Sexist Santorum and Clueless Cupp

I caught the same Santorum headlines as the rest of the world... Rick Santorum making reportedly disparaging (does he make any other kind?) remarks about Sarah Palin and CPAC, and her comeback remarks.

Now, I have never been keen on Rick Santorum. I was unfortunate enough to have him as my Senator, and looked forward with glee to the day I could vote against him. (I hope you Republicans remember that in 2012. This asshole was voted out for good reasons. If you try to run him for the big job, not only will I personally vote against him, I'll get off my lazy ass and work to make sure others do as well.) I consider him arrogant and insufferable, and once blogged that he's a sanctimonious prig.

So when time permitted, I watched the interview with conservative darling S E Cupp to see for myself what he actually said. I intended to eviscerate him verbally (there's some new civility for ya) because... well, because he gave me an excuse. And I just don't like him.

I found a pretty good round-up of the continuing story at Caffeinated Thoughts, which includes Sarah Palin's rather amusing remark: "...I will not call him the knuckle dragging neanderthal that perhaps others would want to call him. I’ll let his wife call him that instead."

The piece ends with this statement:

In all of this I think the true winner is S.E. Cupp who received a lot of publicity for her first radio show.

Ugh. I couldn't possibly disagree more.

Oh, not about the publicity. I'm sure she'll get plenty of that. But, in my humble opinion, Cupp really shit the bed.

I'm no fan or proponent of feminism from a liberal standpoint. I believe I've made that clear enough. But I AM am firm believer in treating everyone equally.

So I was gobsmacked to watch a female journalist nod and grin and bob her little head through the following exchange about CPAC:

SEC - You wouldn't have turned it down.

RS - I wouldn't have turned it down. But you know I don't live in Alaska... and I'm not the mother to all these kids, and I don't have other responsibilities like she has...

SEC - (through RS statement) Yeah. Right. Right. Mm-hmm.

RS - ...and other opportunities that she has to... uh... for... uh... like I said, other business opportunities that may be in conflict with what she was asked to do.

SEC - Right. But I was looking over your schedule... (blah blah blah...) Do you just really like airline peanuts or is there a method to this madness?

Are you shitting me?

A former Senator, Presidential hopeful, pompous ass and FATHER OF SEVEN makes a remark about Sarah Palin being busy because she's "the mother to all these kids" and you let it slide? My personal hypocrisy meter damn near popped a spring, and the silly grin on your face didn't even flicker?

I realize S E is probably no more a feminist than I am. In fact, she once said "taxes affect my day-to-day life a lot more than reproductive rights do". But come on, girl! Were you so eagerly anticipating your little peanut joke that you didn't listen to the man's words?

I watched the clip of their interview expecting to come away pissed at Santorum. That's my usual response when sounds come out of his mouth. But I have to say, I think Cupp was the bigger disappointment. Really -- if a conservative woman can't be counted on to defend the equality of other conservative women, then who can? (Heh. Me, I guess.)

I looked back at other things Cupp has done to get an idea if she has any coherent stance on this topic. I found a clip where she pays very brief lip service to the mistreatment of women during the 2008 campaign... while doing her hair and makeup.



I dunno... I would hope that most conservative women - feminist or not - would disapprove of, nay... be insulted by Santorum's thoughtless and inherently sexist remark. If so, they should by extension be disapproving of and insulted by Cupp's failure to notice it and call him out for it.

I, for one, am less than impressed. Pfffft.