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Malkin Denounces Beck, Limbaugh ‘Prostitute’ Rhetoric on Landrieu

video

by Tommy Christopher | 10:38 am, November 25th, 2009

» 26 comments

beck_malkin As we reported yesterday, Senator Mary Landrieu (D – Louisiana) is under fire for agreeing to vote for debate on health care reform only after securing $300 million in aid to her home state. The criticism took a nasty turn, as the right’s two most prominent commentators – Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh – referred to Landrieu as a prostitute, and Time‘s Mark Halperin threw a sexually enhanced hairdo on her.

On last night’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann again asked where was the outrage from the conservative feminists (video below). We decided to go and find it. I reached out to several conservatives who have been critical of this type of behavior from the left, including Michelle Malkin, Ed Morrissey, and Mary Katherine Ham.

First, I asked Mary Katherine Ham about the brouhaha. She had written a column about Halperin’s photoshop for The Weekly Standard, using it as a springboard to make some points about Huffington Post’s editorial standards. Her column didn’t mention Beck or Limbaugh, with good reason (via Twitter):

I added it to opening. Hadn’t heard about it. I obviously feel the same way about that as about Halperin’s move.

Here’s the update to her column:

(So nobody gets caught up in calling me out for not calling out right-wingers, Beck and Limbaugh were inappropriate on Landrieu, too.)

I asked Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey about it on his show yesterday, and he hadn’t heard about it yet. He sent me his reaction this morning:

People have called politicians of both genders whores and prostitutes for a very, very long time. What made Halperin’s photoshop over the line was that the reference he used was all about semen and not at all about prostitution — the main character in “There’s Something about Mary” wasn’t a prostitute, and was more or less virginal, at least presumably. I have no idea what Halperin was thinking with that one.

Finally, Michelle Malkin, whom Keith Olbermann invoked while naming Beck and Limbaugh to Monday night’s version of “Worst Persons,” had this to say:

I would not use — and did not use — that kind of rhetoric in my criticism of Landrieu. Having been called a whore, prostitute and far more degrading sexual epithets by countless times by liberals who never have to apologize, I’ll say this: Women in politics deserve to be treated the same as men. Call them sellouts, corruptocrats, bribe-takers, and backroom wheeler-dealers — but leave the streetwalker analogies at the Bunny Ranch where they belongs.

And lefty concern trolls, spare me all the over-the-top outrage about Rush and Beck. Their jabs at Landrieu are nothing compared to the unending attacks on Sarah Palin.

Since I’ve already said my piece, and because they don’t have the opportunity to respond further, I’ll let their comments stand on their own.

What I do find interesting is that these kinds of attacks on a Democratic Senator managed to stay off the right’s radar, even though they were leveled by its two most visible figureheads. On the other hand, Sarah Palin’s magazine cover is big news on both sides, as was Alan Grayson’s “K Street whore comment.”

I would also observe that the outrage from the left on this is somewhat muted, perhaps because Mary Landrieu’s opposition to the public option puts her at odds with them.

It seems to me that this is yet another example of politics trumping simple human decency.

Ed Morrisey, Glenn Beck, mary katherine Ham, Mary Landrieu, Mary Landrieu prostitute, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, semen hair, theres something about mary, Tommy Christopher

Jim R

Simple human decency is a commodity in short supply on the right.

Understandly so, since it would only leave them to talk about substantive things like failed conservative policies that wouldn’t fit well into their pinched world view.
icanbelieveit

Senator Landrieu prostituted not only her self but the entire population of Louisiana. As for the $300,000,000, it will go down the drain in the scandal ridden city of New Orleans. There is not enough money in the US Treasury or Gold in Fort Knox to restore New Orleans to its former glory (whatever that was).
TfT

I would expect nothing less from Michelle or Mary Katherine; it’s not like they are the President of NOW or anything who typically remains silent about attacks on conservative women.

Olbermann asking where is the outrage? I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life. Has Olbermann ever issued an apology for the excessive sexist remarks he has made about conservative women, or about Hillary Clinton for that matter.?
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

Malkin gets real close to pointing out that trading pork or pet projects to win a close vote is the way Congress has worked for most of the last 100 years.

