A Bad Word — When Democrats Use It
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Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, in a private meeting last August, referred to liberal opponents of President Obama's health-care plan as "[bad word] retarded."
Well, Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, failed vice-presidential candidate and soon-to-be Fox News commentator, wasn't going to take that lying down, you betcha. Palin (who, you might remember, has a son with Down syndrome), quickly leapt to her recent political forum of choice, i.e., her Facebook page, to call for Emanuel's resignation immediately, if not sooner.
"I would ask the president to show decency in this process by -eliminating one member of that inner circle, Mr. Rahm Emanuel, and not allow Rahm's continued indecent tactics to cloud efforts," Palin wrote.
Emanuel apologized for his -comment, but that wasn't enough for Palin, who wrote: "Just as we'd be appalled if any public figure of Rahm's stature ever used the 'N-word' or other such inappropriate language, Rahm's slur on all God's children with cognitive and developmental disabilities - and the people who love them - is unacceptable, and it's heartbreaking."
Doggone right. I'm glad to see that Gov. Palin is taking a stand against the use of the word "retarded" to describe liberals. I look forward to her demand for the immediate firing of conservative radio host Michael Savage, who is constantly referring on his show to "liberal retards."
I also look forward to her calling for the immediate banning from the airwaves of conservative pundit Ann Coulter, who once wrote of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "Is no one going to remark on what a great country it is where a mentally retarded woman can become speaker of the House?"
Coulter is actually pretty fond of using the word; she referred to talk show host Bill Maher's audience as "MoveOn retards." And in an interview on Fox News' Sean Hannity program, she referred to former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan as "retarded." "It's not offensive, it's accurate," Coulter insisted when challenged on it by allegedly liberal co-host Alan Colmes.
Hannity, it should be noted, never said a mumblin' word. So maybe Ms. Palin should be calling for his resignation, too.
Then there's bowtied Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, who's referred to Canada as "America's retarded cousin" not once, but twice. There's also frequently utilized wingnut talking head Dick Morris, who, after he got fired from the Clinton administration for letting hookers listen in on his phone calls to the White House, became the go-to guy for anyone who wanted a sound bite bashing the Clintons, Barack Obama or any Democrat.
Morris, on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor," criticized Obama's stimulus package by saying: "What he didn't quite explain to me - and maybe I'm a little retarded about this - is how are you going to get banks to give people car loans when the government is elbowing them aside?"
I'm sure Gov. Palin missed that slur, but now that it's been called to her attention, I'm sure she'll be -calling for Dick Morris to be banned from Fox. It's going to get pretty lonely on that channel, but it's a small price to pay to defend against those who slur "God's children with cognitive and developmental disabilities."
While we're at it, I look forward to Ms. Palin expressing her outrage at every conservative blogger who's ever used the word "libtard" (a combination of the words "liberal" and "retard") to describe anyone to the left of themselves. A quick Google search of the Republican Web site "Redstate" for the word "libtard" turned up six long pages of hits.
And on Facebook, where the Resigning Woman is so fond of holding court, there are groups called "Al Gore is Retarded," "Liberals are Retarded," "Hollywood Is Full of Retarded Liberals," etc. Fortunately, since there's an easy way to ask for the administrators of Facebook to remove offensive groups, she can take a stand right away. There are only about 500 Facebook groups that use the word "retarded" in their names, so it shouldn't take more than a week or so.
If she's going to go after everyone who ever referred to liberals as "retarded," Ms. Palin had better get busy. But I know she will. Because if she's only upset by the use of the word "retarded" when a Democrat uses it, her outrage might seem, shall we say, a bit selective, even a bit hypocritical. And we know she's not a hypocrite, right?
Right?
Dusty Rhoades lives, writes and practices law in Carthage. Contact him at dustyr@nc.rr.com.
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Comments
Behan 3 years, 3 months ago
Bottom line: our tax dollars pay Rahm Emanuel's salary, and we demand better from our employees.
danielle 3 years, 3 months ago
It's not just about our tax dollars. Saying a bad word (in private might I add) is not abusing our tax dollars. Don't even use that excuse.
This woman is misleading people into believing that our tax dollars are going to someone who hates "God's" children. This is simply not true.
Why should our televisions be bombarded with this hypocritical, misleading, media-whore (media-whore in the sense that she loves attention, please take that the wrong way too) while she tells lies and calls for resignations from people who are actually doing something productive?
Who is she to discredit our president by saying that his advisors used a mean word during a private meeting?? I mean seriously, she couldn't find a better way to spend her time on FOX? She has to complain about everything, and when given the right opportunity, she does. Seriously, how many Republicans and Tea Partiers use words a lot worse than "retarded" and in public?
