Air America suspends Randi Rhodes for calling Hillary a whore

This makes twice in the past two months that Rhodes is in trouble for (a) clearly joking (b) about something 90% of the public — including liberals, as you’ll hear from the raucous cheers when she says it — would have little problem with as humor in the course of private conversation. “But AP, she hosts a public talk show!” Yeah, for Air America. It’s like getting mad at Olbermann for accusing McCain of wearing Depends. If Ronald McDonald made a joke about Bush, would you lose sleep over that? As for whether this calls Rhodes’s feminist credentials into question, anyone who’s watched the left go after conservative minorities over their race should know by now that identity politics turns on ideology, not identity. Hillary’s not really a “sister” anymore; if she drops out and leaves poor Barack Obama alone, then — maybe.

The Hillary comments are right at the midpoint; if you’re up for hearing Geraldine Ferraro called a whore too, start at the beginning. And here’s the statement from HQ, shocked that someone with Rhodes’s very sound judgment would stoop to such insults. Content warning.

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