And if Landrieu’s opponents keep calling her two-faced, perhaps someone will remind them of the big fuss Bobby Jindal made about stimulus money before he started accepting it, and before he got assurances from the Labor Department that if they changed Louisiana law to qualify for the last bit and then change it back after the money was gone, the feds wouldn’t try to recoup the funds.
germ

“What I do find interesting is that these kinds of attacks on a Democratic Senator managed to stay off the right’s radar, even though they were leveled by its two most visible figureheads. On the other hand, Sarah Palin’s magazine cover is big news on both sides, as was Alan Grayson’s “K Street whore comment.””

The Alan Grayson’s “K Street whore” comment was off the radar for over 2 months before the right started talking about it. The Beck/Limbaugh comments were off the radar for 2 seconds before the left started talking about it.

Get you facts straight if you are going to try to compare them.
MartiniShark

Olbermann’s outrage at this is hysterical. It has to be some kind of subtle stab at irony. But given KO and “subtle” rarely collide in the same sentence I have doubts.
OxyCon

Michelle Malkin has you pegged bud. This entire article is nothing more than left wing concern trolling. Something Liberals excel at. Funny how people with very little, or next to nothing as far as having any moral standards can feign outrage. Takes alot of cajones if you ask me. Go take a trip to DailyKos, Huffpo or Democrat Underground if you don’t believe me, but be warned you’ll immediately want to jump in the shower.
shootfromthehip

Hey OxyCon, we here on the left would just LOVE it if you could teach us more about “moral standards.” Maybe Mark Foley, Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, Mark Sanford, Newt Gingrich, Duke Cunningham and prostitute lovers David Vitter & Dick Morris can teach that class?
straitshooter

“It seems to me that this is yet another example of politics trumping simple human decency.”

Nicely said. Too often we look at the worst of the other side and measure our actions accordingly. Instead of fighting fire with fire, the left and right should, as Tommy says, promote substantive arguments on the issues and deride those who get vicious and personal.

Malkin was right to denounce the people on her side. Olbermann once again displays a complete inability to view himself through the same prism he uses to judge others. I don’t think hypocrisy is a strong enough word for him; this appears to be an actual mental disorder.
ImNotBlue

What I do find interesting is that these kinds of attacks on a Democratic Senator managed to stay off the right’s radar, even though they were leveled by its two most visible figureheads.

Perhaps this is further evidence that the right doesn’t actually see Beck and Limbaugh as important, or as the “leaders” that the left wants to paint them as.

shootfromthehip says:
November 25, 2009 at 12:13 pm

Do you really want to get into a game of “my bad guys are better than your bad guys?” There are a lot of dump politicians who do dumb things and get caught. But the only thing dumber than them, are the people who think there’s a difference between “their guys” and “the other guys.”
Cecelia

I hadn’t heard the cracks towards Landrieu by Beck, Limbaugh, and Halperin, but frankly I’m not bent out of shape about their being misogynistic.

I didn’t think David Shuster’s remark about “pimping out” Chelsea was over-the-top either. “Pimping” is a common expression that transcends its original meaning, as is the case for ‘prostitute’ or ‘whore’.

No one is going to get upset over a man being termed a pro-business whore or some such.

I’ve never felt that Keith Olbermann’s insults toward particular women were sexist (excluding his calling Coulter the ‘C-word’) Keith is not particularly misogynistic, he’s an equal-opportunity narcissistic hateful bastard and bully. Olbermann’s remark about Michelle Malkin wasn’t anything he wouldn’t said have about a man, sans the “with lipstick”.

We don’t have to hang an “ism” on everything hateful in the world. Some things are appalling and in horrible taste because they’re ugly, mean-spirited, vulgar, and crass.

And THAT is more than enough.
rmbltmbl

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, Olbermann. If Landrieu were a man, it is more than likely Beck and Limbaugh would not have call ‘him’ a whore.. but I do honestly believe they would have the same disgust and anger. So.. point taken, doesn’t change anything,
Cecelia

I want to add that I have NO doubt that Michelle Malkin is familiar with being insulted via her sex or sexuality.

