David Shuster and Katie Couric have opened windows on Hillary Clinton's character and the view is not pretty.
By speaking on cable television in the way that everyone regularly speaks on the Internet, Shuster gave us a preview of speech control in Hillaryland, where no one can take a joke and everyone is supposed to speak as if they were writing a politically correct official report.
The Clinton campaign could have laughed or brushed aside the comment as being incomprehensible. Instead they reacted by first calling it "beneath contempt," and then by a prissy, censorious letter from Clinton worthy of school head Joan Cusack in School of Rock:
"
I know that I am a public figure and that my daughter is playing a public role in my campaign," she wrote. "I am accustomed to criticism, certainly from MSNBC. I know that it goes with the territory.
"However, I became Chelsea's mother long before I ran for any office and I will always be a mom first and a public official second."Nothing justifies the kind of debasing language that David Shuster used and no temporary suspension or half-hearted apology is sufficient.
"I would urge you to look at the pattern of behavior on your network that seems to repeatedly lead to this sort of degrading language.
"There's a lot at stake for our country in this election. Surely, you can do your jobs as journalists and commentators and still keep the discourse civil and appropriate."
Can Captain Renault be far behind? What exactly was Shuster's offense? Using the work "pimp" in a non-sexual connotation? Criticizing the Clinton campaign's use of Chelsea? I realize the language is unusual for television, but it is mild for the Internet and certainly far milder than a lot of what Chelsea Clinton has heard, probably at home. I'm thinking this also has something to do with the hard time Chris Matthews gave Bill over Monica.
And who appointed Clinton language czar? Does she plan to police cable television language from the White House, sort of like Harry Truman threatening accurate reviewers of his daughter's singing?
By asking Hillary on 60 Minutes about being known as Miss Frigidaire in high school, Couric brought out more of the real Hillary:
COURIC: Someone told me your nickname in school was Miss Frigidaire. Is that true?"
CLINTON: Only with some boys," Clinton said, laughing.COURIC: I don't know if I want to hear the back story on that!
CLINTON: Well, you wouldn't want to know the boys either.
(Apparently, the real story, as reported by Carl Bernstein, is that Hillary's high school yearbook predicted she would become a nun, and would be known as Sister Frigidaire.)
I am guessing the "some boys" that Clinton thinks Couric would not want to know were normal intelligent people who had a sense of humor and had spotted someone who did not. I don't remember too many low-lifes working for our high school yearbook.
Which is more scary: Clinton attacking Shuster as a cynical political move, sort of David Shuster as Sister Souljah, or Clinton thinking that Chelsea really needed protection? If it is the latter, we need an intervention. This is a 28 year old graduate of Stanford and Oxford who works for a hedge fund. "Pimp" is mild.
Either Chelsea is a political actor or she is not. If she can give speeches on her own and can call superdelegates, she is fair game, period.
This controlling humorlessness is nothing new. In 1996, Don Imus made a speech to the Radio and Television Correspondents' Dinner that started out with a joke about the unlikely saga of Hillary's newly found billing records ("This is kind of interesting, these don't appear to be my notes") and proceeded to make fun of Whitewater and Bill's philandering.
The Clintons, who were in the dais, could have laughed and no one would have known about the speech except the three shut-ins watching CSPAN. Instead they sat there stony-faced and then asked CSPAN not to repeat the speech as scheduled.
Of course, they got the last laugh as Media Matters, the paramilitary arm of the Clinton family, broke the story of Imus' Rutgers remarks and eliminated another Hillary critic. As others warned, Imus' firing, although certainly justified by his incredibly racist and sexist comments, opened the sluice gates for the thought and language police to demand the head of anyone whose comments had not been properly filtered by their brain.
Hillary's propensity to seek control over everyone else is plain scary. Who could want to live in the nanny state she obviously relishes? Better she should worry about what made her vote for the Iraq war.
We need robustly free speech, not cowed speakers. This means that people, even good people, sometimes will say offensive things. Instead of those with every ability to answer back being offended by language and trying to silence others, we would be a lot better off if they would debate the underlying ideas.
