Megyn Kelly Interviews Mike Huckabee: "I Wasn't Disparaging Women I Was Trashing Phony War on Women"

Mediaite.com:

Fox News host Mike Huckabee sat down with colleague Megyn Kelly on Friday to clear the air about his controversial comments on birth control, saying that he was saying nothing disparaging about women or access to birth control, and was simply going after what he called the canard of the “war on women” Democrats have been going on about for years.

Kelly grilled Huckabee a little, bringing up criticisms that he completely misrepresented the Democratic position that people need birth control for medical issues and so they can be responsible. Huckabee made it clear that he’s not opposed to giving women access to birth control, “it was about Democrats and this phony war on women that they have pretended Republicans have.”

Kelly brought up a number of health reasons why women need birth control, and told Huckabee people just don’t like the insinuation birth control means someone is “controlling” women’s bodies. Huckabee insisted he was not trying to put down women, because he believes they’re “equals to men,” and he took a shot at the reporters who “tried to reduce this entire issue to a tweet.”

RELATED:  Media, White House erupt at Huckabee for saying something about Democrats and women’s libidos

Peter King’s Lonely Fight vs. ‘Ted Cruz Wing’

Politico.com:

If Peter King’s brand of Republicanism seems to be on the wane these days, the Long Island congressman isn’t letting it go quietly.

King, 69, has long been one of the Hill’s most quotable and irascible troublemakers, a frequent presence on cable television with an apparently boundless capacity for outrage. He has fumed over topics as serious as Hurricane Sandy relief and aid for Sept. 11 responders, and as comparatively trivial as the White House party crashers and the death of Michael Jackson (whom he called a “lowlife” and a “pervert.”) King broke with Newt Gingrich over the government shutdowns of the mid-1990s and earned the gratitude of the Clinton clan when he rebuked his own party for impeaching a president for sexual indiscretions.

So while it’s not a surprise that King would be one of the Republican Party’s most prominent internal critics these days, even the congressman’s friends say there’s a new intensity and urgency to the lawmaker’s indignation.

King has thundered away in recent months against what he calls the “Ted Cruz wing” of the Republican Party, criticizing the GOP’s libertarian drift on issues such as domestic surveillance and assailing what he views as the utter pointlessness of the House’s effort to defund Obamacare at the cost of a government shutdown. He has floated the idea of a 2016 presidential campaign largely out of opposition to the tea party crowd.

His frustration, friends say, reflects a deepening conviction that Republicans have lost touch with the working-class, middle-of-the-road voters who sent King to Congress in the first place, and who used to make Republican candidates for the Senate and the presidency competitive in downstate New York.

For a veteran pol like King, the plain reality is, there has never been a lonelier time on the Hill to be a blue-collar Republican from Nassau County. When he tried to trigger a revolt against the shutdown this week, only one moderate-leaning Republican – Pennsylvania’s Charlie Dent – joined the effort.

Speaking to POLITICO in his Capitol Hill office, King rejected the notion that he, rather than the great majority of his colleagues who have supported the shutdown, is out of step with the national Republican electorate.

“I don’t consider these guys conservatives. I think the party is going in an isolationist trend. It’s appealing to the lowest common denominator in many ways. And this whole threat of defunding the government, to me, is not conservative at all,” said King, who added later: “Maybe we do live in different worlds. These guys from the Ted Cruz wing live in their own echo chamber.”

The vast cultural gulf that separates King from many of his Republican colleagues is evident from a quick glance around the walls of his office. In a heavily Southern-inflected GOP conference, King is an Irish policeman’s son; he is surely the only member with photos of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca on his wall, and a piece of the destroyed Secret Service office at 7 World Trade Center on his desk.

Yet King insists he is not the outlier in the Republican-held House. On the contrary, he argues, his district has a mix of voters that more closely approximates a winning national electorate than those of most of his GOP colleagues.

“It basically would be right-of-center Republicans and Reagan Democrats, people who belong to building trade unions, cops, firefighters, middle-class families who are fighting to get ahead, but also realize that life isn’t that simple,” King said. “There’s a big building trade constituency in Ohio and Pennsylvania, for instance. I think a blue-collar conservative could carry Pennsylvania for president, could carry Ohio, for instance, but we alienate those groups.”

RELATED: Megyn Kelly Kicks Off in Primetime with Cruz: ‘What’s It Like To Be The Most Hated Man in America?’

Conservative Eric Bolling Is An Idiot For Defending Mike Rice

This isn't about politics and it certainly isn't about machismo and/or any college basketball player's degree of masculinity as FOX's "The Five" co-host Eric Bolling would like you to think it's about. This is about a grown man, a professional college coach, an idiot trusted with the lives of 12 college kids (and yes, till they're 21, they are still kids) hurling vitriol, throwing a basketball at the heads of his players, using abusive language to embarrass and supposedly "motivate" them and worst of all physically assaulting his players when they mess a play up...in practice no less. Put aside the fact that there are more things in life than sports.

