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The Spectacle Blog
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is in the news today calling for the firing of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel because he is said to have described a strategy by various left-wing Obama supporters as “f….ng retarded.”
Governor Palin, of course, has a special needs child, Trig. The White House has told Politico.com that Emanuel called Special Olympics CEO Tim Shriver to apologize.
So the question here is: where is Maria Shriver?
Ms. Shriver has made a point of going public on this matter in the past. Specifically, on August 22, 2008, writing in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times as First Lady of California, and “as the niece of someone who had a developmental disability, and as a member of the board of directors of Special Olympics International” Shriver was quite outspoken on the subject. At the time she was disgusted by the movie Tropic Thunder, in which actor Robert Downey, Jr. used the term to castigate another character played by Ben Stiller.
Said she: “There is an old saying: ‘Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me.’ Even when I chanted it as a child, I never believed it. Words do hurt — they break people’s spirits, they break people’s dreams, they break people’s hearts.”
Next, President Obama went on The Tonight Show when Jay Leno was still hosting and compared his bowling skills to those of a Special Olympics athlete. The California First Lady’s office promptly issued a statement saying the President’s joke “hurts millions of people throughout the world.” Obama, like Rahm, called Tim Shriver to apologize.
Palin is calling for Emanuel’s head, comparing the “R” word to the “N” word, pointing out correctly that no White House chief of staff would dare to use the “N” word and think himself still safe in the job.
This time, Ms. Shriver has fallen silent. Is it because Sarah Palin is talking about this?
View all comments (33) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Jeffrey Lord
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/02/02/maria-shriver-silent-on-rahm-b
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gearjammer| 2.2.10 @ 5:14PM
Ms. Shriver is a two faced witch that I have never taken. Unfortunately, too many others over the years have been other her spell and so too with the rest of the Kennedy clan. What with Brown's winning the Kennedy seat and Caroline being laughed out of the race in New York for Senate, there is evidence finally their reign as our royal family is over, but the national media is slavishly devoted to them. So, as long as the same type of person controls our biggest media and publicity machines the Kennedy saga and Beatlemania will be constant stories and themes for a long, long time. Even with their crappy ratings a lot of people still tune in and buy into their view and take on all things. Defeating Brown next time around is vital to the liberal power players. The pressure on Joe Kennedy to run will be enormous. If Brown beats him next time, it really could be the end of the Kennedy dynasty .
Missy| 2.3.10 @ 12:36AM
Libs are loyal to their own--Shriver's no different.
We could use a little more loyalty toward our own conservatives, too--it'd be nice for a change.
Alan Brooks| 2.3.10 @ 7:49AM
Retardgate is the silliest scandal ever; it makes the Lewinsky scandal seem like MacBeth.
Roy| 2.2.10 @ 5:26PM
Oh, for pete's sake..you have GOT to be kidding me..
Nice as it is to see liberals hoist with their own PC petard..
I dunno. W/E. If using "retarded" as an insult is now taboo, fine. Manners change. But the idea that she's calling for Emmanuel's head because he used a word, in private, that every elementary school kid on every campus in every city in every state in the good ol' USA uses on every single ever-loving blue-eyed day radically diminishes my respect for Palin.
ds80| 2.2.10 @ 5:37PM
Sorry, Roy, but *you* are part of the problem: still wanting to give Libs a pass for everything they call Republicans and conservatives on the carpet for.
Alan Brooks| 2.2.10 @ 8:04PM
The whole thing is BABYISH, not retarded.
A Balrog of Morgoth| 2.2.10 @ 6:10PM
Sarah Palin takes another opportunity to poke her thumb in the eye of liberal hypocrites, and somehow that makes her radically less worthy of respect?
SoCon| 2.3.10 @ 12:48AM
Do you have children, Lib Reader? Maybe you'd understand and sympathize with Sarah a little more if YOUR child had Down's Syndrome.
This is personal for Palin and, frankly, I admire her for her courage and stalwart defense of her young son.
Emanuel's a nasty little boor; he deserved it.
Liberal Reader| 2.2.10 @ 6:12PM
Mr Lord,
Honestly I can't really see this issue as all that important during a time in which 17 million Americans can't find work and the country has soldiers deployed in harms way all over the world. The Congress can't seriously discuss entitlements or indeed do anything at all, because as a nation we've stopped being capable of self-governemnt. Our popular culture is a depressing and stupid as our political culture, and while a few on the right are having fun with Tea Parties, no serious political movement is rising among the people to address seriously and with adult attention and respect the enormous problems facing this country.
I find your pieces insightful and informative, and so I'm inclined to think more deeply about why Sarah Palin's face book pronouncement might be interesting to you.
