There should be a penalty for Armey's sexist comment to Joan Walsh
By John Amato Sunday Feb 01, 2009 4:00pmHoward Kurtz discussed Dick Armey's disgusting comments toward Joan Walsh and made this observations via CNN.
BLOOM: You have got to be kidding me? That is one of the more sexist remarks I've heard, and I've been debating people on the air for a long time. I mean, do men really all think that women are just dying to be married to them? Do they all think about us as sex objects, or in the case of Dick Armey, I guess, nonsexual objects, if he's imagining being married to her? I mean, does he have no arguments on the merits and that's what he has to resort to?
KURTZ: Well, you know, it was really one step above, "Joan, you ignorant slut." And it bothers me that nobody pays a penalty for this. I'm sure he'll be back on all the shows within a week or two.
He shouldn't be back on the shows. MSNBC has a duty not to invite him back on. Why is that such a hard concept to grasp? Republicans can say absolutely anything on the airwaves (women get the brunt of it) and never have to pay a price for it.
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The Mr and Mrs Potato Head commercial was pretty damn funny.
But Dick Is a Dick.
He can't help it. He was raised that way.
If there were penalties for Republicans making offensive and moronic statements, soon there would be no Republicans left on air.
And?
So?
Impressive. And a little surprising, considering what a DB he usually is.
The wrath of the blogosphere. The new media. Never rest. Apply pressure where necessary.
Don't forget...
Bob Herbert: Dick Armey Owes Joan Walsh and Hardball Viewers an Apology
By Heather Wednesday Jan 28, 2009 8:20pm
Following Dick Armey living up to his first name on Hardball with his sexist remarks to Joan Walsh, Bob Herbert says he owes Joan Walsh and the viewers of Hardball an apology. I agree and if you do as well you can contact the show at: hardball@msnbc.com.
things to be grateful for. I, for one am grateful that I'm not Armey's secret underage boyfriend so I don't have to listen to the insufferable blowhard grunt his way to pleasure. Over the top?
Right on the money.
Free speech only goes so far. There should NOT be Constitutional freedom to spread lies, hate and fear on the air. That is NOT free speech! Yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre is not free speech, so why should anyone be allowed to lie on air?
I remember this jerk from the Terry Schavio business. He said that he had seen her on tv and she looked good and she probably had as much brain function as he did. I thought to myself at the time , hell she probably has more brain function the he does. After her brain dead condition was confirmed I thought that proved my point. She did have more brain function than him. From this report I see nothing has changed
Can you imagine if the other person had been black and he'd said "I'm so glad that you could never be my neighbour because I surely wouldn't have to listen to that shuck and jive from you every day."
It's OK gals, it's why we get paid less, too. No fucking Respect coming from assholes like this guy.
And that "Are we going to talk seriously" as if SHE'D been the one to derail the conversation. Un fucking believable.
i wonder where our canadian friend is. shouldn't he be telling us ms walsh has no right to expect non-discriminatory behavior since women shouldn't really be in the work-place (en masse) anyways?
Is missing a swear word as far as I can tell.
'I'm So Damn Glad You Could Never Be My Wife'
no siree. Nope...I'm changing my handle to 'Prudey McPrudeypants.'
:D
Armey prattled on and Joan did not; he sounded like a paid political hack; she did not; he did not speak seriously; she did. Worst yet, he kept interrupting her when she tried to make her (much more serious) points. Why don't these producers just refuse to have this nincompoop on? Back in the day (OK, when the Fairness Doctrine was in effect), his horrible manner (and manners) would have made him a persona non grata.
And yes to taochiapet, the non-concerned non-Canadian is nowhere to be found. Must be watching the Super Bowl.
I have to agree with Miss Kitty on this one, if Armey had displayed some other type of bigotry, some people would be calling for him to never get to open his gob on MSNBC ever again, and there would maybe even be some people that would do such a number on him that he would be looking for every chance he could get to apologize and try to explain himself (altho, if he is like a lot of the disgraced racists in the media, and I bet he is, he would probably dig himself further in the hole).
And Nicole is right too that this was insulting to ALL women. Personally, I'm guessing that most of the people who are saying this is a tempest in a teacup so to speak, have never been patronized, shushed, ignored, or out right attacked when they have something to say on the basis of their gender alone. A lot of times it seems like there's indeed no recourse, no hope of recourse, and then the only thing you can do is just shut up.
And as someone who *has* had those experiences, I relish the times when someone of the other gender is willing to listen and is genuinely interested in what I have to say, or when someone is belittled for being "just a woman" and the person responsible gets pilloried in disgrace, like they deserve.
My husband recalled a few nights ago that one of the things I mentioned loving about him back when we were dating was that 'he didn't talk to me like I was a girl'. He listened and talked WITH me as if I were just as interesting and had just as much to say as he did. Still together, hehe.
That's wonderful, and it's no wonder you're still together. Hope I find someone like that! :)
And kicked this filthy pig in the balls right on the air.
Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if you were my husband, I'd poison your tea.
Winston Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it.
I like to picture myself as Nancy and Dick Armey as Churchill ... I'd be 'prattling on' at him so much each day, he would regret ever having been born. Guaranteed.