Bolling, in his insane defense of Mike Rice, said that "I’ve played for a lot of coaches like that. And let me tell you something: the best coaches are coaches like that.” Yet, other than maybe Bobby Knight, I can't recall any successful, college coach ever acting in a despicable fashion (mind you. Rice's record in 3 years at Rutgers was 44-51) towards his players like this. Not Coach K, Not Roy Williams. Not Jim Boeheim. None.

But then no coach has a right to put his hands on a player in a threatening manner. No parent should have to worry about their child being abused by their coach. Bottom line, Mike Rice deserved to be fired and until he gets some serious anger management therapy, he should never be allowed to coach again:

Fox’s Eric Bolling talked to Megyn Kelly this afternoon about his Wednesday remarks that the firing of Rutgers coach Mike Rice represents “the wussification of American men.”

Rice was fired by Rutgers this week after ESPN footage showed him physically disciplining his athletes while shouting homophobic slurs at them. Off the bat, Bolling clarified his earlier remarks to Kelly by noting that he does not condone the coach’s language whatsoever, but reiterated that he believes Rice should not have been fired for the pushing and shoving of players as part of disciplinary coaching.

“No question he’s a tough coach,” Bolling said. “I’ve played for a lot of coaches like that. And let me tell you something: the best coaches are coaches like that.”

After remarking that he’s received angry emails since defending Rice yesterday evening, Bolling remarked, “We are so afraid to discipline our kids. We are so afraid to tell our kids we disagree with what they are doing. Everyone gets a participation trophy. There’s no winners, there are no losers in American life anymore. We are wussifying American men and it has to stop.”

Echoing the sentiments of his colleague Sean Hannity, Bolling asked what it would be like if we told a military drill sergeant not to get in the face of his soldiers. “We’d be losing wars all over the place” if that were the case, he suggested.

When Kelly expressed her negative feelings towards Rice’s pushing and shoving of athletes who “can’t fight back,” the two went back and forth over whether it’s “degrading” and “humiliating” to be treated that way by a coach. When pressed to “draw a line” for when it becomes physically “abusive,” Bolling said throwing punches would be egregious, but grabbing and shoving by a coach is acceptable.

A former minor league baseball player, Bolling recalled the time he was intentionally hit by a pitch for disciplinary measures. “If they set the bar at ‘You can’t grab the guy’s shirt or throw a ball at his feet,’ you’d probably have to eliminate two-thirds of coaches in America,” he said.

“No racial or anti-gay slurs, and don’t hit anyone,” Bolling concluded. “I’m not for that.”

RELATED: With Mike Rice, we must draw a line

Rush Limbaugh Goes After Bill O’Reilly For ‘Marginalizing’ Audience By Calling Gay Marriage Opponents ‘Bible Thumpers’

Can't believe O'Reilly would do such a thing, nice of Rush to call him out on it. After all there's plenty of reasons besides the Bible that one can be against "gay marriage": 1) The gay lobby are mostly made up of anti-Christian, atheists (i.e., all this "gay marriage" crap is nothing but an attack on religion) and they know full damn well that civil unions would provide gays with the same "rights" as marriage does; 2) real "marriage equality" would include polygamists and polyamorous couples, 3) every man and every woman already has a "right" to legally marry a person of the opposite sex and 4) homosexuality is a behavioral choice and thus, shouldn't be compared to race or laws that that were passed to prevent discrimination based on race or gender, natural states of being that cannot be changed.

On his radio show this afternoon, Rush Limbaugh took a swipe at Bill O’Reilly after the Fox News host and his guest said the opponents to same-sex marriage have no “compelling” argument besides “thumping the Bible.”

On The O’Reilly Factor last night, guest Megyn Kelly explained that she finds the social conservative argument against same-sex marriage to be weak, seeing no argument articulated aside from biblical beliefs.

articulated aside from biblical beliefs.
O’Reilly agreed:

“The compelling argument is on the side of homosexuals. That’s where the compelling argument is: ‘We are Americans. We just want to be treated like everybody else.’ That’s a compelling argument. And to deny that you’ve got to have a very strong argument on the other side. And the other side hasn’t been able to anything but thump the Bible.

Limbaugh took issue with this, seeing it as part of the “mainstream” media’s attempt to diminish opposition to gay marriage. Calling O’Reilly “Ted Baxter” — a nickame often given to TV personalities who are seen as vain and self-delusional — Limbaugh said the Fox host “marginalized” a great portion of the network’s viewers:

“How many of you who watch Fox are ‘Bible thumpers’? Do you think there are any Bible thumpers, quote-unquote, that watch Fox? Because last night you were sort of marginalized on The Factor as not having a compelling argument and just being a bunch of Bible-thumpers.”

Limbaugh then went on to connect the O’Reilly incident to Brian Williams and David Letterman similarly dismissing gay marriage opponents on NBC.

