It's a rule that didn't just applied to the underage children of politicians, but the adult children. Witness the 2008 suspension of MSNBC's David Shuster for suggesting then-presidential contender Hillary Clinton's 28-year-old daughter Chelsea Clinton was being "pimped out" by the campaign.
But maybe that rule only applied to Democrats. When it comes to liberal pundits attempting to score cheap points against conservatives, especially ones they loathe like Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, all bets are off. In an Aug. 12 column, Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Jon Tevlin, citing a hateful anti-Bachmann blog, decided it appropriate to beat up the two-term congresswoman using her son Harrison's decision to participate in the government program Teach for America (TFA). TFA is one of the programs under the AmeriCorps umbrella.
"I know Bachmann doesn't believe her son is volunteering, but rather is becoming yet another government-paid drain on the taxpayer," Tevlin wrote. "In a way, she's right. AmeriCorps members are school district employees and thus receive the same salaries and benefits as other beginning teachers, from $27,000 to $47,500, depending on the region. I might suggest that if you feel strongly that this is more government control, you should show up at Bachmann's next town hall meeting and scream slogans at her. But that would be rude and, frankly, a little crazy."
Tevlin's column took on a second life on MSNBC host Keith Olbermann's Aug. 12 show. Olbermann decided he would use Bachmann's son decision to titillate his left wing audience.
"It's a parent/child relationship plot twist equaled only in cinema when Darth Vader informed Luke Skywalker that he, Luke's villainous arch enemy, was actually his father," Olbermann. "In our number one story, today we've learned that conservative Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's son has chosen what she might consider, might as well have called the dark side. You may recall the congresswoman's unique view of President Obama's expansion of the AmeriCorps program, which she shared on a Minnesota radio program earlier this year."
Olbermann brought on "comedian" Christian Finnegan to be his wingman on his trip into obnoxious liberal land.
"First of all, I want to say, I don't think it is fair that this kid gets to go to reeducation camp," Finnegan quipped, "when it's obvious that Michele Bachmann never got the opportunity to go to any sort of regular education camp,"
As an irritant to the left-wing intelligentsia, Bachmann and other conservative women like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Miss California and Miss USA runner-up Carrie Prejean have been a focal point for daily attacks. Conservative commentator Ann Coulter noted this in a recent column about the attacks on Palin:
The peculiarly venomous hatred of Palin is driven by women of the left and their whipped consorts. All that needs to happen is for a feminist to overhear two Nation readers saying, "I hate to admit it, but Palin is kind of hot" and ...
WHAT??????????? YOU CALL THAT HOT? I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW WE'VE GOT A MEGA-SUPER HOTTIE IN DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. AND NEED I REMIND YOU AGAIN OF THE RAW SEX APPEAL OF RACHEL MADDOW?
Democrats are a party of women, and nothing drives them off their gourds like a beautiful Christian conservative. (How much money has that other beautiful born-again, Carrie Prejean, been forced to spend on lawyers to respond to liberal hysteria?)
