Recently, at a public appearance on behalf of Air America in San Francisco, Randi Rhodes called Geraldine Ferraro, the first female on a Presidential ticket in U.S. history, "a whore". She then called Hillary Clinton, "a whore". When she got home, she got a call from Air America, who called her "suspended".
I am not surprised Randi Rhodes got suspended for these remarks; I am surprised that she has lasted this long without getting fired.
For the record, I don't listen to Randi Rhodes. I listened to her a few times when Air America got started, but not anymore. I haven't listened to her since the summer of 2005, and I have a very good reason.
It was at this time that I had just completed my graduate degree in Public Policy, and entered the political arena, which got me started following the Virginia Governor's race, and writing for Raising Kaine.
In early August of that year, Cindy Sheehan began her protest at the Crawford Ranch, while President Bush was on extended vacation. My feelings about Cindy Sheehan at the time were mixed. Obviously, I felt what she was doing was heroic. Cindy is a brave, suffering mother of a fallen soldier who used her freedom of speech and assembly to make a desperate, but inspiring plea to ask this President to face the grim realities of the War he started. Her emotional stance reminded me of the stories told by Howard Zinn in "A People's History of the United States".
However, I was concerned about liberal activist groups like MoveOn.org and others like them using Cindy Sheehan as a political tool. It wasn't long after Cindy's protest began that she was co-opted as spokesperson for the anti-war movement.
I thought that her actions were being adulterated by all the hype. So, I expressed my opinion in an article on Raising Kaine. In the article, I defended Cindy Sheehan, but asked that the liberal establishment allow her to speak for herself.
Randi Rhodes jumped on my article and declared on her radio show that Tim Kaine was a right-wing conservative Republican who had swift-boated John Kerry in 2004 and that we (Raising Kaine) were a right-wing conservative blog. Obviously she hadn't read the article, or looked at the blog, or she would have realized after the first few sentences that the article was positive towards Cindy Sheehan and was written by an independent blogger, not by anyone associated with Tim Kaine.
This raised several concerns about Randi Rhodes and her credibility:
First of all, she bashed an article that she didn't read, because she didn't like the title.
Then she mentioned the blog and the article on her radio show, making the assumption that it represented a blanket right-wing viewpoint.
Even worse, she had no idea who Tim Kaine was, even though he was the Democratic candidate in the only major election of 2005.
Of course I was right about Cindy Sheehan. Once she was designated a spokesperson for the anti-war movement, she started railing against Israel, and visited with Hugo Chavez who used her as a propaganda tool.
Randi Rhodes never received any backlash for the incident, and continued to use her foul mouth to paint a black and white view of the world to her listeners, just like Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk-show hosts.
So, is it any surprise three years later that she goes in front of a crowd, cursing and bashing these two women who are pioneers in American history? Maybe she didn't know who Geraldine Ferraro was? It wouldn't surprise me given her glaring ignorance about Tim Kaine in 2005.
The fact is, ignorance is destructive, whether is comes from conservatives or liberals, or from no political source. Ignorance is the reason for many of the problems facing America today. It's the reason we feed our children Sloppy Joes and Taco Bell in our schools and they get fat and can't concentrate in the classroom. It's the reason why people buy SUV's that get 12 miles per gallon, and slap an American flag on the back, while they pump money to Arab Sheiks when fill up the gas tank.
Ignorance on the left has spawned groups like 9/11 Truth and brought anti-Semitism to faux-liberal protest groups who blame Israel and the Jews for the War in Iraq.
There is no reason to call Hillary Clinton a whore, and there's no reason Randi Rhodes or anyone like her should be given a national audience.
So I say to Air America, keep Randi Rhodes off the air, and bring back somebody with intelligence and integrity. How about Marc Maron?
The New Jersey race, while only 8 points at the end, was still a blue-state race, where Corzine was expected to win without much problem. Kaine was behind for most of the year.
Randi Rhodes is just a blowhard.
On the other issue, here's the relevant Wikipedia entry:
ABC decided not to renew Maher's contract for Politically Incorrect in 2002 after he made a controversial on-air remark on September 17, 2001,[22] in which he agreed with guest conservative political commentator Dinesh D'Souza that the 9/11 terrorists were not cowards. He then went on to say, "We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."[23][24][25][26][27]In the context of the sensitive aftermath of the attacks, such a remark was deemed too controversial for some financial supporters. Although some pundits, including conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, supported Maher in pointing out the distinction between physical and moral cowardice,[28] companies including FedEx and Sears Roebuck pulled their advertisements from the show, costing the show more than it returned. Ari Fleischer, who was the White House Press Secretary at the time, responded to a reporter's question about Maher's comments by saying: "...they're reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that..."[29]
Don't make a point about Bill Maher, if you aren't honest about it.
"If I had two retarded children I'd be a hero, and yet the dogs which are pretty much the same thing..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
By the way how is calling Hillary a f-ing whore out of bounds, but it is perfectly ok to call her a pole dancing stripper. To quote:
http://www.billmaher.com/?page...
"And I love this. You know, the Clinton campaign, they love the new Hillary, the Hillary who lets her hair down. Do you know this? This is reported - under-reported, I thought. She had a beer - Hillary - a couple of weeks ago, with reporters in the hotel bar. And last night, in South Carolina, she went to a strip joint with the press corps-[laughter]-and did "Sex on the Beach" shots-[laughter]-and, on a dare, got up and danced - pole danced - under the name, "Original Cindy." [laughter] [applause] And she made $45. I'm telling you...they like the new Hillary because - because this is the "change" election, ladies and gentlemen. [laughter] "
Finally this one has NSFW language.
He wasn't calling her the C-word, but that was kinda stupid to say.
While her statement (even in a "comedic" sense) was inappropriate and out of control.
She has been suspended - if you don't like her - don't listen to her - but she does get about 2 million listeners a day.
Because of her and other "liberal" talk show host on AAR you have a better educated populist. Put it in perspective as a stand up routine that went bad - and get over it.
Good times.