Armey's comment made it clear that he thinks a woman should not even be talking to him much less arguing with him. He was saying women around him are not to ever disagree with him.
[Deleted. Let's not speculate on something that's never been reported. It's bad form. I am deleting all replies to this aside-Sitemonitor]
another simple-minded comment from a simple-minded man that is part of a simple-minded party. I don't know if these Negros and women will ever learn their place type of stuff. These guys are so outdated and stale. I mean come on, who says shit like that. I agree though, these guys should be called out and shamed for saying ignorant stuff like this every time.
It is maddening and illogical but republicans everywhere have immunity from any kind of discipline for anything they say. Democrats however are the "Gay" segment of the political sphere. Catch-all for any and every blame for any and everything because they take it and take it. And try to use pacification to fight "clean" battles against ruthless enemies. (I am Gay, so I know what I am talking about)
So many more offensive things are said on tv all the time. Can we not blow this up into something more than it is just because Mrs. Walsh is a fellow blogger? Frankly if you think it through the only person who should be truly upset would be Dick's wife, to me it sounded like he totally humiliated her.
To be clear, I'm not saying he wasn't offensive, nor insulting to Mrs. Walsh, I'm just saying its not more offensive than almost anything else on TV.
And, since I am a woman and have a dog in this fight so to speak let me just say this.
Let the woman fight her own battles. It is demeaning to a woman (and it should be for anyone) to have other people try to protect them. It is often done with the best of intentions but it takes power away from the woman.
Sexist and ignorant? Yes, Dick Army is. But Joan Walsh already knows this. We all know this.
I may not be saying this right but in these times it is nice to know we can open our own damned doors.
I think I kind of agree with you 100%. I think Joan Walsh can handle herself just fine and if nothing were said about this other than what was said on the the air it would be just fine. Armey ended up looking like the fool he is and everybody was on Joan Walsh's side of this. I sure hope that Tweety never has him on again and if he does he should feel the pain of the blogasphere.
...it's the issue of non-consequences for speech that adds nothing to the discourse and is in fact insulting to ALL women.
Walsh tries to make a cogent point and he belittles her by her gender.
But there's no recourse against Armey...just like there isn't recourse against Savage, Limbaugh, Coulter, et al. if we don't raise a stink and say that we want people who add constructively to the discussion.
And it truly isn't a left v. right thing either. If we had a dismissive, sexist, bigoted idiot on the left who was not helping the discourse, we would get after him too. We weren't exactly kind to Blagojevich, were we?
I agree with your point. Hopefully he will pay some sort of penalty. It is too bad Walsh didn't come right back with a "Since you can't debate the point on the merits your have to try to belittle me because I am a woman but that only makes you look like a dick, Dick".
She had another opportunity when Armey said, "Are we going to talk seriously...." When he was the one who was not able to debate the subject and said something ridiculous.
after some sort of confrontation? I'm great at arguing and smashing people verbally, but I come off of some of those incidents with a 'shoulda said' thought or two. And I'm not arguing on a nationally televised program.
If you look at her reaction, I think you'll see she was utterly shocked at having been spoken to like that. I think that it knocked her off her pins. She could barely get out any criticism of his statement, and she also knew that his bullshit comment vis à vis her was the issue at hand.
Add that to being on teevee, where there are severe time constraints, and there can be an added stress because you're on tee vee, I'd say she did great. She could have also offered to bust a foot off in his ass, but I'm sure there just wasn't the time.
Coming back with a quick good comment is very difficult. It is soooooo much easier after thinking about it for a while. You almost have to have it ready as a "just in case" deal which nobody does. Walsh did well with what she said. In other words I agree with you completely.
I do. I have mental lists of comebacks. And if I keep my cool, I can use them. Otherwise it's all "goddammit and shit I shoulda said" for ages afterward.
:)
I have met maybe 6 men in my long life who admired me for my brain. I was lucky and married one of them.
Go back and read "Gaudy Night" by Dorothy L. Sayers and all will be made clear as to my take on this.
I am not eloquent enough with words to say what I need to say so I will let Harriet Vane speak for me.
There are, unfortunately, very few Lord Peter Wimseys in real life.
"it's the issue of non-consequences for speech that adds nothing to the discourse and is in fact insulting to ALL women."
Who's to judge? I bet I could find people who didn't find it offensive (granted I'd have to go entirely out of the circle of people I know). I'd just as soon as stay away from talk of penalizing people for being offensive and just stick with my method of thinking they're assholes and ignoring them.
Armey is an asshole. He can stay an asshole to everyone in his life.
That does not mean he merits a national platform from which to display his assholiness.
...I'm afraid the 'national platform' you speak of is pretty much made up of assholes. They deliver sensationalist non-contextual misinformation as the norm. I'd focus on penalizing their reportage as harmful to the nation before I worried about penalizing pigs for being pigs.
then an army of people who don't own or edit or write for this blog say "Why don't you put up the Armey/Walsh thing" or "why do you post this shit. People are dying for chrissake."
If you have a different Idea on how a blog should be run, or what a blog should post, Why don't you lead by Example?
