Jon Huntsman is officially off my Christmas Card list.
Commenting on Herman Cain’s calvacade of scandals, the presidential candidate (yeah, really, he’s still in the race) told the Boston Herald that “We’ve got real issues to talk about, not the latest bimbo eruption.”
What the hell is that?
Here’s a real issue, for you, Mr. Huntsman: Why don’t we discuss the casual disregard for women you display by throwing around the word “bimbo” like you’re someone’s 90-year-old grandmother using the word “colored.” “Oh, what? They don’t like to be called that anymore? It’s so hard to keep up. I liked that Nat King Cole, though. He was a good one.”
Checking the dictionary, “bimbo” is defined as “a generalized term of disapproval especially for an attractive but vacuous person” or, more offensively, a “tramp.”
So, who are these bimbos erupting from Cain’s now practically dormant volcano?
The Huffington Post kindly provided a slideshow of Cain’s accusers. First up is Karen Kraushaar, a Treasury Department spokeswoman, who “was an employee at the National Restaurant Association during the time Cain was head of the group.” OK, nothing particularly bimboic about that. The second woman remains anonymous — The Huffington Post curiously chose to depict her using the image of what appears to be a thinly disguised Portia de Rossi — but we do know she that she also worked at the National Restaurant Association and is currently employed at a New Jersey lobbying firm. No bimbo readings there.
We know little about the third accuser, other than her having worked at the National Restaurant Association and charging Cain “with making sexually suggestive remarks and gestures, even inviting her to his corporate apartment for a private visit. She described his behavior as aggressive and inappropriate, similar to the claims made by the previous accusers.” I tend to err on “innocent until proven bimbo” so let’s move on to the fourth woman, Sharon Bialek, a professional woman and mother, who was the first to make a public statement and whose treatment by Cain’s camp and the conservative media arguably initiated the trickle-down creepiness that led Ginger White to come forward this week.
It’s possible Huntsman was confused by the smear job the Cain people put out on these women, which attempted to paint them as modern-day Evelyn Nesbits. Maybe he was just referring to Ginger White, the only one of the party of five to state that a consensual sexual relationship took place, rather than sexual harassment and sexual assault. It might be a little judgmental to call an Atlanta businesswoman a “bimbo” just because she had an extramarital affair, but I’m sure that’s the same pejorative used for Congressmen who troll for women on the Internet or who dress up in tiger suits when not fooling around with the teenage daughter of campaign donors. What? No? Well, that’s peculiar.
Huntsman is not even capable of original insults. “Bimbo eruption” dates back to the 1992 presidential campaign when political consultant Betsey Wright used it to describe the inconvenient women with whom Bill Clinton most likely had sex. I’m sure Ms. Wright is awfully proud of the mark she’s made in history and for women’s rights.
Sorry, Jon, I tried to find these “bimbos” for you but no luck. If it’s any consolation, I do know where to find a big jerk.
Recurring Feature (at least until Dec. 26): It’s a Wonderful Lives…
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is my least favorite film that my favorite actor (Jimmy Stewart) made — that’s not a dig, as it’s sort of like referring to your least favorite sunset in Paris. However, I’ve probably seen it the most often due to the period in the 1980s when it was shown constantly (this phenomenon was satirized in a 1987 episode of “Cheers”).
Either as a side-effect of getting older or simply the times in which we live, I confess that the film becomes more bittersweet with each year’s inevitable viewing. Are there any George Baileys left in the modern world? Were they all ground under the iron heel of the Mr. Potters who run our corporations, our banks, and, well, our country? Yet, every year, Americans curl up with a glass of eggnog and root for George while later voting for Mr. Potter, who is quite clear in his intent to pave over Bedford Falls and erect a consumerist Pottersville-nightmare.
Oh well, Christmas is, after all, all about cognitive dissonance, so let’s just embrace it until our bleary-eyed, New Year’s hangover greets us in 2012.
If “A Christmas Carol” offers the promise of redemption, the appeal of “It’s a Wonderful Life” is the notion that your life actually matters and has a demonstrably positive effect on other people. It warms even the coldly cynical part of me that believes the universe is just too big for one person’s absence or involvement to make much of a difference. And before anyone counters with Hitler, I would point out that there’s always someone next in line.
In 1996, I spent Christmas Eve in a bar just to recreate this moment.
Also, like “A Christmas Carol,” “It’s a Wonderful Life” has inspired countless explorations of its themes in TV and film. I’ll be generous here and call them “homages.” The effective “It’s a Wonderful Life” formula requires a decent man pushed to the brink and a satanic figure who would run riot in the world if that good man gives up in the face of his endless struggle with him. The film is an obvious Christ allegory but with a happy ending — God intervenes and prevents George’s suicide rather than insisting it’s part of a larger plan, and the people of Bedford Falls do not abandon George in his most vulnerable moment. Yeah, maybe the Christ story is more realistic.
I thought it might be fun — if for no one but myself — to revisit a few of these “It’s a Wonderful Life” remakes in their various forms (as I plan to do with “A Christmas Carol”). The first one is from a 2008 episode of the daytime soap opera “The Young and the Restless,” which always featured a Christmas-themed episode I found myself watching during my single days. In a way, it combines both “A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful LIfe” — Michael Baldwin, unlike George Bailey, is no saint. Years ago, he was a pretty vile character who committed acts that would make Herman Cain blush. He’s since redeemed himself and, as the following clips reveal, makes the world around him a better one.
I personally doubt this will happen with Cain, but who knows? He’ll probably need the help of three spirits but those guys do good work.
Posted by Stephen Robinson on December 2, 2011 in Pop Life, Social Commentary
Tags: Herman Cain, It's a Wonderful Life, Michael Baldwin, Young & the Restless