Well, At Least It Had Wi-Fi: Clinton Campaign Sticks Press Corps In The Men's Room

Is the Hillary Clinton campaign staffed with morons or do they just not care anymore? It is unbelievable that on the night before the Texas and Ohio (and Vermont and Rhode Island) primaries they would set up an impromptu press room in a freaking men's bathroom, complete with urinals. Yes. It's true. The WSJ's Jackie Calmes posted an account of the scene last night, including the tidbit that former New Yorker and Talk editor, Diana-tome authoress and journalistic grande dame Tina Brown was stuck "gamely typing away close to a toilet" — and not just any toilet: ETP was able to confirm from someone present that Brown was "literally inches from a urinal." According to the LAT's Andrew Malcolm, many of the press corps had begun their day with Clinton at 5 a.m. in Toledo, Ohio before crossing the country with her to cover her in Austin, Texas. No doubt they were thrilled — especially since they also got to enjoy dinner in the men's room, too. Tamales. Yes, tamales.

Not surprisingly, this juicy (eek, bad choice of word) story has been picked up all over the place, including on CNN's "American Morning" this a.m. (John Roberts seemed to be having fun riffing on possible chyrons for the footage — "leak" from the Clinton campaign etc.) and has been written up by Reuters, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, the Baltimore Sun, and was snapped up by Gawker's early-morning man Ryan Tate at 5:00 am (though the Tina Brown aspect of this item would have been catnip for old-school Gawker audiences, it's interesting to note that it's only gotten a meager 985 pageviews — watch it, Tate, that's a fireable offense!).

Clinton spokesman Doug Hattaway denied that any message was being sent, saying, "These accommodations should in no way be taken as a comment on the quality of our media coverage." Perhaps, but it sent a different message: That whoever was responsible for organizing this particular press filing center was an idiot.

Whatever the message was meant to be, whoever on the campaign knew about this and let it happen had to have known this would get negative attention and make the campaign seem churlish and vengeful. The bathroom in question was located in the Tony Burger Activity Center in Austin, Texas and is described as hosting "basketball, volleyball, drill team, musical events and graduations." Do y'think on the night before a hugely important primary they might've been able to do a little better?



Update: Here's a video of the proceedings, for extra fun:










Reporting from the Men's Room [WSJ]

Hillary Clinton puts the media in its place -- the men's room [LAT]
Scenes from the trail: A creative filing center [CNN Political Ticker]

Comments

[jsinclair]

Wouldn't the women's room have been nicer? What did men do when they had to....go?

That's sort of funny, but also disgusting. Eating in the men's room at a stadium? Yuck.

I'm surprised the Clinton campaign didn't at least apologize.­...try to make it up to them with some fabulous meal...som­ething.

And, really, as much as she whines, I think the TV press, at least, has been handing her completely sympathetic coverage these past weeks--avoiding all the hard questions---no scrutiny at all (her "35 years of experience­"...."fore­ign policy/military accomplish­ments"....­.lobbyists­.....tax return....­.Clinton library donors' list.....B­ill's deal in Kazakhstan--- the press ignores it all, while giving maximum air time to any false or inflamitory thing she says about Obama.

I hope people realize this is how she'll run the country. Not exactly, "bringing people together."

[rwe]

would be a logical place for the MSM .

[3fingerbrown]

Geez, this office stinks, but these big white mints are delicious!

[mrcontinental]

This is the judgement of a future POTUS? I think not.

[SKayum]

Well I can't say I don't think it's hilarious. But really, if they had no other accommodations for the press, couldn't they at least have tried to cover up the urinals?

It will be interesting, however, to see how this latest affront will bandy up the best of the media to try to convince Americans that we should somehow care. Offend the priesthood in charge of the great Oracles that determine our fate? Poor Oedipus had to gouge his eyes out.

[Oldtt]

I think it's pretty unlikely that the Clinton campaign, while crisscrossing the state at breakneck speed, had anything to do with allocating space for the press in this particular location. I realize it makes for a funny story, but let's not get carried away.

