Keith Olbmerann’s Special Comment.

I just read Keith Olbermann‘s Special Comment on Ferraro’s remarks. Some highlights:

And when this despicable statement — ugly in its overtones, laughable in its weak grip of facts, and moronic in the historical context — when it floats outward from the Clinton Campaign like a poison cloud, what do the advisors have their candidate do?

Do they have Senator Clinton herself compare the remark to Al Campanis talking on Nightline… on Jackie Robinson day… about how blacks lacked the necessities to become baseball executives, while she points out that Barock Obama has not gotten his 1600 delegates as part of some kind of Affirmative Action plan?
[snip]

No.
Somebody tells her that simply disagreeing with and rejecting the remarks is sufficient.
And she should then call, “regrettable”, words that should make any Democrat retch.
And that she should then try to twist them, first into some pox-on-both-your-houses plea to ‘stick to the issues,’ and then to let her campaign manager try to bend them beyond all recognition, into Senator Obama’s fault.
And thus these advisers give Congresswoman Ferraro nearly a week in which to send Senator Clinton’s campaign back into the vocabulary… of David Duke.

“Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let’s address reality and the problems we’re facing in this world, you’re accused of being racist, so you have to shut up.
“Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white.
“How’s that?”

And…

This, Senator Clinton, is your campaign, and it is your name.
Grab the reins back from whoever has led you to this precipice, before it is too late.
Voluntarily or inadvertently, you are still awash in this filth.
Your only reaction has been to disagree, reject, and to call it regrettable.
Her only reaction has been to brand herself as the victim, resign from your committee, and insist she will continue to speak.
Unless you say something definitive, Senator, the former Congresswoman is speaking with your approval.
You must remedy this.
And you must… reject… and denounce… Geraldine Ferraro.

Yay. Keith spoke up. Rockin’!

Yet, as I read this I got pissed. Not only does it echo my previous post, but this little rant is bullshit, in that the media is complicit. As I posted to the New Hole “blog”:

Now, if only the other chatterboxes at MSNBC could see this point. I get that you all are about ratings and this drama only bumps them, but there should be repercussions. Schuster says something stupid and he’s suspended for two weeks. Buchanan says something stupid/racist almost every other time he’s on the air and he hasn’t beensuspended.

I get indignation. I get this. Heck, I posted something similar on my own blog earlier today…but it’s a little hard to take when you watch the same channel and see that MSNBC/NBC/GE as a whole is involved in this charade. That the people who are supposed to be bringing us unfiltered facts are spinning for their own benefit.

I don’t expect this comment, like so many of my others, to be approved, while the racist/sexist/xenophobic comments of the smaller brained users are approved. Still, I want you all to see that there are people watching and listening. You’re not absolved from this disgusting political climate we dwell in. You, yourselves are also “awash in this filth”.

Then I moseyed on over to Booman Tribune where there’s a post on the comment. Still upset, I posted:

I just read the Special Comment. Yeah, it was good, blah, blah, blah…didn’t say anything I didn’t post on my own blog earlier to day. Still, I’m mad. At MSNBC. At the media in general. This is their doing.

I know there are bigots. Bigots know that with a 24 hr. new cycle and so many 24 hr. news stations, that their bullshit will get amplified, spun, dissected and misdirected. They know that in a month, these pundits will act as if the whole thing was just a misunderstanding and that attacking that person (especially if they’re white) will become out of bounds. That’s why someone like Ferraro feels she can speak that way. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear,some time in late April, their pundits picking up the ball and running away with it, while chastising anyone (especially if they’re black) who dares insults Ferraro.

This is such a steaming load, ya know…When the people of Pennsylvania vote…we’re going to hear about this again. But the facts will be so twisted, it will be back to CrazyLand on TV. If Obama loses whites by anything more than 30%, those same pundits will ask, “Are white voters tired of the Obama campaign injecting race into these contests? Is this a reaction to Ferraro being drummed off the Clinton campaign.” No one’s going to remember Olbermann’s fucking Special Comment. No one’s going respond with the facts. They’ll pretend that the Obama campaign called for Obama’s head and that Clinton graciously responded.

Bleeech.

Liza responded clearly with the reason why I was mad:

It pisses me off that it take a white guy on a cable news show for people like us to be vindicated, but if it is a black woman pointing the obvious, she is just being a divisive and ‘reverse racist’ bitch.

OMG…someone in the liberal blogosphere who gets it! My reply:

I’ve been called that…I’ve gotten the doe eyes, “What racism?”…it’s enough to make me puke. And yes:

It pisses me off that it take a white guy on a cable news show for people like us to be vindicated

That is precisely why I’m steamed. I’ve sat here looking at accepted racism in the liberal blogosphere, had these morons tell me that I’m “being overly-sensitive” or that “maybe the person is having a bad day” or any other such bullshit, but let some white guy on TV tell them that something has crossed a line and it’s like blinders falling off.

And now, all those racists Democrats, and there’s no pretending that they don’t exist, have cover thanks to Ferraro and Clinton. I don’t ever want to hear another Clinton supporter who defended Ferraro’s remarks whine about sexism, real or perceived.

But I’m even more disgusted by people like Tubbs-Jones, Rangel, and Jackson Lee who just sat there and did nothing, said nothing. They could have stood up publicly and said, “This is not right, nor acceptable.”

They said nothing.

I’m an utterly disgusted with Democrats today.

I am done. I wrote a letter to the DNC today about this.

I would like to register my disappointment in the ugly turn the Democratic party has taken these past few weeks. I dmit freely to being an Obama supporter, though Dodd was my first choice.

The only reason I turned to Obama after Iowa was because of the race-baiting tactics from the Clinton’s campaign between July 2007 and Jan. 4, 2008.

That entire time, the party leaders were silent. They stood by why a fellow Senator and Democrat used right-wing talking points, to denigrate a candidate. As a black female, as a Muslim woman, Sen. Clinton’s antics were something I expect from someone like George Allen or Trent Lott.

I had hoped that after news reports mentioned that Bill Clinton has been “talked to” about his Southern Strategy, that we had seen the last of the race-baiting from the Clinton’s. I was wrong.

Geraldine Ferraro’s comments from last month and these past few days were not only out of bounds as Democrats,
but also as a functioning member of society. It pains me that the party I was raised in accepts these sorts of remarks.

I’ve sat here for the past 3 days, wondering when a party leader would step in an speak up on behalf of the most loyal bloc of the Democratic party. There was nothing. I sat here the last day searching elected officials websites and local papers throughout this country, looking for something from some elected offical denouncing Ferraro’s remarks, chastising the Clinton’s for not taking a harder stance on her outdated and factually incorrect statements. The silence is deafening.

I receive a lot of requests for money from you guys. When I had money, I gave freely. I volunteer my time and energy to get Democrats elected. I make phone calls, I blog, I email. This is all going to stop as of today. Because today, I am not proud to call myself a Democrat. Today, I am ashamed, as a black person in the United States, to associate with a party where racist statements are simply “disagreed” with.

There’ll probably no more energy expended by me on behalf of the Democratic Party. I will continue to do what I can to get Sen. Obama in the White House. If the party decides to give the nomination to Clinton, then I will sit this year out. We Democrats are faced with the historic option of voting for a woman or a non-white male, come November. I’m unwilling to step into the gutter to vote for the former.