I was with you on this post, right until the "the Republicans" comment. Sad fact of life is that ALL commentators on these shows get to come back far too often, regardless of their actual value. The inverse of logic and appropriateness is how return visits are decided: If you're going to increase ratings through any means possible, we'll sign you up. That goes for idiot Republicans and idiot Democrats alike.
in the context of what is being said, the Republicans are almost always the offenders. You don't see to many Democrats on the news shushing women or making racist remarks. Now, in the larger context you are absolutely right. They get a tool from each party to get on there and babble B.S. and no matter how far off the mark and wrong they are, they always show up shortly later shoveling more crap. They should have a three-strike policy or something and start thinning out the herd, but they won't.
Dems, Progressives, minorities and "Libs" for many years. Like Limbaugh who is from Bizarro Planet, the Pugs can never take what they dish out and that's why Dems should always be more aggressive.
You see what being passive got us, Reagan and the Bush Junta.
Dick has the right name anyway, cuz he is.
.... if we saw his nipple?
Matthews makes some of the most gratuitous women as sex objects comments of any host on teevee.
I don't see how he could be taken seriously for upbraiding Armey. Armey was outrageous but coming from Tweety it is Pot calling Kettle.
Let's hope MSNBC steps in and refuses to pay for Armey's appearances.
The difference is that Tweety does it because he likes women not because he wants to put them down or try to act superior.
Give it a rest statement and the chuckling and snickering in the background our Dicks specialty. What a fuckhead.
And the people that agree with him are laughing.
Sad but true.
He has nothing to lose. He no longer is in public life.
Should he be keel hauled for his remark? Absolutely!
But he knew what he was doing. He'll go unscathed for this.
Sad but true. The only thing that can fuck him up is if women across this country get up and call him out on this.
Otherwise, it's yesterdays news.
Sorry ladies, but thems the facts.
And Yes, men should call him out on this too. But women have to lead the way on this one. Otherwise it won't get any traction.
I would think that all the prominent women in this country would be calling him out on this. Hillary , Kay, Condi,and all the rest. Where are they?
Not to mention the First Lady.
And all of the former First Ladies.
All of them
What the hell, he's inarticulate, he can't defend anything and he's a racist, sexist imbecile. In other words, the perfect representative of his party.
I don't understand why we continue to try to bring down the people who continue to help our cause.
Let them survive, nurture them, help them thrive!
Speaketh, Dick. Let your voice be heard by the masses who still believe that the GOP is just misunderstood. Let them understand the GOP, and the Dick Army.
I saw the episode, and even though Joan Walsh voiced her disapproval at the time, Matthews didn't say much at all. In fact, it was a guest in the following segment - perhaps Lawrence O'Donnell - who brought up just how disgraceful his comments were. And Matthews still didn't anything to say.....
[Deleted. What an ironic handle for someone so obviously lodged in the Stone Age, with no indication that you are 'Looking Forward' when you invoke the likes of Patton and the draft dodging hawk, John Wayne-Sitemonitor]
Back in '77 Armey was telling this story about Charlie the Janitor while he was in college at North Texas State:
Charlie was slow/retarded but was a great janitor!The two chatted many times,as Dick became fond of him. When the minimum wage was raised, Dick noticed that Charlie no longer worked at the college. Then one day Dick saw Charlie, his wife and kids in the grocery stoire buying groceries with food stamps!
Talking to Charlie he found out that when the Federal minimum wage was raised, North Texas State couldn't afford to keep Charlie!
Someone did some research at the college and found out:
1- No one named Charlie worked there as a janitor!
2- The college was paying above minmum wage for services like janitors!
Armey shrugged it off, and continued lying about anything he could!
I thought his comments were funny. Kinda like Archie Bunker. You show me one male who doesn't look at someone like say or think Ann Coulter and say I'm glad she's not my wife. Please explain to me how that is different? Now I'm not comparing Joan Walsh to AC but the sentiment is still the same. This political correctness and Kurtz's feigned status as an offended male is laughable. Joan should have just said
"Well I'm glad your not my husband! So tell me if she had said that would she be a sexist?
If Joan had said that in reply to Armey, it would not have been an anti-man comment, it would be an anti-asshole comment. Armey was attacking her as a woman. Big fucking difference.
I'm sorry, but I'm not laughing at this anytime soon. It was completely uncalled for.
I absolutely agree that MSNBC should stop giving this jerk a forum but it won't until he starts hurting the bottom line. If people don't stop watching NOW it won't make a bit of difference. Screw giving them another chance. By doing that they've lost nothing. In fact they've actually gained something based on the old Hollywood adage 'There's no such thing as bad publicity.'
I'm confused. Dick Armey? Isn't that the George Michael Fan Club?
Being a woman, I was as disgusted by this comment as much as the next person. If I had been watching it on TV I would have flipped the channel. As it was, I closed the online clip I was watching in disgust.
However "punishing" him for it by not inviting him back on might be redundant. CNN just lost eyballs because we all know that ad revenues rule right?
Republicans lost voters. Only the most extreme Christian conservative women have the view that their husband should be allowed to talk to them that way, so--as I said before--let him keep talking.
In fact, set him up against more women.
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