[tea in the harbor]

A preview of her ability to bring people together and get a job done, (sorry, I had to go there,) her commitment to open government. On the other hand, late night TV is about to give her a media blitz that money simply could not buy!

[zizyphus]

Why weren't they served hot dogs?

[EspritDeVoltaire]

Isn't this closeted gay Republican territory?

[grannysharp]

Wonder if Hilliary will find her presidential hopes in the same place, now that would be poetic justice.

[roncraw]

I can't think of a better place for them.

[OldBlueDog]

A good place for the press, much of their work in this campaign belongs in the toilet, especially MSNBC.

[BobbyLip]

I couldn't agree more. I particularly like the implication in the press's complaints that they would let the poor accommodations affect the stories they file. Liberal bias rears its ugly head again. They're lucky they're indoors; were I the staffer in charge I would have found an outhouse for them.

[mediamarv]

MSM in the toilet??
Who would have thought!

[TheRagingModerate]

Clinton is getting so few men turning out for her campaign appearances that the mensrooms can be spared and used as Press Rooms?! (Or is just that she doesn't mind inconveniencing her male supporters by denying them equal restroom accommodations?)

I know that the Clinton camp likes to cite her low pull among men as a sign that sexism is still alive and well in American politics, but allow me to give my politically incorrect take on this gender disparity: It's not men who are voting based on their gender, it's women.

Obama is the more appealing candidate -- a once-in-a-lifetime inspirational speaker who promises to revitalize American politics. He seems to genuinely be out to change the political paradigm in this country, in a way that is desparately needed. It's not just his lofty oratory, it's also his substantive approach: He takes the high road almost every time. Yes, Hillary has been doing a fairly good job at this too as of late, but it is clearly Obama who set this tone and who lives up to it more consistently. Obama embraces nuance and refuses to talk down to voters -- he doesn't treat us like we're all morons. Yes, Hillary is certainly smart enough and wonky enough, but at times she still shows an old-school politics inclination to rely on meaningless catchphrases (which have changed every few weeks, depending on how effective they were) and to play the "gotcha" game with her opponents using soundbytes. Listen, Hillary Clinton is extremely smart and capable and would make a very good candidate in any other election, but she is out of her element running against this guy, and I just don't buy that she would have nearly the same level of support if it weren't for her gender. I mean jeez, she even plays up the gender angle at every chance. Even her new "3am" ad has a "motherly" angle to it, showing mommy checking in on her darling children in the middle of the night. And the crying -- she drove up her last minute support among older women by getting teary-eyed the night before the NH primary, so she tried it again the night before Super Tuesday. There are numerous other examples too. And you know, I don't mind that she uses her gender, but I REALLY DO MIND when she and her supporters cast her as the victim of gender politics. That's simply wrong -- if anything, she has benefited from gender politics in this race.

If both of these candidates were white men (that is, if you take both gender and race out of it), it would be a blowout in favor of the brilliant and trustworthy new guy with the inspiring speeches over the brilliant and extremely compentent party-stalwart with 35 years in politics and a mediocre portfolio of accomplishments.

[rinpochet]

It is also true that if she were not married to Bill Clinton, she would not have become Senator for New York and would not be running as a candidate in the presidential race. She has never been a very good candidate as was shown in New York. She won but over a Republican who had absolutely no chance. And even then, she only got 55% of the vote! She has resorted to slime tactics to win this and it won't work this time. She is just destroying any chance of her doing anything in the Senate. Actually I doubt that she will win next time she runs.

I want a woman president, but not this woman.

[toocents]

ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[MelindaPost]

Actually her Senate colleagues think that if she doesn't win this, she should be in line for majority leader because she is a very hard worker & is well respected.­.....

[abbiehoffmansghost]

Now that's putting them to work: they don't even have to get up to do their business. Corporate America, pay attention.