Perhaps it's because people on the Left often do this sort of thing: they seize on some scrap of inadvertant or even advertant language that someone, somewhere will find offensive, and they use it to proclaim the speaker an intolerant bigot. I hate it when the Left does this, and I was probably one of the six Democrats on earth who thought we should just let the Maccacca thing slide by in silence.
What a trivial, stupid, empty, shallow national debate we carry on!
Who gives a damn about Rahm Emmanuel? And honestly, who really gives a damn what Sarah Palin thinks?
Does anyone really imagine the president is looking to face book for serious recommendations on staffing decisions?
This all seems pretty weak stuff to me, but I've been wrong before.
Alan Brooks| 2.2.10 @ 8:07PM
"What a trivial, stupid, empty, shallow national debate we carry on!"
For once we agree 100 percent, the GOP must be almost desperate.
BTW, I am voting for Obama in '12. At least HE is not that petty.
JimE| 2.2.10 @ 10:06PM
lb,
shut up you f**kin retard.
S.| 2.2.10 @ 6:56PM
I don't see why Maria Shriver needs to chime in. What is left to say?
Smiley| 2.2.10 @ 7:20PM
Whoa! I'm the right, but the please don't equate interest in the Beatles with interest in the phony Kennedy clan.
Pete| 2.2.10 @ 7:22PM
Roy,
In your tizzy fit, it's obvious you will never be able to father a child boinkin anothers posterior as "some" men do. Having to raise a "needed" child will never be on your resume. STFU!
Ken (Old Texican)| 2.2.10 @ 7:28PM
Liberal Reader
That was probably the finest, most thoughtful post you have ever made here at AM SPEC.
I have copy pasted it to my docs so we can pursue it further. The blogs and comments only last a day so maybe we can look into it under a primary article heading.
It is late in the day, but I will offer a couple of thoughts, just to get your thoughts percolating. Hopefully you will see them before the blog is deleted.
First, I truly believe Rahm is a nasty communist man.
Facebook? Sarah turned the health "reform" act on its ear with one facebook comment. (death panel comment). Please do not underestimate facebook.....or Sarah.
Third...to answer your question, well over a hundred million of us "gun toting voters" seriously listen to Sarah. We can vote with our votes, with our feet, and with our guns...whether you like it or not. Sorry, but we will put our lives on the line for the things Sarah believes in with us.
(copy pasting now...stay tuned.)
Pete| 2.2.10 @ 7:29PM
Sorry "Men," I should have said "faggot!"
The Real Story| 2.2.10 @ 7:30PM
I would say that Maria Shriver has done more than any other First Lady to help provide employment opportunities for persons with developmental disabilities. Go read about her WE Include program. It's made a difference in so many lives and changed people's minds. Maybe we could let her focus on this work rather than asking her respond to every ignorant statement that comes out of someone's mouth?
CalDem| 2.2.10 @ 7:55PM
Cut Maria Shriver some slack! I know people who have participated in her Best Buddies bike ride and were forever changed by the experience. She spends an entire weekend biking and raising money to support children with disabilities and seems to be truly passionate about it. Just because she does not partake in every disability related squabble doesn't mean she isn't doing her part.
C.A.| 2.2.10 @ 8:02PM
Maria Shriver has been an incredible and inspiring advocate for people with intellectual disabilities for her entire life. As First Lady, her WE Include program has positively changed the lives of these individuals as well as their families, friends and community by offering them the opportunity of a lifetime - the chance to work, to feel empowered, to have a job like any other person in their community. Her work speaks for itself.
JimE| 2.2.10 @ 10:06PM
bOGUS ROBO POST!
T.| 2.2.10 @ 8:20PM
Through Maria Shriver's WE Include program, my office has had the pleasure of employing a young man with developmental disabilities for the past year. He is the heart and soul of our office and he puts a smile on all of our faces whenever he is around. He completes tasks ranging from deliveries, consolidating recycling, assembling folders, creating binders, watering plants -- there has never been a day at our office when we haven’t seen a huge smile on his face, he is always happy to be here! This year he even went shopping for and provided his family with their Thanksgiving meal! It was been truly a pleasure to watch him grow during his time at our office. Having him here helps all of us learn and understand what an asset people in the developmental and intellectually disabled community are. Without Maria's leadership on the WE Include program, I know we never would have been able to make this connection. I am so grateful that we are able include someone with developmental disabilities in our office structure.
JimE| 2.2.10 @ 10:07PM
ROBOPOST!
Yosemeti Sam| 2.3.10 @ 12:58AM
Goes to demonstrate that PC is a uni-directional umbrage card for Progressives.
