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The converse of which would be, what makes Teresa Heinz Kerry or Bill Maher an "expert"???? |
Posted on 08/19/2004 2:43:14 PM PDT by swilhelm73
During a recent television appearance, New York Times pundette Maureen Dowd said something that should have effectively ended her career. In an on-air discussion with HBO's Bill Maher, Dowd said that those who oppose the expansion of funding for stem-cell research come from "what Lee Atwater used to call the extra-chromosome conservatives."
If anyone fails to take in the full meaning of Dowd’s statement, she was referring to the condition that causes Down Syndrome. In other words, if you oppose stem-cell research, you must be as stupid, unsophisticated, and laughable as someone who suffers from Down Syndrome. Wow, that's funny stuff right there.
Here's the exchange:
Dowd: ...She's [Teresa Heinz Kerry] been sort of eclipsed this week by Laura Bush, I think.
Maher: Yeah, who, ah, said she came out against the stem cell research. Why is she an expert on something so technical?
Dowd: Because Karl Rove thinks that if the Bush White House gets four million more evangelical votes than they did last time it ensures Bush's re-election, which means he's not his dad. And so they've dragged poor Laura Bush out to go for this, what Lee Atwater used to call the extra-chromosome conservatives.
This is what is known as stepping in it. It was much worse than Trent Lott appearing to be nostalgic for the good old days of Strom Thurmond's youth. This is Jimmy the Greek explaining black athletic superiority by getting into the details of slaveholders' strategies for better breeding of field hands.
In fact, Dowd's characterization of pro-lifers as "extra-chromosome conservatives" is worse than either of the preceding examples. She played birth defects for laughs to score a few cheap political points.
Was it a one-time slip? Was this the first time Dowd invoked Down Syndrome to explain the failings of conservatives? No. On at least two occasions in her regular NYT column, Dowd used the same one-liner. She has alternately attributed it to Lee Atwater and Bush the Elder. My own guess from a Lexis-Nexis search is that the term arises from what someone told Kitty Kelley when she was writing her book on Nancy Reagan. Dowd finds the slur so amusing that she keeps recycling it.
Dowd's thoughtless reference to "extra-chromosome conservatives" as a way of describing pro-lifers carries a further heartless edge. Down Syndrome children are increasingly the target of abortion by parents who refuse to countenance the addition of such a child to their families. Sometimes, pro-lifers are the only advocates these vulnerable children have.
This time around, Dowd tied the slur to the four million evangelical voters Karl Rove believes stayed home in 2000. In effect, she slandered an entire religious community in the United States. This type of mindless repetition of an obviously untrue stereotype is a sign of professional laxity and ill will. We all know how many academics, physicians, professionals, and other hard-working, decent people exist in the evangelical world to put the lie to her idiotic parroting of the old saw first rolled out by the Washington Post so long ago (poor and easy to command, remember?). A similar characterization of any other religious group in America would meet with severe censure, and rightly so.
POSTSCRIPT: Maureen Dowd may have spoken more correctly than she knew when she identified pro-lifers as "extra-chromosome conservatives." Jerome Lejeune discovered the extra chromosome that causes Down Syndrome and devoted his career to treating the children who suffer from it. He also happens to have been a powerful advocate for the unborn. Maybe she could call him an "extra-chromosome conservative" as well.
and the liberals are supposed to be the caring, tolerant,
sensitive, feeling, wow cool wonderful people.
just another example of what and who they REALLY are.
maureen dowd should be seriously ashamed.
OOPS.....i forgot,,,,these people have NO shame.
GRRRR!!!!!....I'd like to strangle this freakin' SOB, Maher! Is he a liar, or is he just stupid!?...Laura Bush came out against EMBRYONIC stem cell research, consistent with Pres. Bush's policy, not stem cell research per se. And he has a lot of gall to question Laura Bush's expertise on the issue. What makes Ron Prescott Reagan an expert on the issue?! In fact, to be consistent, Bill Maher should have said before they got into the discussion, "Look, none of us are experts on this, so we should all just shut our big mouths!"
Maureen Dowd should stick to things she knows about, like forgetting her dentures, owning sixty cats, wearing sweaters in August, and screaming at the neighborhood kids who step on her lawn.
It was Al Gore who used the "extra chromosome" comment, not Lee Atwater:
Back in 1994, Al Gore called Oliver North "the colonel of untruth" and said Mr. North was counting on political contributions from "the extra-chromosome right wing."
(Sources: White House Special Briefing, 10/28/94; Washington Times, September 4, 1997 )
AL APOLOGIZES: Vice President Al Gore sent out a letter apologizing for his embarrassing "extra chromosome" jibe at Oliver North supporters, saying he had "learned an important lession [sic]." (Source: National Review, December 31, 1994.)
algore also used this slur against the "religious right" and conservatives when he referred to them as the "extra-chromosome wing of the republican party." He was called on the carpet for it and later apologized in a written statement in which he stated he had "learned an important lession" (sic).
you have a better memory than I do, or had quicker access to the correct reference materials.
Presidential hopeful John Kerry let down that plastic "Ken doll" hair recently... The juiciest part of the "drinking session" was when he pointed out his picks for sexiest female. He named Charlize Theron and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
The first citation I've found on this is from Mark Kleiman's blog:
http://www.markarkleiman.com/archives/lying_in_politics_/2003/11/are_conservatives_prehistoric_humans.php
"This latest nonsense reminds me of an earlier flap about the term "extra-chromosome conservative." That coinage, which I recall being by Reagan's quite conservative political adviser Ed Rollins but which I've also seen attributed to the elder President Bush, was meant to suggest that the more pugnacious elements of the wild-eyed right resembled men with an extra Y chromosome. Those XYY males are somewhat more aggressive and somewhat more likely to engage in violent crime than those of us with only a single Y chromosome. (However, the difference, about a 50% increase in violence, isn't nearly as great as the difference between men and women, which is almost tenfold: the second Y chromosome isn't nearly as criminogenic as the first.) "
I took the phrase as this meaning.
Count me in. I guess I'm an ECC, too.
Dowd is a bitter, dried-up hag, whose adolescent "humor" becomes progressively more repellant the older she gets. Her attempts at hipness make me wince; I'd call her pathetic, except her bitterness makes her a singularly unsympathetic figure.
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The converse of which would be, what makes Teresa Heinz Kerry or Bill Maher an "expert"???? |
She is a wench, and I have not read any of this wnech's article for a long time. Getting angry and wanting to choke the living crap out of someone long distance is not good for a person.
She is a wench, and I have not read any of this wench's article for a long time. Getting angry and wanting to choke the living crap out of someone long distance is not good for a person.
Or Dowd.
Not a very good idea for Maureen--a practicing Catholic--to go around promoting stem cell research...
Don't even bother. Bill Maher isn't worth anyone's time. In spite of what he might like to believe, he's as politically correct as they come.
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