RNC puts out a video comparing Nancy Pelosi to Pussy Galore from the Bond film Goldfinger. Controversy ensues.
Garance Franke-Ruta in WaPo.
The RNC, however, is not celebrating the women in these classic movies, even by 1960’s standards. Nor are they empowering women through utilizing one of the the cunning female villains who parade around in them by equating her with Speaker Pelosi. I shouldn’t have to spell it out any further, though if the RNC doesn’t have women in their leadership ranks or men who get this stuff and know bad taste when they see it, the Rush, Newt and Cheney Party (as they were aptly called on “Hardball” yesterday) is truly nothing more than a frat boy institution. No offense to fraternities meant.
Andie Coller in Politico
I think they intended to call Democrats pussies. That’s why it ends with the on-screen words “Democrats Galore.” The idea is: The Democrats are pussies — meaning sissies. But it just doesn’t work because that’s not the way “pussy” is meant in “Pussy Galore.”
The RNC does occasionally display suicidal tendencies — see, e.g., pretty much anything to come out of Michael Steele’s mouth over the past few months — but I can’t believe they intended to call Pelosi a “pussy” knowing how offensive it is, how many votes it could cost them, and how outrageously outraged the media would be on her behalf as a way of changing the subject from her lies about waterboarding. Even the GOP’s not that self-destructive. They are, however, evidently tone-deaf enough to cast her in the role of a generic Bond femme fatale here, which very stupidly and gratuitously injects her gender into a war they were winning.
Emily Miller defends the RNC:
I do, however, give the RNC props for a rare effort at political humor in order to reach out to young, hip voters with this so-called viral video. The liberal media is freaking out about the ad, calling it offensive and demeaning to the first female Speaker. My response to Melinda is you need to watch the whole video from a policy standpoint because the message is that Pelosi is in serious political trouble for denying ever getting intelligence about water boarding and for challenging the integrity of the CIA.
Meanwhile, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) did not agree with the RNC. Sully (back from break) gives him the Yglesias award.
UPDATE: Robert Stacy McCain:
Try to read Taylor Marsh’s hissie fit (this term is a derivative of hysteria, whose Greek roots remind us that the patriarchy has been oppressing womyn for 3,000 years) and never forget the accusation: It’s Republicans who don’t have a sense of humor.
Too bad this happened too late for National Offend A Feminist Week. But thanks to the RNC for keeping alive the festive holiday spirit.
UPDATE#2: Jay Newton-Small at The Swampland at Time.
UPDATE #3: Via Christopher Orr, Alex Massie:
Do these people not realise that Pussy Galore is the movie’s heroine? Granted, her coversion to the cause is only confirmed after, literally, a roll in the hay with Sean Connery but from that point forward she’s one of the Good Girls. Indeed, 007 and Felix Leiter would not have been able to foil Auric Goldfinger’s assault on Fort Knox unless Pussy Galore and her Flying Circus had betrayed Goldfinger. That’s quite important!
Accordingly, any sensible person watching the RNC video is left confused: do they mean to suggest that “Pelosi Galore” is actually on the side of the angels? Or, and I grant that this seems less probable, could it be that they simply haven’t a clue what they’re talking about?
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May 26, 2009 at 10:58 pm
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