RELATED: O’Reilly And Megyn Kelly Agree: Gays Have ‘More Compelling’ Argument, Opponents Just ‘Thump The Bible’

Dr. Ben Carson Responds To Accusations Of ‘Tokenism’ By MSNBC’s Touré And Others On Fox: If You Feel That Your House of Cards Has Been Discovered and is Starting to Come Unraveled, You Become Very Desperate

Mediaite.com:

Megyn Kelly invited pediatric neurosurgeon and frequent Fox News guest Dr. Ben Carson on her show Tuesday and offered him a platform to defend himself against recent accusations by those on the left that he is no more than the Republican Party’s latest “token” minority. Without explicitly using his name, Kelly alluded to comments made by MSNBC’s Touré, who said last week that Carson was helping Republicans “assuage their guilt.”

Kelly apologized to Carson as she read off some of the names he has been called in recent weeks, like “token” and “oreo,” before landing on the quote from “a commentator on a rival network” who said Carson was benefiting from “the GOP’s version of affirmative action.”

Carson responded calmly, saying, “if you don’t have anything useful to say, you attack people. If you feel that your house of cards has been discovered and is starting to come unraveled, you become very desperate.” He added, “intelligent people tend to talk about the facts, they don’t sit around and call each other names. That’s what you can find on a third grade playground.”

Addressing the racial aspects of his detractors arguments specifically, Carson said, “they feel if you look a certain way, then you have to stay on the plantation.” He mentioned that he’s been called an “Uncle Tom” and rejected that term, not for it’s racist context, but for its inaccuracy. “Obviously they don’t know what an ‘Uncle Tom’ is,” he said. In the novel, “he was very, very subservient, kind of go along to get along type of person.” Perhaps referring to his outspoken arguments against Obamacare, he said, “obviously, that’s not what I’m doing.”

RELATED:  Touré: Ben Carson Is The GOP’s ‘Black Friend,’ Enjoying GOP’s ‘Affirmative Action’ And ‘Assuaging Their Guilt’

Politiks As Usual: In The News 3/3/13

Obama To Reporter About Sequester: What Exactly Do You Want Me To Do?

National Debt Up More Than $6 Trillion Under Obama

Romney: 'It Kills Me' Not To Be In White House

Obama on Gay Marriage: America's Gone Through ‘Same Evolution I’ve Gone Through'

DOJ: Children Do Not Need—and Have No Right to--Mothers

ABC to Produce Miniseries on Radical-Left AIDS Protesters in Reagan Years; Producer Compares It to 'Roots'

Catholics Prepare to Elect a New Pope

Feminists: Leave My Boys Alone

Besties Unite: Rodman Says Kim’s Prison Camps No Big Deal Since U.S. Does Same

Fox’s Megyn Kelly Doesn’t Approve of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Calling Justice Scalia A ‘Troll’

Megyn Kelly Takes On ‘Word Police’ That Forced ESPN To Apologize For Brent Musburger’s Comments

Mediaite.com:

Fox News’ Megyn Kelly invited two of her favorite female commentators on her show this afternoon to discuss ESPN’s apology for announcer Brent Musburger‘s over-zealous praise of Katherine Webb, Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron‘s beauty contest-winning girlfriend. 

After Musburger spent what some considered to be an inordinate amount of time praising Webb’s beauty on air, the internet exploded with condemnation and ESPN released a statement that read, in part, “we apologize that the commentary in this instance went too far and Brent understands that.”

Kelly began her segment by recapping the details of the story and asking her guests to “raise your hand if you think Brent went too far.” Suffice it to say, no hands were raised. The three women proceeded to lambast the politically correct liberal media for dictating when men can and cannot call women beautiful.

Conservative radio host Monica Crowley exclaimed, “Here’s what’s wrong with a man calling a woman beautiful: Nothing!” She went on to say that if would have been more offensive if Musburger had said nothing.

Columnist Kirsten Powers added “He hardly said anything. He called her lovely and beautiful. People act like he was drooling and saying inappropriate things. To me, this is just Feminism gone awry.” 

Megyn Kelly reiterated that there’s nothing perverse about commenting on a woman’s beauty, asking “didn’t we all admire her? We are not perverted.” 

And Crowley doesn’t think open praise of beauty should be confined to just women. “When I’m watching the NFL and Tom Brady comes on screen, I have some choice words about him. He’s such a hunk!”

Kelly summed up the story by lamenting the fact that ESPN felt pressure to apologize for something that should never have been a story to begin with. Noting that Webb put her beauty on display by competing for and winning the Miss Alabama competition Kelly said, “It’s crazy to me that ESPN felt that he went too far in doing what all the judges at the competition did and millions of Americans did as well. I don’t know a woman who doesn’t like to be told she’s beautiful.” 

For her part, Webb has not sought any sympathy in the aftermath of the remarks, appearing on the Today Show this morning and telling Matt Lauer she was simply “flattered.” 

