Analysts Karen Finney, Jonathan Capehart and Julian Epstein discuss Sarah Palin’s false equivalency of Rush Limbaugh’s “slut” remarks with Bill Maher’s Palin jokes and why the Derrick Bell attacks fail to hold water.
>>> yes, it is friday in the deep south and the republican candidates are rehearsing their grits and gravy act for voters in mississippi and alabama. we'll get to that in just a moment. we must begin with sarah palin 's latest and perhaps greatest performance of diversion, make believe and victimhood on fox news. while she wasn't there to promote "game change" a wither account of her vice presidential candidate . she suggested the president conspires with radical, hates america and wasn't properly vetted. miss palin , it's all yours.
>> thank you gentlemen who are running on the gop ticket staying in there, allowing yourselves to be vetted by the media because they didn't do it when barack obama ran.
>> some speculate that reverend wright is turning off white voters. he's unquestionably worrying super delegates about obama's electability.
>> someone has clipped an abc news report on that tape. it's journalism by white house correspondent from april of 2008 when senator obama was running. a report that came on the heels of another report that focused on the fiery rhetoric of jeremiah wright . the mainstream media did no vetting whatsoever. perhaps ms. palin didn't see those and the hundreds of other reports done by abc, cbs, msnbc, and even fox news. strike one for ms. palin . onto the other reason. the line trotted out by ms. palin is this. bill maher is a horrible man. here is how it works. rush limbaugh characterizes a student as a slut and a prostitute for daring to stand up for a sick friend. there's no condemnation for that attack, no krift schism for rush. there's a defense and it's this, bill maher once called ms. palin a very nasty name.
>> i don't know anyone can sit in the audience and laugh. i think it's disgusting and it's dirty money that he's provided barack obama 's campaign. i don't know how barack obama can sleep at night and if he thinks about his daughters and the treatment of some women today how he can accept that dirty money .
>> for the record, mr. maher does say outrageous things on his late night show. i've been on it. he's a comedian. he's better read than ms. palin . he's never run for office. he knows about domestic and foreign policy , but he's not looking for a cabinet post and he does make donations to political campaigns, but he has no influence and seeks no basic s access and did use a four letter word. why is there such a long line of republicans who keep apairing on his show. people like darrell issa who's very committee deemed her unqualified to speak on the matter. she's a regular guest. i'm beginning to wonder if the only conspiracy here is that of certain congressmen at a timers flailing about trying to find a coherent line of attack. they went for the culture wars in contraception. that didn't work. they love to focus on the economy, but that's improving. they went for gas prices , but people are not stupid and they understand that the administration has very little control over the cost of a gallon. in the absence of creative thought or evidence they went back to the tried and the trusted, insult the president.
>> barack obama has never been, i think seen in the conventional, traditional way of we who describe man of valor.
>> diversion, make believe, victimhood and insults. they think bill maher is a bad guy . joining me now is karen finney, jonathan capehart and julian epstein. good day to all of you. karen , just so that we can understand her argument, ms. palin says that rush limbaugh is a good guy because she was called a four-letter word by bill maher and the president pals around with terrorists and radicals, right?
>> apparently that's her argument. i'm hearing this from women let's not get distracted. this is not just about a couple of words that rush used about sandra fluke. it's about the whole picture he painted of her as a slut/whore/make a vitd owe. it was far more disgusting than just two words. he is a public person . sandra fluke isn't. you can make the argument whether you like what bill maher says you do put yourself out there in a way a private person testifying in congress should not expect to be attacked.
>> yesterday fox news had this conspiracy involving derrick bell . he's passed away and has been raised from the dead by fox news and every aspect of his personal achievement working from difficult circumstances working himself up is completely rubbished. we're supposed to refer to him as a radical, is that right?
>> apparently so. we're talking about derrick bell and the victimhood of sarah palin . we're talking about all of these other issues. the main things the republicans have been running on since 2009 is the economy. the economy is by all measures doing better and could be doing much better three, four months from now and maybe at least the administration is hoping by november. they have to do something, talk about something to gin up some kind of questions in the mind of voters before they go to the polls.
>> they scrape the bottom of the barrel?
>> of course. of course, they do.
>> julian, is anyone thinking clearly about what it means to rally around and protect rush limbaugh ?
>> i think until the republican leadership repudiates, they have to stand for the grand old philistines. let's understand why the analogy to bill maher doesn't make sense. she's not the spiritual leader of the democratic party as rush limbaugh is of the republican party . secondly, many democrats have said that when bill maher has used some of the offensive words that he has crossed the line. third of all, comparing what bill maher 's rift on sarah palin is she is an empty suit when it comes to public policy , and that i think is true and factually based, comparing that to calling a woman a slut because she advocates to contraception policy is like comparing bernie madoff to a shoplifter. the point is that the republican leadership is still yet to repudiate what has to be the number one most disgusting comment made in politics in 2012 .
>> guys, i've got to step up here for the women . it's not just about the comments. it's about this man saying if i'm going to pay for your sex, i want you to video tape it and put it on the web. women feel this very deeply. it's more than just those two words.
>> it was dressing.
>> everybody agrees on that.
>> the most insulting manner.
>> everybody agrees on that.
>> i notice everybody keeps saying the to words.
>> i didn't say anything about this.
>> that's true. karen , this conspiracy theory which is being proposed by several come men at a timers that she was planted by the white house , are they going to say the reason rush limbaugh had a massive assist on his backside is because he was infected by democrats?
>> here is be problem.
>> answer the question. is that cyst caused by democrats?
>> sure. here is the problem republicans are having. women aren't that stupid. they were counting on women being really stupid. this has brought up a whole host of issues that have been going on in this war on women in the last year. it's about the measures that the state legislature that are basically telling women you're idiots and you're too stupid to make any decisions about your own body. the government has to tell you when you've been raped. has to make sure you're not so frivolous with your sexuality that you won't use rape to get an abortion. this kind of conversation coming from rush limbaugh . republicans know, to me this says we're winning this argument. they are trying to change the suggest on two things that are not parallel. this is supposed to be the party of smaller government yet they want to get all up in our uterus uteruses.
Except what Rush was saying was simply, why should we, the taxpayer, have to pay for this woman - or any woman's contraception. Let her pay for it herself. And if she can't afford it...then don't have sex until she can!
That's not the same as these officious religious folks who get jobs as pharmacists and then refuse to do their jobs - fulfilling a woman's contraceptive prescription - because it violates their religious beliefs. In cases of that nature - they shouldn't take that job in the first place. That's not the same as someone who is not religious going to school at a religious institution and expecting them to honor her wishes. In that case, I'd have to side with the institution. If she doesn't want to live by their rules, she shouldn't go to that school.
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