No one outright defended John Edwards when news broke about his affair with mistress Rielle Hunter. But the left always reminded us that “Democrats don’t run on family values.” It was a way of excusing their golden boy, signaling that his actions weren’t as offensive as Senator Larry Craig’s (R-ID) or “Craigslist Congressman” Chris Lee’s (R-NY). Because those guys ran on the family values platform and were therefore hypocrites as well as cheaters.
If Democrats want to remind Republicans about the family values platform every time some congressman is caught browsing prostitutes on Craigslist or is busted soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom, then I would like to remind Democrats about their own self-espoused values.
Ed Schultz and Laura Ingraham
On Tuesday, left-wing MSNBC host Ed Schultz made headlines for calling conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham a ‘talk slut’ and a ‘right wing slut.’ Schultz made the remarks during his radio broadcast as he was criticizing Ingraham over her remarks about Obama sipping pints in Ireland while the Midwest was being ravaged by tornadoes:
“And what do the Republicans thinking about?” Schultz said. “They’re not thinking about their next-door neighbor. They’re just thinking about how much this is going to cost. President Obama is going to be visiting Joplin, Mo., on Sunday but you know what they’re talking about, like this right-wing slut, what’s her name?, Laura Ingraham? Yeah, she’s a talk slut. You see, she was, back in the day, praising President Reagan when he was drinking a beer overseas. But now that Obama’s doing it, they’re working him over.”
It’s the Democrats that preach incessantly about how Republicans don’t respect and want to subjugate women. For example, Congresswoman (and DNC Chair) Debbie Wasserman Schultz stood on the House floor and accused the Republicans of bringing forward an “extreme anti-woman agenda.”
Elect Sarah Palin? Don’t even think about it. Everyone knows she is anti-woman and would set back females decades!
The most fulfilling twist to the Schultz-Ingraham episode is that the left has recently taken ownership of the word “slut” to use it as a rallying call for women’s rights.
An international series of protests known as SlutWalks, sparked by a Toronto police officer’s flippant comment that women should avoid dressing like “sluts” to avoid being raped or victimized, is taking root in the United States.
Some women and men who protest dress in nothing more remarkable than jeans and T-shirts, while others wear provocative or revealing outfits to bring attention to “slut-shaming,” or shaming women for being sexual, and the treatment of sexual assault victims.
“It was taking the blame off the rapist and on the victim,” said Nicole Sullivan, 21, a student at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and an organizer of the SlutWalk planned here for Saturday. “So we are using these efforts to reclaim the word ‘slut.’”
So will the left demand that MSNBC fire Ed Schultz for violating the platform? Hardly. A few feminist groups will issue boilerplate statements condemning his remarks, but that’ll be all. It’s OK as long as he still cares about global warming, workers’ rights and stuff like that.
As for MSNBC, they have suspended Schultz for a week. But it’s rumored they won’t take away his Nintendo.
Neil Rosekrans is a founder and partner of StateBrief.com. He has been a guest political commentator for the Arizona Law Channel, NBC's Sunday Square Off and The Terry Gilberg Show on KFYI. Neil earned his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and earned his MBA and Masters in Public Policy, with an emphasis in International Relations, from Pepperdine University.
Neil and his wife, Beth, live in Scottsdale, Arizona. 