RELATED: Katherine Webb says she didn't need a Brent Musburger apology

Megyn Kelly: Press Room ‘Erupted’ In Laughter And Applause At Obama’s ‘Horses And Bayonets’ Line

Mediaite.com;

Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly revealed that, while she watched the final presidential debate from the press room at Lynn College in Florida on Monday night, the assembled journalists burst into laughter and applause when President Barack Obama landed a rhetorical blow against Mitt Romney. When Romney said that Obama has presided over the downsizing of the Navy, Obama shot back “We also have fewer horses and bayonets.” Kelly claims that reporters exalted over this chiding of his Republican opponent. 

“I think Gov. Romney maybe has not spent enough time looking at how our military works,” Obama said Monday night in response to the charge that he had refused the Navy’s request for more assets. “We also have fewer horses and bayonets because nature of our military has changed. “There are these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.”

Speaking with conservative radio host Michael Reagan, Kelly said that she said that she observed the media’s satisfaction with that comment first hand. 

“I was in the spin room in Boca when the president made that comment and I can tell you that the media literally erupted around me – laughing and many clapping,” said Kelly. 

Reagan said that the comment revealed the president’s level of arrogance, as opposed to his father, President Ronald Reagan, who he said did not ‘talk down’ to those he was negotiating with or debating against. 

RELATED: When Gotcha Goes Horribly Wrong: Pataki Swats Back at MSNBC's O'Donnell

Democrat Pollster To Megyn Kelly: Media Guilty Of ‘Corruption Of The First Order’ For Protecting Obama

Mediaite.com:

Former Democratic pollster Patrick Caddell appeared on Fox News Channel with Megyn Kelly on Monday to elaborate on a talk he gave recently in which he claimed that the media has today become “the enemy of the American people.” Caddell called the media’s deliberate downplaying of certain stories that could damage Barack Obama’s electoral prospects as “corruption of the first order.”

“We’re entering territory we have never entered before,” said Caddell. “We’ve never had a situation where the press has purposefully decided to pick up a narrative rom the White House to not tell people things that happened in order to support their overwhelming candidate for president, Barack Obama.”

“This isn’t about partisanship, this is about danger,” said Caddell. He equated the media to “Pravda,” a newspaper which was owned and operated by the state in the Soviet Union. Caddell went on to say that the problem of bias should be obvious citing how the story of the Libya attacks and subsequent mishandling of the response by the administration was not covered widely.

Megyn Kelly asked Caddell’s college, former Democratic pollster Doug Schoen, if the change of media bias was valid anymore given the proliferation of alternative sources of information. “Pat is right,” said Schoen. “There is a narrative that is being used to drive this campaign in a way that is effectively complicit with the Obama campaign.”

Caddell accused National Security Advisor Thomas Donnellan of orchestrating a media narrative around the Libya attacks – that they were caused by an offensive YouTube video online and that Mitt Romney’s response to the attacks was both premature and unseemly.

“He and David Plouffe sat there and said, ‘we have to protect he narrative we have,’” said Caddell.
Caddell slammed the Obama campaign for allowing the president to campaign in Las Vegas the day of the attacks in North Africa. Caddell said that his former boss, President Jimmy Carter, refused to make similar campaign appearances amid national security threats during the 1980 election. “Why isn’t the press saying anything,” asked Caddell.

Kelly asked Schoen if the media has crossed over into protecting the president rather than objectively reporting on the administration. Schoen said that, in combination with the stories about polls projecting Democratic turnout at 2008 levels, “the mainstream media appears to be facilitating a narrative” advanced the political operation in the White House. 

RELATED: Pat Caddell: Let’s face it, media bias has reached a new level of corruption

Megyn Kelly Panel Clashes Over Whether Obama Is Taking The Black Vote For Granted

Mediaite.com:

Spurred by President Barack Obama‘s declining an invitation to speak at the NAACP convention (where Mitt Romney, Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder all speakers), Megyn Kelly invited her panel to discuss concern among some African Americans who wonder if the president is taking their vote for granted.


This is simply the political reality, David Webb argued. Obama ran “by drawing coalitions together,” subsets of the population who essentially got him elected. But “unless they have a defined interest they can use, they’re not that valuable,” Webb said bluntly. To give him credit, he added, Obama didn’t run on a black agenda.


Countering Webb, Tara Dowdell argued that it’s “insulting” to suggest that blacks voted for Obama because they were vested in his color. “To say that we can’t think for ourselves, that we can’ discern policies — that is a very insulting statement to make,” she said.


Kelly circled back to her central question: whether there’s a sense that Obama’s taking the black vote for granted. Webb argued it’s also insulting to look at a how a group has voted historically and ask whether there’s been a return on that investment. “We’re all Americans, we’re not black Americans, white Americans, Hispanic Americans,” he said.


Finally, Kelly asked whether it’s a mistake for Obama not to speak at the convention. Dowdell said it’s not because he does have members of his administration speaking there — before pivoting to unemployment among blacks (defending Obama’s policies), leading the segment to end with their arguing.

