(Jake Turcotte)
Ed Rendell on Janet Napolitano: Perfect because she has no life!
By Jimmy Orr | 12.03.08
Ever been told to get a life? As far as Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is concerned, not having a life is a great compliment. So complimentary is it that if you don’t have one you’re qualified to join Barack Obama’s cabinet!
Yeah, it’s that open microphone thing again. Remember when Peggy Noonan and Republican strategist Mike Murphy slammed Sarah Palin unknowingly on a live microphone? It happened again yesterday but this time Governor Rendell was the victim.
Candid camera
If you’re familiar with Rendell, you know him to be outspoken. You know him to be candid. He’s one of those guys like Joe Biden who has a gift of gab and quite oftentimes is a refreshing politician to hear. Even if he’s spinning you he doesn’t sound like he’s spinning you because he’s so conversational.
Too conversational yesterday it seems.
No life = perfect
He was leaning on a lectern with a microphone clearly visible having a casual conversation about President-elect Obama’s decision to name Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as Homeland Security chief. (The video is below).
We don’t know the full extent of the conversation. We only know the part that CNN newshost Campbell Brown presented last night on her “Campbell Brown: No bias, no bull” program.
“Janet’s perfect for that job,” Rendell says. “Because for that job, you have to have no life. Janet has no family. Perfect. She can devote, literally, 19, 20 hours a day to it.”
Oops
Campbell took umbrage with the remarks. In fact she took three umbrages and presented them in a point by point fashion.
1. If a man had been Obama’s choice for the job, would having a family or not having a family ever even have been an issue? Would it have ever prompted a comment? Probably not. We all know the assumption tends to be that with a man, there is almost always a wife in the wings managing those family concerns.
2. As a woman, hearing this, it is hard not to wonder if we are counted out for certain jobs, certain opportunities, because we do have a family or because we are in our child-bearing years. Are we? It is a fair question.
3. If you are a childless, single woman with suspicions that you get stuck working holidays, weekends and the more burdensome shifts more often than your colleagues with families, are those suspicions well-founded? Probably so. Is there an assumption that if you’re family-free then you have no life? By some, yes.
No way
Was it a sexist remark? According to Rendell’s camp, no.
His press secretary Chuck Ardo told the Associated Press that “Rendell meant no disrespect to Napolitano and would have made the same comment if the candidate was a man.”
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2. brown eyes | 12.03.08
Ya, into that same mic he also was overheard saying that Palin’s Political instincts are amazing…she’s no genius he says…but her intincts are dead on. I don’t know the exact wording, but I saw it on the news last night. What an idiot…it seems he has a real issue with women who are asked to serve in higher positions than himself. What a moron.
4. John | 12.03.08
There is no IQ test when it comes to being elected to high or any office in this country, and dinosaurs like Rendell are clear evidence of that. It was obviously a sexist and bigoted remark, but should elicit no surprise. After all, Rendell is governor of Pennsylvania, often described as geographically misplaced, evidently having been squeezed out from that neverland between Alabama and Mississippi. A candid look at typical Pennsylvania voters would show them to be Neanderthals in terms of equality in any sense, and likely as sexist as the Saudis, so in reality, such inanity is what Pennsylvania voters like, and Rendell obviously appeals to that low but all too common Pennsylvania denominator. As far as an apology is concerned, don’t hold your breath, for the truth is neither he nor his supporters see anything wrong with his sexist attitude - they share it!
It wasn’t so much Rendell’s foot in his mouth as it was his head up his ****, but that’s exactly where we would expect to find it.
5. coryell | 12.04.08
honestly, when did we become so sensitive? Let’s step back here a minute… If you have a family, you know darn well that if you didn’t, you would have much more time to devote to other things. It’s not an insult, it’s a fact. Why are we insulted by that? It’s silly to read more into that that what it is. For example, I am a fat woman. It’s a fact, a descriptive. I’m not insulted by that. If I were called a fat pig, that would be a different story. Napolitano is a woman without a family. Fact, so why is this an issue? Toughen up people… We are big boys and girls now and should stop making eachother explain themselves every other sentance.
6. Jennifer | 12.04.08
I’m not from PA and don’t know anything about Gov. Rendell, but this reads like just another manufactured controversy. The “no family” remark is a very common one in job situations that demand or desire long hours. It is just as often applied to men, and is usually a benign observation that a single person is theoretically less bothered by working hours on end than the married person, who is additionally responsible for consistently performing as a spouse/parent. Married people typically make this remark apologetically (as they leave work on time, when they think it wouldn’t hurt to stay late); single people typically make this remark ruefully (joking they don’t have anything better to do) or gleefully (as they dig into some project they love, utterly unhindered). It does not mean that married people aren’t of the best workers, and it does not mean that single people have no lives. Anyway, Jimmy Orr, you’re smarter than this. Stop amusing yourself with the electorate.
7. b | 12.04.08
We don’t yet have a word for the kind of irritating prejudice encoded into this remark, but the phrase “smug marrieds” from Bridget Jones kind of gets at it. The idea that marriage and children are the only way to have a full and meaningful life is an assumption/expectation applied to men and women, although I think more intensely to women. If you aren’t married with kids, all the things you do with your time outside work are coded as selfish pleasures, as opposed to the noble duties of the nuclear family. Even if those activities include devoting yourself to a vocation, supporting friends and family through life’s difficulties, being politically active, bringing creative projects into the world, building your community…
8. NM | 04.19.09
All gender issues aside, why is the phrase “a family” the only definition of life being fulfilling and satisfying and populated with people who are important to us? To take that further, why are we boxed in by the construct of considering “a family” a contiguous group of people? Napolitano seems to be a grounded human being. Just because she does not parade before the public the people in her life she considers “family” does not mean she is without.
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Jimmy Orr has worked in politics for the majority of his professional career working for two U.S. Senators, two Governors and one President. Most recently, Orr served as White House Spokesman and Internet Director for President George W. Bush and Special Advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger for Internet Communications.
David Cook is Washington bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor and host of the Monitor's newsmaker breakfasts. He was the Monitor's editor from 1994 to 2001. Cook is a graduate of Principia College, served in the U.S. Army, was a Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University, and is a member of the Gridiron Club, Washington's oldest journalistic organization.
1. Lisa | 12.03.08
It’s a little hypocritical of Campbell Brown, given her comments about Sarah Palin. Brown’s initial reaction to Palin — prior to Palin giving any interviews, prior to the media descending on Alaska to find out who Palin was — was to question whether Palin could be a mother and vice-President at the same time.