Posted on 05/18/2012 8:31:51 PM PDT by SmithL
What’s good for Jay Leno, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert is apparently not good for corporate lawyers.
A group of Bay Area congressmembers sent a stern letter to Pleasanton-based Safeway CEO Steve Burd admonishing the grocery giant for a joke its top lawyer reportedly made at the expense of Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi during a May 15 stockholder meeting.
General Counsel Robert Gordon reportedly told a joke involving the Secretary of State and the House Minority Speaker from San Francisco, pigs and the Secret Service. Gosh, it already sounds funny. (Read the full narrative below.)
Lighten up, people.
If members of Congress start writing to every business organization where a national politician was the butt of a joke, they’ll be busier than a genuine Arkansas razorback hog farmer at feeding time.
Here’s the letter:
Mr. Steve Burd
President and CEO
Safeway Inc.
5918 Stoneridge Mall Road
Pleasanton, CA 94588
By Fax (925) 467-3230
Dear Mr. President,
We are writing to express our strong disapproval of inappropriate comments reportedly made by Safeway General Counsel Robert Gordon at Safeway’s May 15 shareholder meeting. We are deeply disappointed by these comments and believe Safeway must take corrective steps immediately.
According to an audio recording reportedly taken from the shareholder meeting, General Counsel Gordon inappropriately used House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the butt of his joke, as follows:
You know, this is the season when companies and other institutions are interested in enhancing their reputation and their image for the general public, and one of the institutions that’s doing this is the Secret Service, particularly after the calamity in Colombia. And among the instructions given to the Secret Service agents was to try to agree with the president more and support his decisions. And that led to this exchange that took place last week, when the president flew into the White House lawn and an agent greeted him at the helicopter. The president was carrying two pigs under his arms and the Secret Service agents said, “Nice pigs, sir.”And the president said, “These are not ordinary pigs, these are genuine Arkansas razorback hogs. I got one for former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and one for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.” And the Secret Service agent said, “Excellent trade, sir.”Poking fun at politicians is part of our culture, and TV comedians carry this out nightly. But sexist jokes told by a top executive of a Fortune 500 company to an international audience are completely inappropriate and demonstrate a shocking lack of respect, not only for two of the most important and respected people in our country but for all women.
Safeway owes an apology to Secretary Clinton, Leader Pelosi, and the country. It is up to the Safeway board to decide what action to take against its general counsel for his comments but let there be no doubt as to our strong disapproval and deep disappointment in your company for what he said.
Sincerely,
Reps. George Miller, Anna Eshoo, Zoe Lofgren, Mike Thompson, Lynn Woolsey, Jerry McNerney, John Garamendi, Doris Matsui, Barbara Lee, and Mike Honda
“I just like the mental picture of obama carrying around pigs.”
In that case, what do you call a black, Half-rican, community organizer from Chicago as he walks across the lawn carrying a sheep under one arm and a goat under the other arm?
Answer: Bisexual.
have you ever meet a libtard that had a normal sense of humor??
doubtful
most joyless #$%^&^ known to man.
-PJ
The Safeway supermarket chain has been doing business for many decades, and was headquartered in Oakland for most of those years. Relatively recently it moved from Oakland to Pleasanton in the east bay area. They are the Kroger of the west coast. Perhaps it’s time to consider one more corporate move... outside the people’s republic of crazyfornia.
Not PC NAZIS: More Like COMMUNIST PIGS:
Miller, Woolsey, Lee are hardcore marxists and always have been.
Honda, and Lofgren are softcore marxists.
Don’t know about Thompson, McNerney and Garamendia. Do know that Matsui and Eshoo are leftist assholes.
Fortney Stark - a 1%er marxist nutcase. Never missed a communist guerrilla movement in Latin America to support.
By the way, a Honda was always a fairy bike. Mike is too.
Wait, were the pigs wearing lipstick?
It’s an old joke. I heard versions with Clinton as the POTUS where he mentions getting them for Chelsea. Made more sense then because Chelsea was just a teen back then and the small pigs are considered pets.
Lots of other places to live and work other than the San Fran area of dying California.
The sooner you get out, ahead of the following stampede, the better you will be established wherever you go.
“Lots of other places to live and work other than the San Fran area of dying California.”
Nah, I’d rather stay and fight to return this once proud first in the nation state to it’s former status. You guys who preach “cut and run” should be ashamed of yourselves. Really glad your genetics were not present when this country was being formed.
“But we’ll forget this ever happened if you’ll make a sizable campaign donation.” The level these people will sink to just to shake down a business.
Yes -- real damages, not just notional, paper losses. This is a palpable reduction in real, merchantable value for those pigs, and manifest injury to their owners.
Someone ought to sue! A precedent must be established!
Meanwhile, this is an ancient Internet joke that I've seen at least three or four times in my e-mail inbasket over the last 10 years. Whining PC zombies need to grow a brain.
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