I heard about this story from Gateway Pundit. Wanda Sykes "accused Limbaugh of treason, compared him to Usama bin Laden and wished for his physical collapse as she roasted the favorite target of liberals Saturday night at the Washington Hilton" (FNC).
"Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails, so you're saying, 'I hope America fails,' you're like, 'I don't care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq.' He just wants the country to fail. To me, that's treason. . . . He's not saying anything differently than what Usama bin Laden is saying," she continued, before addressing the guest of honor, President Obama. "You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight."
The crowd groaned, Obama smiled and Sykes may have noticed a little discomfort in the room.
"Too much?" she asked.
But then she piled it on:
"Rush Limbaugh, 'I hope the country fails' -- I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? ... He needs a good waterboarding, that's what he needs."
According to MSNBC, "former Vice President Dick Cheney was also a monologue target."
"Dick Cheney, oh my God, he's a scary man, scares me to death. I tell my kids, I says, 'Look, if two cars pull up, and one has a stranger, and the other car has Dick Cheney, you get in the car with the stranger.'"
Sykes also had former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in her cross hairs. The Alaska governor canceled her dinner appearance after severe flooding hit her state.
She sent her husband, Todd, instead, but that didn't prevent a few jokes about her teenage daughter's out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
Wanda Sykes can say that to laughter, and yet golf analyst David Feherty apologized for his morbid joke:"From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this though. . . . Despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death" (FNC).
First of all, to even joke about 9/11 is completely reprehensible. It is tasteless and crude and completely ignorant. And accusing Limbaugh of treason . . . does anyone recall James Carville and Stanley Greenberg? Just minutes before news of the terrorist attacks disseminated the morning of September 11, 2001, Carville told Washington reporters, "'I certainly hope he doesn't succeed'" (FNC). Greenberg said, "'We rush into these focus groups with these doubts that people have about [Bush], and I'm wanting them to turn against him.'" Shortly thereafter, "as news of the terrorist attacks reached the hotel conference room where the Democrats were having breakfast with the reporters, Carville announced: 'Disregard everything we just said! This changes everything!' The press followed Carville's orders, never reporting his or Greenberg's desire for Bush to fail." Carville and Greenberg wanted Bush to fail, and yet when that information was finally belatedly released, they weren't deemed traitors. And yet Rush Limbaugh has been labeled treasonous and a terrorist.
Second of all, if Wanda Sykes may say that and receive laughter from Obama -- an encouraging response -- then why cannot David Feherty write with impunity? This nation was founded upon freedom of speech. If Wanda Sykes may say what she likes on national television in front of the president, then David Feherty should most definitely be permitted to write what he likes in a magazine.
Third of all, it seems to me that plenty of people have children out of wedlock -- Bristol Palin happened to be one of them. And doesn't having children out of wedlock imply pre-marital or extra-marital sex? And isn't chastity considered a more "conservative" value? Therefore, wasn't Sykes lambasting a more liberal way of life?
Fourth of all, I have a lot more to say but name-calling is ridiculous and would serve no purpose, anyway.
