MSNBC's Scarborough: 'Do You Think' Mrs. Fred Thompson 'Works the Pole'?

NewsBusters.org ^ | Ken Shepherd

[SandRat]

Conservative blogs are abuzz with a controversial remark MSNBC's Joe Scarborough made on his Friday "Morning Joe" program about Jeri Thompson, the wife of former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), who is mulling over a White House bid.

Hot Air has the video.

Here's the relevant transcript:

JOE SCARBOROUGH, host, "Morning Joe": Have you seen, um, have you seen Fred Thompson's wife?

CRAIG CRAWFORD, Congressional Quarterly: Oh, yeah!

SCARBOROUGH: You think she works the pole?

CRAWFORD: That's what Hollywood careers will do for you, I guess.

SCARBOROUGH: [Laughs] What do you mean?

CRAWFORD: You get wives like that.

SCARBOROUGH: I mean, look at that guy. God bless him, I love his voice, but I mean, you know, he ain't Robert Redford in 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.'

CRAWFORD: Well, I'd like to see him get back into politics, 'cause I think he's a lousy actor!

Michelle Malkin is critical of the comments, noting that Scarborough replaced Don Imus, who was canned for his "nappy-headed hos" remark about the Rutgers women's basketball team:

Scarborough owes Thompson and his wife an apology.

Be a man, Joe. Would you let someone publicly joke about your wife that way?

On May 11, NewsBusters contributor Noel Sheppard documented Scarborough's kid glove treatment of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.):

SCARBOROUGH: There's been such a division in this country. I really do think that people are exhausted, and they're looking for a president who can unite the country. . . And a lot of people who probably said some very nasty things about you in the 1990s, are extraordinarily impressed with the type of leadership you provided since you've been in the Senate, how you have been a unifying force.

Last November, NewsBusters senior editor Rich Noyes noticed that Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, declared of his pre-election coverage, "I have been bashing my party more than the Democratic Party."

[Mike Darancette]

Does Scarborough have some type of fixation on poles?

[packrat35]

Yea ol’ “mystery young dead staffer” Joe has a lot of room to talk.

[RetSignman]

Uh Joe, why are you so interested in what might be occurring Mr. Thompson’s sex life, are you secretly wishing you could be there to watch or maybe replace Mrs. Thompson?

Are you secretly drooling over the prospect that men who tall and have big feet also are well endowed and wish you could see for yourself.

Are you married, if so, does your wife work the Vienna sausage?

[Enduring Freedom]

[G Larry]

Somebody must be blackmailing Joe.
Perhaps Hillary has pictures?

[Enduring Freedom]

oops...wrong milf...here's jeri...

[dforest]

Think of all the attention Fred could have had if he had just married Paris Hilton?

I think all this emphasis on his wife is so ridiculous. She is probably a very nice lady.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Some women, insecure women who don’t look like her, will have a problem with how great she looks. And men like Joe Scarborough will have a problem with her appearance.

---

Honestly, people who are looking for something to dislike about Fred may “have a problem.”

People who like Fred won’t.

I think that is precisely the pattern of what is happening here.

[4yearlurker]

I think Joe works his own pole.

[Ancesthntr]

Say something l;ike Fred did to Michael Moron?

Something similar would be fine. I was thinking, though, of what Harry Truman said when some reporter made a negative crack about his daughter Margaret's singing abilities:

"In the 1940s, she aspired to be a singer. After graduating from George Washington University and undergoing some classical vocal training, she debuted in a vocal recital on the radio in March 1947. After a performance in December 1950, Washington Post music critic Paul Hume gave her an unfavorable review, resulting in an incident in which President Truman threatened to beat the reviewer calling Hume an "eight ulcer man on four ulcer pay." Many fathers wrote in support of her father's outburst." [emphasis added]

From Wikipedia entry on Margaret Truman

[SandRat]

Have no idea. Definately No Gentleman for attacking another man’s wife that way.

[SandRat]

I know but that was not his implication.

[SandRat]

Could be something very Freudian.

[SpeakLittle_ThinkMuch]

Sorry, that’s Lori Morgan in the white dress. NOT Mrs. Thompson.

[WashingtonSource]

Does this mean Fred is well-endowed? The pole? Maybe Joe has been working the pole. And he’s jealous of the wife.

[stopem]

Maybe Joe meant “polls”.

Gives a whole new meaning to voting for boobs.

Flaunting one’s bosom whether courtesy of a plastic surgeon or not, is irrelevant to voters and only relevant to pimply schoolboys hiding playboy from mom.

Class not crass.