean-spirited) or was it because your president's hopey changey salespitch has grown stale?
Are you saying Brown really is an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, teabagging supporter of violence against woman and against politicians with whom he disagrees" who "In any other time in our history...would have been laughed off the stage as unqualified and a disaster in the making by the most conservative of conservatives," and that's why he won, and that Palin's going to win too because she's the same things? I don't know who should be more insulted by that: Brown, Palin, or the people of Massachusetts.
Maybe you should send that idea to Caribou Barbie's campaign manager, though. They could use it as a template for the campaign.
And BTW, Who gives a fuck what Keith Olbermann says?
Again, if Scott Brown was running against the actual Barack Obama instead of an imaginary one, it would have been a different election, believe me. Obama, for one thing, would have actually, you know, campaigned.
Coakley lost for the same reason Hillary Clinton and John McCain lost: she treated the seat like she was entitled to it. And that is why SHE failed.
Sarah Palin, on the other had, is a worse campaigner than Brown, and a much worse interview. If she goes up against Obama, she's going to have to do more than appear in front of small crowds of mindlessly adoring teabaggers and birther nuts. If her strategy consists of saying juvenile shit like "hopey changey, hopey changey" and winking at the cameras , she's going to get her ass handed to her, in chunks. And I predict she'll quit after the first primary, because, you know, that stuff is HARD, and people say MEAN THINGS.
So, again, RUN SARAH RUN!
Hopey changey = Obama's overall approval among all registered voters has hit a new low of 44 percent, which is the lowest of any poll to date that uses people to survey voters. Among independents, his job approval rating has sunk to to just 29 percent, and his disapproval rating is almost double that at 57 percent.
And Scott Brown, of course.
Got a cite to those numbers, anon?
What's with all the CAPS?
You're a very angry young man.
Thanks for "young," anonymouse.
And as for "Angry":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHuxmh4ggJM
http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/13012
On the other hand:
http://pollingreport.com/obama_ad.htm
"Do you think the policies being proposed by Barack Obama will move the country in the right direction or the wrong direction?"
Right 71%
Wrong 27%
Unsure 2%
"Do you think that President Obama's plan will or will not succeed in :
Improving the economy: 67% yes, 32% no. 1% unsure.
Creating or saving millions of jobs:
59% yes, 39% no, 3% not sure.
See, I can cherry-pick polls, too.
I'm sick over the attempts to suggest a literacy test should now be mandatory. Can it possibly be seen as anything other than the most racist comment in 50 years.
Yeah, but you can't cherrypick losing Ted Kennedy's seat, can you?
Ha, ha, ha, ha ... and wait'll 2010 when you lose another 20-30 Congressional seats and a few more Senate seats.
Oooops, you lose ... again.
A lot's going to happen between now and then, coward. The only thing that'll stay the same is your not being confident enough in your assertions to take responsibility for your own words.
Since anonymouse is so enamored of polls:
Obama approval Bounces Back:
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/02/10/obama_approval_bounces_back.html
More Polls for Trolls:
Fifty-five percent of Americans have unfavorable views of [Sarah Palin] , while the percentage holding favorable views has dipped to 37, a new low in Post-ABC polling.
There is a growing sense that the former Alaska governor is not qualified to serve as president, with more than seven in 10 Americans now saying she is unqualified, up from 60 percent in a November survey. Even among Republicans, a majority now say Palin lacks the qualifications necessary for the White House.
Palin has lost ground among conservative Republicans, who would be crucial to her hopes if she seeks the party's presidential nomination in 2012. Forty-five percent of conservatives now consider her as qualified for the presidency, down sharply from 66 percent who said so last fall.
Among all Republicans polled, 37 percent now hold a "strongly favorable" opinion of Palin, about half the level recorded when she burst onto the national stage in 2008 as Sen. John McCain's running mate.
I kinda have been expecting this in a way...
But I reali dun think da world is going to end...start a new era maybe but the world is not ending.
That's not gonna happen till a thousand years later! Ok, I'm not sure bout that either but that's not the point! The world's not gonna end! Full stop!
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