RELATED: Morgan Freeman: Obama Isn’t America’s First Black President

FOX News Should NOT Fire Jehmu Greene

Mediaite.com:

As you may recall, on last Thursday’s edition of America Live, Fox News contributor Jehmu Greene called the Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson a “bow-tying white boy” in response to Carlson’s criticism of Elizabeth Warren‘s qualifications.

Many outraged conservatives have called upon Fox to fire Greene. For example:

eric golub @TYGRRRREXPRESS

@jehmu Greene just called @TuckerCarlson & his friends "Bow-tie wearing white boys." #foxnews should fire Jehmu now. Her comment was racist.

4 May 12

On the conservative site World Net Daily, one columnist wrote that “If Fox News has any integrity, it should immediately and without apology fire Jehmu Greene.” Right-leaning media watchdog Accuracy in Media criticized Fox for it’s lack of punishment and bemoaned the network’s “standing by [Greene].”

A Fox News spokesperson told Mediaite that “Jehmu apologized to Tucker by phone after the segment and he accepted her apology.”

Fox’s decision not to fire or publicly reprimand Greene may be a bold move given her lightning-rod comments, but it makes for a few interesting thoughts:

Perhaps Fox isn’t as beholden to its decidedly right-leaning audience as many believe. They haven’t succumbed to pressure to fire Greene, and have made an effort to hire more progressive contributors like Greene and Sally Kohn in the last year.

And the lack of punishment may also show that Fox has no interest in being the “PC Police.”

It doesn't surprise me one bit that conservatives are outraged and calling for black liberal and FOX News political contributor Jehmu Greene to be fired after she called Tucker Carlson a “bow-tying white boy," during a heated debate last week. While she hasn't addressed the matter publicly, word has it that Greene has apologized to Carlson in private...and that should be enough. But, of course, that's not enough to some conservatives who want Greene to not only lose her job, but are typically calling it a "double standard" because if a white guy said it....well, you know the rest. And maybe they're right. But this is where some conservatives don't get it and sadly, never will.

When it comes to matters of race, black folks in this country will always the upper hand on the topic due to the brutal and dark history of how this country was found, the millions who died because of it, Jim Crow laws and the fact that nothing much has changed today, no matter how much we like to think it has. This is how it is and this it always shall be...until racism is officially declared dead in this country. And that will never happen...even with the first half-black president still in office.

So while Greene's comment to Carlson was both stupid and ignorant, it wasn't "racist" because black people can't be racist in a country where they hold no power. And that's what racism is about: power, the same way sexism is. Racism is about white privilege, regardless if it's overt or not overt. Thus, it's why we still need affirmative action in this country. It's a huge reason why black unemployment remains double that the national average here. It's mostly why our criminal justice system disproportionately targets and incarcerates people of color.

So while Greene owes Carlson an apology for being ignorant, the history of her race here in America is why she deserves to keep her job. It is also why, unfair as it may be, if Carlson had said gone there with Greene...yes, in all likelihood, he'd be looking for a new gig. And to folks who can't deal with that either they need to shut up and or help to end racism in this country.

RELATED: Kincaid: Fox News Won’t Fire Black Racist Commentator

Jehmu Greene Calls Tucker Carlson A ‘Bow-Tying White Boy,’ Megyn Kelly Apologizes

Mediaite.com:

On Thursday, America Live host Megyn Kelly brought Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson and Fox News contributor Jehmu Greene on to discuss Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren’s claims to having Cherokee heritage in her background. When Greene called Carlson a “bow-tying white boy,” the panel turned heated. At the end of her program, Kelly apologized for Greene’s comments.


Kelly asked if everyone could have a laugh about Warren’s claims, but Greene defended Warren saying that the current chief of the Cherokee nation is only 3 percent Cherokee. She continued, saying that Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) and the Massachusetts’s media’s response to the controversy has been mildly misogynistic.


“You see Scott Brown really questioning her qualifications because he has to appeal to white, working-class voters who feel marginalized because of affirmative action,” said Greene. “This smells real stank to women who do not like being called on their qualifications.”


Carlson and Kelly continued to laugh off the episode. “It’s so offensive and dumb,” said Carlson of Warren’s response to the controversy. “But leaving that aside, it does provide a window into a system that is fundamentally corrupt that awards people based on their DNA.”


Greene said that questioning Warren on her qualifications, as she insists Brown has done in the wake of this controversy, “is going to appeal to folks like you, voters like you: bow-tying white boys.”


Carlson took offense to Greene’s characterization of him as a “bow-tying white boy,” and said “you can use name calling all you like.” Greene protested that she did not call anyone a name.


Kelly said that Harvard University, Warren’s employer, touted her minority status when they were questioned on whether they had employed a diverse range of professors. “That is not how she got the job,” said Greene. “How do you know,” replied a laughing Carlson. “You don’t know how she got the job. You know nothing about this.”