DLB| 2.3.10 @ 7:03AM
It's a pity that our language does not permit a clear distinction between the developmentally disabled and the willfully stupid.
Becky| 2.3.10 @ 8:25AM
I am someone with a Down syndrome relative. I find the extreme sensitivity to the use of retarded tiring also. I believe that in order to try to counter the negativity of the word retarded, mentally disabled is now favored with the acknowledgment that it too will become derogatory
When I was growing up we used queer and fag or faggot in school, now we are told we cannot use the word gay in a negative way, even though before homosexuals adopted it as an adjective it wasn't viewed negatively.
I think Palin would have done more damage to the Democrats to simply agree with Rahm, in that it appears that party lacks the capacity to do the wide sweeping centralized control they wish.
Clearly, I understood that Rahm was insulting the Democrats and not Sarah Palin's son. Most causes of retardation is the assault of the fetus by toxins like alcohol, not congenital, so the assault of toxic Pelosi , Reid, et. al., may have retarded the new cells of Dems brains. Maybe they really are retarded and we don't want to believe it.
Deborah D | 2.3.10 @ 9:45AM
Political correctness is an invention of Marxists. Just another way of criticizing everything (Critical Theory) as a way to tear down the culture and society as a whole.
While I love it when the left gets smacked down with their own invention, and if anyone has a reason to smack them (actually has a number of reasons), Sarah Palin does, the right (and middle and normal Dems) should fight political correctness with their whole being.
I think Sarah should be cut a little slack if her first inclination is to hit one of theirs. Perhaps next time she should end her smackdown with words such as these: "Hey liberals (progressives, socialists, statists --- whatever they're calling themselves these days) how does it feel to make an innocent mistake in word choice and then all of a sudden think your job might be in jeopardy?Well, welcome to our world. We're not letting you get away with it until you stop your ridiculous attacks on us."
Then perhaps she could go into the history of political correctness (look up the Franklin School.)
astorian| 2.3.10 @ 10:08AM
One quick nitpick: in “Tropic Thunder,” Robert Downey Jr. did NOT use “retard” as an insult, nor did he call Ben Stiller “a retard,” nor did he mock the mentally challenged. Rather, he had a hilarious (and on the money) conversation with Stiller about the patronizing way Hollywood likes to honor actors who play mentally handicapped characters.
Downey plays a Stanislavsky Method actor who goes to ridiculous lengths to “become” every character he plays. Stiller plays a Stallone-esque action star who tried to change his image and wow the Academy by playing a mentally retarded character in a tearjerker called “Simple Jack.”
Look at the record: Tom Hanks won an Oscar for “Forrest Gump,” Dustin Hoffman won an Oscar for “Rain Man,” Geoffrey Rush won an Oscar for “Shine,” John Mills won an Oscar for “Ryan’s Daughter,” Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for “My Left Foot,” Al Pacino won an Oscar for “Scent of a Woman,” and so on. Playing a mentally or physically handicapped person has long been a great way to get an Academy Award. Even if the movie is terrible, you’re liable to get a Best Actor nomination (think of Sean Penn in the awful “I Am Sam”).
“Tropic Thunder” wasn’t making fun of sick people, it was making fun of clueless actors and movie studios who milk mental illness for pathos and awards.
Quin| 2.3.10 @ 10:53AM
This whole controversy is stupid. Utterly stupid. Why is Sarah Palin joining the PC police?
.... oops, did I just offend stupid people?
Rahm Emanuel is a wannabe bully and a first-class jerk. But this statement is the least of his offenses. In fact, of the two-word descriptor that he used, "retarded" is the less offensive of the two.
kingsmill| 2.3.10 @ 2:06PM
Palin isn't helping herself. The more I see her on Fox News I move closer to Charles Krauthammer's view of her.
Missy| 2.3.10 @ 3:22PM
I'm glad Palin smacked the little Marxist ballerina a good one. Pile on while the dummocrats are down!!
Hoist upon their own petard and all that nonsense; let's see how the losers like having their own Politically Correct BS thrown back in their faces.
Good political street-brawl theater. As "The Simpsons" Nelson says, "HA HA!!"
Margie| 2.3.10 @ 4:06PM
Marxist ballerina. Now there's a picture.
JBonly| 2.15.10 @ 7:06PM
The Rahm Emanuel quote says that he called a STRATEGY "f*cking retarded". I've said similar things (and I have a sister who is "mentally retarded" - not "developmentally disabled" or any of the other phrase or words that mean the same thing. I'm sure many people have said something similar. Did he call a non-retarded person "retarded"? All this waste of space and time for nothing. Let's talk about real issues and FACTS, media!