Did Chuck Todd try to "out" Charlie Crist?

[marmar]

Say what you want about Charlie Crist, but Chuck Todd has crossed the line with this.



from ThinkProgress:



Chuck Todd suggests Charlie Crist has a sham marriage.»

Via Matt Yglesias, MSNBC pundits this morning discussed potential running mates for John Mccain and whether there is a “glass ceiling” for unmarried individuals in politics. After Andrea Mitchell floated Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL) as an example, Joe Scarborough noted that Crist is engaged. Chuck Todd suggested the engagement may be staged so Crist can be Vice President:

SCARBOROUGH: Did he get married? I thought he was engaged. Is he engaged or did he get married?

TODD: After Friday the engagement might be off if he’s not the running mate., right? … I don’t know!

(Laughter)

Watch it: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/27/chuck-todd-crist/


As the group laughed, Andrea Mitchell remarked, “That is so mean.” “Wow,” said Scarborough.


http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/27/chuck-todd-crist/

[FLAprogressive]

1. lol - ol' Charlie's been growin' a nice BEARD

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Only his barber knows for sure ...

[LiberalFighter]

16. Is that Keesha from BB10?

[ColbertWatcher]

17. Her name is "Kelly Crosby Heyniger" n/t

[C_U_L8R]

2. That's not much of a stretch

considering we're talking about republicans here

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. Those chuckles seemed pretty nervous, if you ask me

Not so much "Aren't you cute!" as "Shut up, Todd; don't talk about it. Please, dear God, don't talk about it."

[blm]

5. VERY nervous...like they were astounded it slipped and had to chatter to cover it up.

.

[texasleo]

4. Is he light in the loafers? Does he have change for a three-dollar bill?

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. They don't call him "Governor Helium Heels" for nothing n/t

[Fla Dem]

6. While he may have meant what you were thinking.........

I took it to mean it was an engagement of convenience. If he was the VP candidate, he would have to be married, if he isn't he doesn't need to be.

[noonwitch]

7. The media shouldn't be in the business of outing people

However, if he is gay and covering it up, and he is picked for the VP slot, someone will out him, hopefully on O'Reilly's or Hannity's show, so all the conservatives will see it.

[Swamp Rat]

10. Actually, the media SHOULD be in the business of outing ALL politicians...

for their high crimes and misdemeanors. ;)

[CherokeeDem]

9. Now live in KY but lived in FL for 10 years....

Always been the rumor that Crist was gay and for years everyone in KY has talked about the gay blade Mitch McConnell. Such hypocrites!

[TooBigaTent]

11. The tough thing about this, and other similar issues (e.g., Obama is Muslim) is to be able to

point out the hypocrisy of the rethugs in treating that "category" of person as less-than-worthy without it coming off as a slur.

That is a fine line to skate, but it can be done.

Maybe something along the lines of "If his policies were more in tune with the American people, we certainly would welcome Charlie into our party regardless of whether he is, in fact, gay or not. What we cannot understand is his sticking with a party that denies him basic human rights. The republics seem to think that being gay is a scarlet letter that somehow disqualifies a person. We do not discriminate."

[endthewar]

12. Has nothing to do with his sexual orientation.

Just observing that he just HAPPENED to get engaged right as he was flip-flopping on offshore drilling. Even if the love is real, I think it's fair conjecture to muse about. However, they're not attacking his sexual orientation as you're suggesting.

[jkshaw]

14. I tend to agree with you, endthewar,

I got the impression that Crist, as perhaps a dedicated bachelor, might decide to give up the marriage idea if he didn't get the vp nod. Bad enough, unless the engagement was a mutual idea with the woman to enhance his chances. And I never heard the "beard" remark at all, and I listened to the thing three times. There was a lot of cross talking going on. Where was the "beard" remark? Or was that conjecture?

[endthewar]

15. No beard remark in there

[W_HAMILTON]

18. I was wondering who they were talking about

I only caught a little bit of this earlier, and couldn't figure out who they were talking about, or what they were referring to. I knew they were talking about a VP pick not being married, but as they kinda mentioned, that seems almost unheard of.

So, Crist was the guy huh? And he only recently got engaged? And then Todd went on to say that?

I get a chuckle out of it all now. Thanks for posting this so I finally know what the heck they were talking about :)

[Tommy_Carcetti]

19. As a Floridian, I really don't care one way or another.

Crist is better than his predecessor Jeb Bush, but it doesn't take a whole lot for that to be the case. Whatever his orientation is I could care less.

[TexasObserver]

20. When a Democrat is gay, it's not news. When a Republican is gay, it is news, because ...

... because the GOP hates homosexuals and has policies to prove it.

[Berry Cool]

21. If anyone tried to call Todd on it, he could easily defend himself by saying

he was just making a joke...you know, a bad-taste sexist joke, for which he now heartily apologizes, of course...you know, about how some women only want to marry a man if they think he's going to be a bigwig, and if they get the impression he's not going to be a bigwig after all, they break off the engagement...

It'll be easier for him to apologize for making a "sexist joke" than for implying that Crist is a gay man in a sham engagement.

[riverdeep]

22. I thought this was already one of those worst-kept secret deals.

On our side we have out politicians like Tammy Baldwin and no one could care less, big deal. On their side it creates tension and, yes, hilarity because they try so hard to hide it.