Broadside

Of David Shuster's loathsome "Chelsea's being pimped out" comments, and the Clinton's campaign's fierce response to the incident, Greg Sargent says:

That [Clinton communications advisor Howard Wolfson] would effectively rule out future debate appearances for the time being strongly suggests that the Hillary campaign discussed this in some detail beforehand and decided to launch this broadside against the network. It also suggests that the Hillary camp sees the potential for political gain in drawing media attention to negative and sexist comments made on MSNBC about her and her daughter.

Might it also, by any chance, suggest that "the Hillary camp" was actually just plain old fucking offended—and rightfully so—by Hillary being called a pimp and Chelsea a whore? Jebus. Neglecting to even consider that a vicious personal attack might have elicited a personal response, irrespective of any benefit to the campaign, treats Hillary like she's not human just as surely as referring to her as calculating, robotic, emotionless, icy, et cetera et cetera et cetera… does.

And I love, by the way, that it was the Hillary campaign who "decided to launch this broadside against the network," as if totally unprovoked—a sentiment also reflected in the really disappointing headline on Sargent's piece, "Hillary Campaign Goes To War With MSNBC Over Chelsea 'Pimp' Comment."

Why is threatening to rescind access from a network that continually treats Hillary unfairly "going to war," as opposed to being a perfectly reasonable response? The people at this network treat her like shit. This is the second on-air apology they've had to make to her in as many months, for crying out loud. Framing this as a fight in which Hillary bears some responsibility for the escalation, after she has had to bear endless attacks from Chris Matthews and the rest of the wankers at MSNBC for months, is just flatly wrong. And irresponsible. It makes it harder for average women to respond to sexism being wielded against them without accusations that they are overreacting or "making things worse," merely by having the temerity to object to being smeared.

My love for TPM knows no bounds, and my admiration for Sargent is massive. But they really dropped the ball on this one.

[Btw, Shuster has now been suspended.]