Kelly returned at the end of her program to offer Carlson and her audience an apology for the incident:

Well, earlier in the program, Jehmu Greene was here and she called Tucker Carlson an inappropriate name. I want to apologize to Tucker and/or our viewers for that. I wasn’t sure I heard what I thought I heard and now we have confirmed it was that. It was not consistent with our standards and I do apologize on behalf of the program.

Kirsten Powers on Rush and Sandra Fluke: Where’s The Outrage At Misogynistic Liberal Men?

HotAir.com:

If you missed her widely linked Daily Beast item this weekend, read it now. Then read Treacher’s long look back at Our Moral Superiors’ most morally superior moments. The most interesting bit here is when Megyn Kelly asks whether she thinks liberals are genuinely offended by Rush but debilitated by a blind spot about their own side or whether they’re affecting outrageous outrage to put points on the partisan scoreboard. KP thinks it’s the former; I think the truth is in between. They are genuinely offended — not by the rhetoric, though, but by conservative opposition to abortion and support for prioritizing religious conscience above contraception coverage. That’s what makes Rush “anti-woman”; the “slut” name-calling is, supposedly, a window onto that deeper animus. Because Maher and Olbermann and Taibbi are, ahem, “pro-woman” on policy, they can be as personally nasty as they want and it’s not a window onto anything. The quintessential example of this is of course Ted Kennedy, whose career stands for the proposition that you can allegedly assault women and even leave a woman to die and be reelected for eternity so long as you vote the right way.


That is to say, for all of the left’s bleeding-heart smugness about “good intentions,” they’re remarkably bottom-line on this: So long as you support abortion and the rest of their packet on social issues, your actual intent when calling a woman a “mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick” is irrelevant. It’s an irrebuttable presumption of feminism, a de facto “get out of misogyny free” card. As a thought experiment, imagine, say, Maher suddenly declaring himself pro-life (that’s a mighty tough experiment, I know) and then calling a woman a “c*nt.” Think there’d be a response from the left then? I wonder, in fact, to what extent KP’s sensitivity to this is shaped by the fact that she’s pro-life herself. Must get tiresome for her to be accused of being a “self-hating woman” or whatever while left-wing heroes go around accusing their female critics of looking like pre-op transsexuals.


Apropos of nothing, my favorite comment on the endless Rush/Fluke saga comes from the Political Math guy, who points to this petition at the White House website calling on Panetta to drop Rush from Armed Forces Radio and quips, “Liberals have ‘moral objection’ to Rush, don’t want tax money paying him #SelfAwarenessFail”. Exit question via Guy Benson: Since we’re now all about organizations distancing themselves from media types who use “slut” rhetoric, when does Obama’s Super PAC plan on forfeiting Bill Maher’s $1 million donation?

RELATED: Rush Limbaugh not the only culprit, left guilty of misogyny too

Megyn Kelly: Is Newsweek Obligated To Put An ‘Actual Journalist’ On Its Cover Instead Of Andrew Sullivan

Mediaite.com:

Newsweek (and Tina Brown)’s decision to put Andrew Sullivan’s provocative essay (and an even more provocative headline) on the cover was purely about getting people to talk about Newsweek. That was the theory put forth by a Fox News panel during a segment dedicated to…talking about Newsweek. But, as Megyn Kelly proposed at the start, has Newsweek and the mainstream media “crossed a line in trying to get the President reelected?”


Of course, as this was a segment in which a cable news program discusses a news competitor, the customary discrediting had to be done before the conversation could get started in earnest. Ok, lets see. Kelly joked that only four people read Newsweek and then asked if the magazine had “some obligation to pu an actual journalist” on its cover. Ooh, burn, Andrew! Who’s dumb now?!


Ok, where were we?


Kelly then asked if Newsweek was obligated to tell readers that Sullivan was a former TrigTruther. Radio host Leslie Marshall pointed out that the audience has the ability to Google the columnist, but Kelly argued that most people think of Newsweek as straight reporting. The National Review‘s Rich Lowry claimed that the magazine hasn’t been for a long time and is now “the house organ of the Obama Administration.”


Kelly worried that older people like her mom and step dad wouldn’t know that. Well, lets hope they were watching the show today. No one could come out of this segment without realizing just how purely evil Newsweek truly is.


Of course, news outlets dissing other news outlets makes up for about 95% of the daily cable news output, so this segment wasn’t anything new. The most fun moment came right at the top as we got to watch Kelly continue to trash her show’s new music choices.


I don’t know what it is but, whether you’re writing for a magazine or anchoring a newscast, I’ve always found self deprecation more charming than full on attacks.


UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan has responded to the Fox News segment. In a blog post entitled “How Scared is Fox?”, Sullivan challenges the cable network to have him on to defend his piece.


“What I want to know is why they cannot invite the author of an essay to debate it, rather than two random individuals (including Rich “Starbursts” Lowry) to discuss. Surely that’s only fair – unless, of course, I am on a blacklist.


So this is an open challenge to Fox News. If you want to trash my work, have me on to defend it. Any time, Megyn. Any time. What are you afraid of?


