Saturday, November 21, 2009

Mary Matalin: It's Fine to Slap Women Around

(Via CrooksandLiars)
Mary Matalin, who, in addition to being a CNN commentator and Republican political consultant, is "editor-in-chief" of Simon & Schuster's Threshold Books. There are enough conflicts of interest there to warn anybody less arrogant that that some topics, including Sarah Palin's book, shouldn't be weighed in on, lest you appear as if you're defending your friends and political allies as well as your own business interests. But this isn't someone less arrogant by a long shot.

In this CNN.com piece Matalin whines on about not acquiring the Sarah Palin book for her imprint. Then she goes on to a) say that it will have a hard time making money; and b) that Palin "napalms" too many bridges and complains too much in the book, particularly about people Matalin loves and adores. Her advice? Palin, even if she was mistreated, should have just sucked it up and taken it, and put it all behind her. That's when Matalin tells the story of a women on a Republican campaign who got slapped across the face by a "big" man and, rightly, just accepted it:

Time is the most valuable commodity on a campaign and you just can't waste it thinking about how to choose your words carefully or get your job done more diplomatically. If someone isn't in tears every day, that day wasn't all it could be advancing the campaign. I once witnessed an experienced (big) man slap a professional female colleague across the face over an ad buy... and no one thought anything of it, starting with the woman. In fact, she would have been insulted if anyone told her she should have been insulted.

Wow, just speechless after that.