The Presidential Boys Club.

Joe Scarborough went on a rant this morning about what a chauvinist President Obama was because he did not have any women among his new cabinet appointments. His rant and tete-a-tete with his co-host  was sparked by that pic you see accompanying this post. 

 

Poor Mika Brzezinski almost lost her Starbucks and was furious that Joe Scarborough would imply that President Obama runs a boyz club and does not respect women. I wonder if Joe realized that other than Mika, he was talking to a room full of men. In fact, I have never seen any women working behind the scenes on Joe's show.

Scarborough, of course, cried double standard, and he went on to cry a river about Mitt Romney’s "binders full of women" gaffe and how the MSM ran with it.

Dude seemed genuinely outraged that Obama would get a free pass on issues of gender equality. Memo to Joe: First start by respecting your own wife before you start pointing fingers at his Oness for his dearth of those of the more feminine persuasion in his cabinet. (I see you Mr. and Mrs.Klausutis. I want to know what happened to your daughter as well.)

 

So anyhoo, skip over the next paragraph Obamaholics, I still have to slam your boy. Mr. President, I know that you have a much better record than your predecessor (and most republicans for that matter) when it comes to these issues, but optics is everything. The president has a way of defaulting to the Ivy League boys club, or going for the "safe" pic when it comes to these things. It's as if he is always afraid of having certain folks in America say he is hooking up his peeps. Honestly, I don't know why, they are going to hate him no matter what.  

 

But back to Joe and Mika. Joe proceeded to rip Mika a new one and dared her to say that he didn't care about women. He berated, scolded, and embarrassed her for five full minutes before she relented and basically said that Joe was a good Godfather.

 

"You really — knowing me and seeing me work around here for five years — you want to call me a chauvinist on television?” Scarborough asked, with Brzezinski replying that she wasn’t calling him that.

 

“I said the way you’re acting is chauvinistic,” she responded, “especially the way you were handling this conversation. It’s not funny.”  

Do I act like a chauvinist in Congress, the way I ran my office there, the way run my office here? I am a chauvinist?” Scarborough repeatedly pressed, as they argued and talked over each other. “Read your own book!”
“You can’t throw around attacks like that,” he said, “because you’re embarrassed about what Barack Obama’s doing.”

(Update: Later in the show, Brzezinski apologized to Scarborough, saying his “entire career” backs up the fact that he is not, indeed, a chauvinist. She reiterated her point that she disliked how Scarborough handled the segment.)" [Source]

 

In other words, Joe please don't fire me, I need those checks. Anyway Mika, you might want to reconsider the "entire career" part. Just ask Mr. and Mrs. Klausutis. 

 

Finally, speaking of women, it's sad that the lame stream media is ignoring the House republicans failure to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Yes, it expired on January 2nd of this year. It's sad, because the VAWA was a good thing.

 

"As the 112th Congress came to a close, wrapped up in the drama of the so-called fiscal cliff, it failed to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. It was the first time Congress has failed to do so.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was enacted by Congress in 1994. Among its many provisions were tougher penalties for repeat sexual offenders, funding to train law enforcement in appropriate responses to domestic violence cases, and establishing the National Domestic Violence Hotline where victims can call for help and guidance. It focused attention on underserved groups of women, including immigrant and Native American populations.
VAWA created a federal rape shield law, which prevents a woman's past sexual history from being used against her in a rape trial. It provided economic relief to rape victims by mandating that they don't have to pay for their own rape exams.

Just as importantly, the enactment of VAWA publicly acknowledged the abuse suffered by hundreds of thousands of women every year. Not only did it put in place changes in how the legal system treated abused women, it was a statement that violence against women would no longer be met with indifference and ambivalence but would be prosecuted with vigor and diligence.
It was long overdue. The outcry against violence against women had reached a level that could no longer be ignored. The numbers didn't lie, and the Violence Against Women Act was enacted to combat them. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC): [Source] 

Joe, instead of the lack of women in O's binder, maybe you should have been talking about this