Dear CNN:

If you are really so hard up for daytime content, I'll be happy to put a bra on and fire up Skype to comment on the politics of the day -- for HALF of what you're paying Ben Ferguson.

And I can promise you I won't embarrass the network the way he does in this clip, assuming the suits upstairs have any shame at all.

As readers may recall, Rush Limbaugh opened his piehole about Pete Buttigieg this week, claiming in a typically bigoted way that Mayor Pete isn't up to the swinging cod of Donald J. Trump, aka "mister man."

CNN found a way to make it worse by having on Ben Ferguson.

Ferguson is a pro-Trump commentator whose sole purpose in appearing on CNN was to "ask questions" about the voters' need for "manliness" in a candidate.

“I don't understand in what world is the definition of qualification for being president of the United States how manly someone appears,” said Poppy Harlow.

“It seems to me you’re justifying bigotry here,” said Jim Sciutto.

SO WHY HAVE HIM ON, CNN.

Media Matters reports on Ferguson's "background":

CNN’s decision to turn to a straight conservative commentator to discuss Limbaugh’s comments is baffling. Ferguson is a pro-Trump shill who has appeared frequently on CNN as a paid commentator despite his past comments disparaging the network that hired him, including by promoting a bogus claim that CNN scripted a town hall debate about gun violence.

He has a history of explicitly anti-trans comments in cable news appearances and on social media, such as posting a meme that pushed the debunked anti-trans bathroom myth and suggesting that being transgender is not normal and an “attack on the traditional family.” In a 2014 CNN segment, Ferguson claimed that “doctors and science” prove that trans activist, writer, and director Janet Mock was born a man and that she refuses to accept the “facts” about her gender identity.

Maybe rule one on cable news could please be "no bigots." Try it, CNN. I DARE YOU.