I don't like Rahm Emanual personally. But Rahm was only using the word to describe a stupidity that lies within a sector of people. I don't agree with his statement, but I am not failing to see that his use of the word "retarded" wasn't to be offensive to "God's children...," it was merely an opinion of his.
Also, if you demand better from your tax-paid employees, ask Alaskans about the "great job" that Sarah Palin did up in the colder north. I bet they'd rather have a government employee who uses bad words rather than someone who does a bad job.
Behan 3 years, 3 months ago
What a disjointed, illogical argument. Dusty would be proud!
My tax dollars do not pay Sarah Palin's salary. She owes neither you nor I an explanation for her comments or behavior. I'm not really sure why anyone cares what she says or does--but the uber-left seems to get their collective panties in a bunch anytime she opens her mouth, and that does give me a warm, fuzzy feeling.
She and the rest of the big bad Fox Network answer to their boss. If he has issue with her comments, he can fire her. And he will fire her if her comments are so off base that people stop watching Fox. Unfortunately for the left, Fox gets bigger and bigger every time President Obama opens his mouth and spews forth something which is either asinine or blatantly untrue.
Rahm, on the other hand, works for me, as does his boss (although he has seem to forgotten that). Perhaps my standards are higher than most on the left--heck, I know they are, but let's just call that an "opinion" of mine--but I find his behavior (and not just this most recent incident) unacceptable.
jimdunn 3 years, 3 months ago
First of all, retarded is NOT a bad word. The word, retarded, is used, clinically to describe people of cognitive disabilities. I drove a handicapped bus to pay my way through university and the world retarded was used often, specifically TMR or Trainable Mentally Retarded. The word, retarded, when used in the context of an insult is rude but is not in the same league and the "N" word... not even close. BTW, black people ARE NOT "N's," but retarded people ARE retarded.
So Ms. Palin, take a step back and think before you react.
Theris 3 years, 3 months ago
I wholly agree, Behan! Our elected officials and those they hire should be held to higher standards.
Speaking of which, for the life of me, I can't find any comments by you anywhere calling for Cheney's impeachment 6 years ago when he told Sen. Patrick Leahy "f--k you," and when asked about it by a Fox News reporters, replied that he "felt better after [he] said it." http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/24/cheney.leahy/index.html
Weird, huh? It's almost like you're doing the same thing Sarah Palin is, and only holding these high moral values when it comes to the other side. Couldn't be, though - I'm sure you were up in arms, right?
sage 3 years, 3 months ago
sounds like a whole bunch of do what i say and not as i do.name calling by any stretch looks bad on one's self.sarah does't have to show us how smart she is-she's doing a Great Job of showing us how gullible her fans are.she and Limbo were *cut from the same cloth.
Behan 3 years, 3 months ago
Dear Theris, I agree. Dick Cheney should be forced to resign over his comments. Oh wait, he is ALREADY OUT OF OFFICE.
Typical lefty lame excuse. "Well, your guy did it, so it can't be wrong if our guy did it!"
I believed (and still do) that Dick Cheney was wrong for his comments (even though he did not single out a particular group of protected citizens), and thought he should resign over those comments (as well as many other misdeeds).
The problem we are faced with now is that Dick Cheney is not in office NOW. I can only deal with the shmucks we have in office NOW. You can biatch and groan about Bush and Cheney but it does not fix the problems that we have NOW. Are you tracking, or should I start blaming the original Obama (AKA Jimmy Carter) for all the ills of society?
Phojo6 3 years, 3 months ago
Ironically, wannabe Palin fits this very description. This deadhead is hardly worthy of any comment; I doubt that she could win a city council seat in any major American locale.
blutimus 3 years, 3 months ago
Behan, C'mon Man! She wants us to believe she objects to the use of that word on some moral grounds that it is demeaning to the afflicted but she rubs elbows on a daily basis with people who throw that word around like it was nothing. Where's the moral outrage with them? Ideals shouldn't be held up only when convenient or they gain you some political points. Even if she never called for the resignation of any of the listed offenders, has she ever rebuked a single one of them for thier frequent use of that word?
You guys need to wake up and see that Palin is a political opportunist and her agenda is to make as big a name for herself as possible and get filthy rich doing it...she's not really on your side.
Louise 3 years, 3 months ago
Actually I think Sarah Palin is cognitively disabled, mentally challenged, developmentally delayed, and intellectually inferior, and all of the above words were used to OFFEND her by the way. Guess, now we better start referring to them as the "cd" "mc" "dd" and ""ii" words, why should the "r" word be all alone. :P
AllNatural 3 years, 3 months ago
I can't understand for the life of me why ANYBODY listens to Sara Palin...
commonsense77 3 years, 3 months ago
According to the North Carolina Secretary of State, NC has 30 organizations that use the word retarded? Does Sarah Palin want them all to quit doing the work they do for citizens who need help because they used a word she doesn't like in their name?