As with most conservative women on the internet, it was an eye-opening experience to be routinely called “dumb slut” (and more explicit equivalents of that expression…) by liberal “progressive” men who merely differed with my political views.
Cactus

Funny how so many commenters think that Olbermann here is “ironic”, “hysterical” or “ridiculous”, when the appropriate term is “entirely appropriate”. When you’ve been raked over the coals for saying something perceived as sexist, you’re entirely entitled to ask where’s that very same outrage when someone else says something similar or worse. Recall Dick Morris bashing Hillary Clinton when she complained of sexism, then rallying to Sarah Palin’s aid when she complained of the same.

There’s nothing ironic about calling people out on their own intellectually-dishonest double standards.
Cecelia

The people who were called out, immediately condemned the speech, when informed of it.

When you’ve experienced the sting of having been “raked over the coals for saying something perceived as sexist”, perhaps the least “ironic” thing you could do would be to give other people the benefit of the doubt, rather than to demand that they be treated similarly, and that your past accusers now act just as unreasonably.

Of course, in Olbermann’s case, the suggestion that he could harbor that sense of logic or have garnered any sense of empathy at all from his own experience, is probably the most ironic idea of all.
shootfromthehip

“There’s nothing ironic about calling people out on their own intellectually-dishonest double standards.”

Amen Cactus. And nice job pointing out Morris’ double standard.
MikeLI631

THIS IS “WHY”, MIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Malkin, will NEVER have entre’ into that exclusive, buy verry Male, Club of Conservative Talk Show Hall of Fame. She will always be a “contributor”.

She has no cajones, like, say, an Ann Coulter.

In order to play in the BIG LEAGUES, you have to have them…it’s S.O.P. !
MartiniShark

Olbermann’s outrage on this subject should be ignored because the man traffics in the very invective he is charging others of delivering. It is like pointing a finger at someone and saying “Alcoholic”, while your other four fingers cradle a snifter of 100proof. When a firebrand like KO charges sexism there really is no reason to listen any further.
StewartIII

ChickaBOOMer: There’s Something About Harry
http://chickaboomer.blogspot.com/2009/11/see-men-tank.html
Fidoohki

The problem is that we have lost respect for each other’s viewpoints…and for people that don’t agree with
said viewpoint.
StewartIII

Salon: Olbermann gets hypocritical on Beck, Grayson
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/11/25/olbermann
Sunnyr

Glenn Beck was absolutely right. What else can you call this smarmy Pay for Play crap? $300 MILLION bucks for her vote and the money comes out of the pockets of every taxpayer in the country. I hope old dirty Harry got a big wet kiss and a cigarette out of the deal.
jennielynsan

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Biscuit

Earth to Conservative males: Believe it or not, your wives, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters and grand-daughters are actual HUMAN BEINGS, not garbage.

Maybe you boys ought to grow up and START acting like decent, mature, INTELLIGENT, civilized human beings.

No wonder bright, decent women don’t want anything to do with you angry, small-minded losers. :)
Biscuit

Sunnyr says:
November 26, 2009 at 4:25 am Sunnyr(Quote)
0 0
Glenn Beck was absolutely right. What else can you call this smarmy Pay for Play crap? $300 MILLION bucks for her vote and the money comes out of the pockets of every taxpayer in the country. I hope old dirty Harry got a big wet kiss and a cigarette out of the deal.

Dateless and bitter, hon?
Biscuit

TfT says:
November 25, 2009 at 11:01 am TfT(Quote)
0 0
I would expect nothing less from Michelle or Mary Katherine; it’s not like they are the President of NOW or anything who typically remains silent about attacks on conservative women.

Olbermann asking where is the outrage? I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life. Has Olbermann ever issued an apology for the excessive sexist remarks he has made about conservative women, or about Hillary Clinton for that matter.?

Oh, get real, honey. Conservative boys call women crappy names every day of their sad lives, it seems. Let the DittoNazis like Glenn and Fat Rush and friends start being civil. It’s really too bad that conservative women seem to be too lazy and stupid to raise their sons properly. Typical.