If you scroll down, I guarantee you will find me, and probably my mother (who came up with the Harry Truman reference), being called much worse than a pimp. "No half hearted apology is sufficient." How insufferable.
Note: the last two lines from the Couric interview are not in the official CBS transcript. Preemptive editing?
Follow Stephen Kaus on Twitter: www.twitter.com/stephenkaus
i was looking for a way to describe her aloof demeanor & this is definitely succintcly suitable. think i'll make some bumper-stickers.
How long do you think Shuster would have kept his job? Why are Obama's daughters, who were obviously decorating the stage to promote their dad, sacred, while Chelsea is subject to degrading comments?
It is extremely common for adult children of politicians to 'stump' for their parents. Chelsea Clinton is following a tradition, not doing anything weird or new.
Perhaps, Stephen Kaus, your background as a lawyer has made you keenly aware of the fine distinctions between legal and illegal, but maybe you've forgotten or have never known the difference between civil discourse and contemptuous base born slander.
let's fire the entire media for inappropriate comments. hey, let's all move to Russia!
As an aging working white woman who supports my family because my husband is ill, who worried about missing work recently because he had surgery, David Schuster can say anything he wants about me if I can have Chelsea's freedom, money, privilege and power.
Mrs. Clinton hasn't a clue what affects my life but the phrase "pimped out" applied to me or anyone else in the context of the remarks on MSNB", is nowhere on my list of concerns. And I think anyone who can be concerned about such things not only has not sense of humor but also needs to learn a bit about how most of us live.
Lookong foward to your nest article.
The price of freedom is offense.
-Benjamin Franklin
I remeber when my daughter was in high school.
I also know that even though my daughter is a grown woman, if some moron on TV put her name and the word Pimp in the same sentence I would be pissed.
Just because you and MSNBC hate Hillary does not mean that you can use that kind of language when reffering to her child.
There have never been any sordid stories about Chelsea.
The Bush twins however...
Notice how other candidates have their children campaigning for them, but no one talks about it in a sexual way? Pimping implies the lack of choice for the one being pimped, and abuse on the part of the pimp. Notice how it was ONLY used in the case of Clinton?
So, it seems to me that Clinton was RIGHT to be angry, since it was an obvious singling out of her campaign, which was doing the EXACT SAME THING as the other campaigns but HER child was being slurred for it.
Kinda like if I suggest you go [expletive**] yourself? Y'know... "in a non-sexual connotation"?
If you're going to contort yourself like that in a lame attempt to suggest that the implicit meaning of "pimp" isn't universally understood (screw your disingenuous, tragically-hip filter), be sure to have an attending orthopedic surgeon on hand... just in case you get stuck in an awkward position.
** I had to CENSOR MYSELF to get this posted (the full-frontal version was canned) and YOU whine about "preemptive editing"? What "insufferable" hypocrisy.
GET A CLUE, PEOPLE!!! Hope is a nice sentiment but won't solve any problems...
women are not weak individuals in need of defense, and, humor can diffuse any situation. Ergo, Hillary Clinton is a strong woman, and humor could have saved her some trouble.
This society has no time to waste on single words.Chelsea Clinton is not a Damsel in any kind of distress, Her mother is a politician by choice. No one is enslaving anyone here. But the public is held hostage by the electoral process.
No matter who used what word, the result is a reaction which needs to be examined as a precursor to the political relations to come. Would there be reactionary retaliations in the future of foreign affairs?
Would one popular group be favored over another? We are locked in a color to gender code. Should the country wait one more term before setting sights on feminine power?. A few more options and names added to the roster for good measure.
Hillary is a successful mother, of a successful daughter, so why do we fear the undercurrent? What do we see in the set of the jaw and the glint of that eye? We need to detect the cold drafts before we all suffer from frosbite.
Rove has prevailed. He altered the window dressing by co-opting and flattering the young and the blacks. They are hysterical with joy, actually believing thier ship is going to come in. With help of corporate America and the MSM media, the GOP has hand picked the Democratic nominee and stolen the election. Cha-ching!
The Rovian message is the same as it was: the rich get rich, and the poor get porked. More money gets made than ever before. America is in for the worst ride it has ever taken, Bush's legacy intact.