Apart from the truth, that is. ”

RELATED: Sarah Palin slams Newsweek for giving ‘conspiracy kook writer’ Andrew Sullivan cover story

STREET JUSTICE: Megyn Kelly Interviews Real-Life Superhero Phoenix Jones

Mediaite.com:

And now for something completely different: A Seattle-based civilian “superhero” ran into some trouble when he was arrested for unleashing a can of pepper spray into a rowdy crowd outside a nightclub. We’re not using the term superhero sarcastically here either. The man, who refers to himself as “Phoenix Jones,” dons a black and gold superhero suit as he goes out to fight and/or commit crimes, and pursues justice with the help of a sidekick, “The Ghost.” He was thanked for all his trouble, by the way, by being repeatedly hit over the head with a shoe by a woman who did not take kindly to someone showering her friends with pepper spray.


Fox News’ Megyn Kelly invited the masked crime-fighter onto her show for an edition of “Kelly’s Court.” And he seems like a really nice guy! (Like, really nice. Amirightladies?) Kelly, thankfully, asked the big question on everyone’s mind: “Why are you wearing that costume?”


It’s the costume that I wear when I go out and fight crime. It’s my super suit. It’s bulletproof, it’s stab resistant. I guess I found it’s pretty shoe resistant.


Duh, Megyn!


He further explained that something needs to be done to cull crime and that, instead of donning a ski mask and potentially being mistaken for a criminal himself, he decided to use “an image that meant something to me” — that of the iconic American superhero — to go out and make things right.


Kelly brought on her legal panel to weigh in on whether or not Jones should be charged with assault for his use of pepper spray and vigilante justice.


Fox News? Please give Phoenix Jones a show. Something like Space Ghost Coast to Coast with occasional cameos from Karl “Rovin’ Raider” Rove and Sarah “The Impalinator” Palin

Idiot Liberal Fox Host Megyn Kelly Says No One Is Influenced By Seeing Transgenders In TV

Really, now I've lost all my respect for Megyn Kelly. It's one thing to play devil's advocate on your show as she often does (Bill O'Reilly does it too), but to push the envelope and accuse a FOX contributor of being ‘irresponsible and dangerous’ all because the guy (a professional psychiatrist by the way) disagrees with you and thinks Chaz Bono's current sexual identity might confuse kids is beyond the pale. Of course Kelly in her argument make no mention of the fact that she's become an advocate for the pro-gay, far-Left agenda of late:

Kelly, who appeared as a "special guest" at a Manhattan fundraiser for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (as many Fox News employees have), told Ablow that he was out of his depth and that other doctors knew more than he did. She quoted from Dr. Jack Drescher, who also had a piece on Foxnews.com denouncing Ablow. Kelly did not tell her viewers that Drescher's piece was borrowed from the blog of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT lobby -- which might make one think there's more than "science" here in the mix.

To think I used to like and respect Megyn Kelly for her professionalism and willingness to challenge liberal propaganda, but when conservative-hating liberals are celebrating you for spouting lame leftwing talking points while supporting their morally-bankrupt agenda, it becomes clear that Kelly is just another MSNBC host-in-waiting. Hopefully Roger Ailes can find her a new home quick.

Marie Claire Asks Megyn Kelly: ‘Do You Think Fox Is Biased?’

Mediate calls this "surprisingly hard-hitting for a profile in a fashion-oriented magazine", but that's just a cover for another liberal rag with an agenda trying to go after a conservative woman, too bad Megyn Kerry is way too smart to play their little "gotcha" game:

Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, back to work following her maternity leave, took some time to speak with Marie Claire about a whole lot ‘o stuff: the role her looks have played in her television career, Glenn Beck, Roger Ailes… and whether or not she believes her network is biased in its coverage.


Much of the interview — surprisingly hard-hitting for a profile in a fashion-oriented magazine — focuses on image. How does Kelly’s image help or hurt her career? What image does Beck give off to viewers and detractors? …Does she agree with the perception of Fox News as a biased news source? In a word, “No.”


No. Fox News covers stories that some other news outlets won’t cover. We ask some questions that other news outlets wouldn’t ask. And sometimes that’s perceived as bias by people who’ve grown up in a world where there are only liberal outlets.


In her answers, Kelly does an incredibly fine job of remaining diplomatic and even-keeled while making her thoughts known. For example:


Marie Claire: I assume you believe in free speech. How do you feel about the fact that Sarah Palin doesn’t talk to the press unless it’s Fox News?


Megyn Kelly: Well, I don’t know if the premise of the question is correct, because she has talked to other outlets. I think there are certain outlets she doesn’t like. And I think she thinks she’s been treated unfairly by people in the press.


And that, folks, is how you answer a question with professionalism! (I mean, seriously, like she’d ever say, “Yeah, that is certainly wack, isn’t it? Such wackitude as I have never seen.” Also… free speech?)


