3.18.12
Some Democrats just need to stop.
OK, I'll be more specific: New York Sen. Charles Schumer needs to stop. Can you believe this guy tried playing the "Bill Maher is just a comedian" card?
Schumer played that card during his appearance on the television show ABC's "This Week." The discussion, perhaps inevitably, got around to the controversy still raging at the time: the remarks that talk radio host Rush Limbaugh made about Georgetown University law school student Sandra Fluke.
To briefly rehash, Limbaugh called Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute." (He later apologized for his poor choice of words.) Democrats across the board feigned outrage, and then railed about a Republican "war against women."
Republicans and conservatives were quick to note that there was no similar outrage among Democrats when Maher, who hosts a show on HBO, called former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a word that's a lot worse than "slut."
George Stephanopoulos, the host of ABC's "This Week," played a Maher clip for Schumer, one in which the "comedian" chose to drag Palin's mentally retarded child into the discussion.
"Hi, Bill Maher here. Sarah Palin agreed to do commentary at Fox News, which is actually very similar to her day job, talking to a baby with Down's syndrome. Speaking of dumb [expletive], it's not because they have breasts. It's because they're boobs."
(Oh, by the way, Bill, it's DOWN syndrome, not Down's. Lay off the drugs and you'll probably remember that next time.)
Stephanopoulos then asked Schumer if the Democrats, in their righteous indignation about gross, vulgar, misogynistic remarks made about women, would demand that the pro-President Obama super-PAC to which Maher donated $1 million should return the money.
Here is Schumer's response:
"Well, no. I mean, look, the bottom line is that Rush Limbaugh's comments were just nasty and directed at a particular young woman who had a particular point of view and was expressing herself. Bill Maher is a comedian. It's much different.
"Rush Limbaugh has tremendous weight in the Republican Party. No one will rebut him. Bill Maher's a comedian who's on at 11 o'clock at night but has very little influence on what's happening here."
Now it would be tempting to claim that Schumer insulted our intelligence with his reply, but that isn't the case. The only intelligence he insulted was his own. Those of us who've watched Maher's show know how wrong Schumer is.
HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" isn't just a comedy show. Maher invites elected officials -- from both parties -- on his show all the time.
Maher regularly skewers Republicans on his show. In all fairness, he'll take Democrats to task when he thinks they deserve it.
But the bottom line is this: "Real Time with Bill Maher" is every bit as political as Limbaugh's talk radio show.
And Maher is every bit the political animal that Limbaugh is. Maher is not "just a comedian."
But let's assume that he is. Was Schumer really saying that the word Maher used to describe Palin was OK, was perfectly acceptable, because it came from a comedian?
And that snide remark about her child with Down syndrome, was that OK too?
It sounds as if this is what Schumer was saying: words like "slut" and "prostitute" are highly offensive and wrong when they come from those on the right.
Words like the one Maher used to describe Palin are perfectly acceptable when they come from those on the left.
Now we're all familiar with the term for this: It's called a "double standard." And Democrats have become the party of double standards lately.
So far, there hasn't been one of them with guts enough to say that what Maher called Palin is despicable.
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
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