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Scarborough jokes about Fred Thompson's wife
June 05, 2007 12:07 PM
Via the Palmetto Scoop (LINK) comes this odd exchange from Friday morning between MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough, a former Florida Republican congressman, and political analyst Craig Crawford. They're discussing Jeri Thompson, the 40-year-old second wife of former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.
You can watch the moment here via youtube (LINK)
SCARBOROUGH: Have you seen Fred Thompson’s wife?
CRAWFORD: Oh, yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: You think she thinks she works the pole?
CRAWFORD: That’s what a Hollywood career will do for you, I guess.
SCARBOROUGH: What do you mean?
CRAWFORD: You get wives like that.
SCARBOROUGH: I mean, look at that guy. God bless him, I love his voice. But I mean, you know. He ain’t Robert Redford in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
CRAWFORD: Well I would like to see him back into politics because I think he’s a lousy actor.
Um….Can someone elaborate as to what "works the pole" means?
Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin is offended (LINK) and suggests that Scarborough was implying that Jeri Thompson was a stripper.
But the New Republic's Chris Orr says (LINK) that "before the comment, Scarborough had been talking to Tracy Burgess, the WFAN news anchor and, evidently, a bit of a fitness freak. (She apparently also used to appear as a guest on Imus.) Burgess explained that 'I am taking vertical pole.... It's a pole and you exercise on it.' There was a little minimally risque banter on the subject before Scarborough declared, 'Housewives across America taking to the pole... for health and fitness. Hey, have you seen Fred Thompson's wife?... You think she works the pole?'"
What say you?
Off to New Hampshire to the GOP debate! More later --
-- jake
June 5, 2007 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (22)
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Seems of late Joe Scarborough has moved from holding Reagan as his mentor to using a combination of Olbermann and Imus.
But, let's be realistic, the bombastic gutter provides for better ratings.
Posted by: casualobserver | Jun 5, 2007 1:56:59 PM
At worst, he's likening her to being a stripper, and at best, he's just being sexist. I find this offensive, just as I found some of Olbermann's past remarks offensive. Including, I might add, Olbermann's email in which he described Rita Crosby (Scarborough's predecessor to the 9:00 spot on MSNBC) as "dumb as rocks." Boys club much, MSNBC?
I hesitate to get too outraged because in the wake of Imus, I fear a chilling effect, where everyone becomes stilted and bland. This is the thing: I can tune out, and I do tune out. If MSNBC wants my eyeballs, it's going to have to reinstate a female to primetime.
Posted by: cordelia525 | Jun 5, 2007 1:34:42 PM
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