skippy the bush kangaroo: two poles work into a bar

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

two poles work into a bar

the palmetto scoop has been all over joe "dead intern" scarborough's remark about fred thompson's wife "working the pole" like a...well, like a stripper on a pole:

it appears that our 30 second clip of msnbc’s joe scarborough asking if mrs. thompson “works the pole” has been popping-up all over the blogosphere in the last 24 hours. as of 10 a.m., the video had nearly 15,000 views on youtube, and at least as many opinions.

a number of people, including a scarborough spokesman, have said our clip was taken “out of context.” the problem for msnbc is that context is irrelevant. any way you spin this comment, joe scarborough still comes off as vulgar and entirely out of line. there is no context in which to place that comment that makes him look like anything other than a fool.

palmetto scoop finds various expressions of outrage from both right and left blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase, as well as this piece from usatoady which finds what little context there was to mitigate scarborough's remark:

the conservative captain's quarters is on the story too, and appears to have picked up on the sequence of events that msnbc says put scarborough's remark in context -- though captain's quarters' ed morrissey says it still doesn't excuse scarborough completely.

he reports that one of his commenters says "the segment started off with the traffic and weather reporter, tracy, talking about how she 'works the pole' for exercise to stay in shape. that topic continued for some time, and then craig crawford (contributing editor at cq) came on, which is when scarborough made this comment." (the banter: scarborough asks crawford, "have you seen fred thompson's wife?" crawford: "oh yeah." scarborough: "you think she works the pole?")

msnbc spokesman jeremy gaines says that pretty much explains what happened. "a female triathlete had been discussing her exercise routine with joe," he said, and that routine includes a stripper's pole. "that is the context in which the issue was discussed. to suggest otherwise is irresponsible." when asked whether jeri kehn thompson is owed an apology, gaines declined to comment further.

now, we love it when the right eats their own, and we certainly don't mean to diminish the lack of decorum that joe displayed (tho not as indecorous as when he lied about the health of the staffer found dead in his office while he was a florida congressman).

but where was the outrage from all these conservative blogs when limbaugh had his "imus moment" with "barak that magic negro"?

Labels: fred thompson, multi-millionaire media, prez campaign