Other highlights from the interview include…
A rather sweet little anecdote about Fox News head Roger Ailes:


A couple years ago, I had a very bad stalking problem. I was living alone in D.C. In addition to security Fox provided me, Roger offered to pay out of his own pocket for special dead bolts throughout my home. It was just a small thing, but he didn’t have to do it. I had a boss who cared, and it made me feel better.


Her reaction to Slate referring to her as a “postfeminist news babe:”


I don’t like that term. It’s pejorative. I don’t know who wrote that article, but I’m gonna bet it was a guy.


Her thoughts on Beck:


If Fox had promoted Glenn Beck as a straight newsman who would be delivering the nightly update, like Bret Baier, then yes. But it was clear from the beginning — and it remains clear — that Glenn Beck is an opinion host. He doesn’t report as a journalist and isn’t making any attempt to be a journalist.


Why she likes Jon Stewart, he who recently accused her of “flip-flopping:”


I find Jon Stewart very funny — except for when he’s making fun of me. [laughs] The problem with Stewart is when people think The Daily Show is actual news, or that he made an attempt to be fair, which I think he would freely admit that he doesn’t.

Megyn Kelly Rips Newsweek’s Bachmann Cover: Female Pols Either ‘Nuts Or Sluts’

Mediaite.com:

This afternoon, America Live’s Megyn Kelly tackled the mounting controversy surrounding Newsweek’s rather odd choice of picture and headline for its cover profile on GOP presidential hopeful and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Some conservatives, as well as the National Organization of Women (NOW), are speaking out against the cover, calling it sexist and politically biased. Kelly brought on the Daily Caller’s Caroline May to discuss the outcry.


When, Kelly asked, was the last time anyone has heard of NOW aligning with conservatives?


It’s rare, and when they do do it, they have some sort of caveat to go along with it, but it’s really striking that they went ahead and took Bachmann’s defense this time around. They’ve been having a lot of attacks against her and, I mean I think it’s just the final straw. She’s been, you know, in the spotlight and she’s being hit for it.


May had actually been able to speak with the head of NOW to obtain a clearer view of why the group was denouncing the Newsweek cover:


Terry O’Neill, she said what they look for is Gloria Steinem’s test: If this were done to a man, or if it ever could have been done to a man, then it’s not considered sexist. But because, obviously, this is… She’s labeled a “queen” and put as crazy, it’s more sexist.


Kelly then very succinctly wrapped up the central issue at play in this story into a neat little phrase we’ll personally be borrowing this week:


We’ve talked before on the program about how certain women politicians — it’s not limited to conservative women, but you see that often — get deemed (and pardon the terms, folks) as either “nuts or sluts” when they’re running for office.

When even NOW gets in on the matter and starts defending sexist treatment against a conservative woman you know have a problem. The irony of all this is the lack of outrage towards Tina Brown, the woman who now runs Newsweek.

Megyn Kelly: Is Anthony Weiner Aiding Efforts To Have Justice Clarence Thomas Disbarred?

Mediaite.com:

Megyn Kelly discussed reports that Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner is leading a charge to have Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas disbarred for perjury and investigated for allegations of bribery. Weiner has passionately argued before for Thomas to recuse himself for cases on healthcare reform because of an alleged bias, and now if these reports are true, Weiner is intensifying the fight.


Kelly interviewed Supreme Court expert Tom Goldstein regarding the unprecedented potential action against Thomas. Goldstein agreed judicial integrity is important, but dismissed the complaints against Thomas as “pretty stupid” and “baseless accusations” that treat Supreme Court justices a political actors. Even if Thomas made a mistake on some forms not disclosing facts about his wife, Goldstein argued despite being a serious error, it’s not one that calls into question Thomas’ legitimacy as a judge. Accordingly, Goldstein predicted that even the liberal Supreme Court justices would rally to Thomas’ defense.

Anthony Weiner is a whiny little prick with a serious Napolean complex. Conservatives should love the idea that he's trying to take down a Supreme Court justice--just the kind of thing we need to rally the base and piss off most independents a well.

Megyn Kelly And Anthony Weiner Engage In Shouting Match Over Clarence Thomas

I swear Anthony Weiner reminds me that kid who got picked last in pickup games growing up so he gets revenge by taking the ball away and running home with it so then no one can play:

Today Megyn Kelly welcomed Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner back to her show, and fans of their last heated exchange who were hoping for some more fireworks between the two were not at all disappointed. Weiner adamantly believed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from hearing a case on the constitutionality of healthcare reform due to the financial interests of his wife that give off the appearance of bias. When Kelly began to dispute whether that was legally necessary Weiner began to get agitated.


Weiner frequently appears on Fox News and his detractors might claim he just as frequently ends up yelling to make his point or looking frustrated when not given enough time. Here he questions whether Kelly knows the definition of an “interview” while also discussing the differences between facts and opinion and disputing Fox’s “coverage” of any issue. Kelly humorously asks when is it her turn to speak? By the end of the conversation who even knows what issue they are discussing anymore and who cares, because every Kelly/Weiner confrontation is a memorably exciting event. These two need to take their act on the road!