Author Topic: GOP presidential candidate defends Imus, slams Jackson and Sharpton  (Read 1027 times)

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Amianthus

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Friday, April 13, 2007

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee defended embattled radio talk-show host Don Imus during a radio interview Friday, saying that if Imus deserves to be fired, several other talk-show hosts do as well.

"I think if Imus is going to get fired, then there are a number of other people who need to go out the door," the former Arkansas governor told Radio Iowa in Des Moines. "Rosie's probably got to go. Bill Maher has to go. Gosh, half of talk radio and television has to go."

But Huckabee did not hold back in criticizing the talk-show hosts comments about the Rutgers Women's basketball team.

"It was wrong, it was over the top," he said. "And what made it so bad, worse than a normal kind of thing, was that it was directed at amateur athletes and college students, and specific college students, it wasn't just a generic statement. And those are classy kids. And they've shown an extraordinary level of class through this whole thing, more so than anybody else I've seen on either side of it."

Huckabee also criticized Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton's involvement in the case.

"The best way to get rid of him is for people just to say, 'I'm not going to listen to him anymore,' not to make this decision because Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton said so," he added. "And perhaps what's most offensive is, of all the people to lead the charge, here are two people that have a long history of making outrageous statements and getting away with it. And I don't understand that."

-- CNN's Steve Brusk

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domer

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Re: GOP presidential candidate defends Imus, slams Jackson and Sharpton
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2007, 05:42:51 PM »
Part of that 100 lbs. must have included his cerebral cortex. In a situation like this -- disparate employers, disparate audiences, disparate constituencies, et al. -- underinclusion of offenders is simply a fact of life, mainly because there's no central decision-maker. I'd love to see offending rap artists stung in this way, just show me how to do it. As it was, this was the lay species of a political meltdown: spitting in the face of ten laudable young women on blatantly racial and/or sexual terms by a member of the establishment, more or less. As things are aligned in the firmament of public discourse in America today, you grab a precedent when you can and hope that by draining the swamp one pail-load at a time you can salvage the expanse for higher use. As for Sharpton and Jackson, the former being in my general area of habitation and thus often on my TV screen, I respect them both. Unlike this situation, as I've sketched, these two men, perhaps mingling an absolutely necessary message of advocacy based on hope in the face of disadvantage with a heavy dose of ego (show me the politician worth his or her salt who doesn't), are "free-reining" politicians, not answerable to private employers, who manage to maintain a critical-mass constituency because of, not despite, their advocacy.