Leaving Politicians’ Children Alone: A History Lesson for Republicans

By Eric on September 2, 2008

Every time I read about Republicans getting on their high-horse and demanding that Bristol Palin be left alone, I want to scream. I want to scream because, while they are absolutely right that politicians’ children should be off-limits to attacks, dragging someone’s child through the mud is exactly the kind of thing that Republicans do! Courtesy of the fine folks at Sadly, No!, let’s take a trip down memory lane:

• Rush Limbaugh
  

  On his TV show, early in the Clinton administration, Limbaugh put up a picture of Socks, the White House cat, and asked, “Did you know there’s a White House dog?” Then he put up a picture of Chelsea Clinton, who was 13 years old at the time and as far as I know had never done any harm to anyone.

• Alicia Colon
  

  Seems to me that [Chelsea]’s more of a pawn for her parent’s ambitions than a beloved child but maybe I’m wrong.

• Ed Klein
  

  No one could have predicted that former Newsweek editor Ed Klein, of all people, would fan the flames of Clintonosis with a disgusting personal attack that purports to dissect Chelsea’s conception:

  “I’m going back to my cottage to rape my wife,” Klein quotes Bill Clinton as saying during a Bermuda getaway in 1979.

  In the morning, the Clintons’ room “looked like World War III. There are pillows and busted-up furniture all over the place,” an unnamed source tells Klein.

  Klein source claims Bill later learned Hillary was pregnant reading about it in the ARKANSAS GAZETTE.

  “The fact that his wife didn’t tell him that she was pregnant before she told a reporter doesn’t seem to phase him one bit, because he says, ‘Do you know what night that happened?”

  “‘No,’ I say. ‘When?”

  “‘It was Bermuda,’ he says, ‘And you were there!’”

  If Drudge has this quote and context correct, it’s a mind-boggling anecdote to put into anyone’s biography — and a completely inexcusable and ridiculous claim. It’s difficult to think of a more personal, disgusting, and indefensible accusation to toss at someone than to claim he raped his wife. Adding that they conceived their only child out of an act of violence adds another dimension of shamelessness to Klein’s allegation.

• John Derbyshire
  

  At this point I had better make a confession. It’s a bad one, I know it. It is low, contemptible and — yes! — mean-spirited. It may very well place me beyond the pale of civilized society. I don’t care. Truth will out, I will be heard. Brace yourself: I hate Chelsea Clinton.

• David Shuster
  

  Filling in for Tucker Carlson yesterday, Shuster gave his opinion on Chelsea’s role in the presidential campaign, asking a guest, “Doesn’t it seem as if Chelsea is sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?”

• And, of course, John McCain
  

  Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.

Of course, Republicans’ past treatment of Chelsea Clinton in no way justifies the smearing of anyone else’s child, but before the right-wing gets outraged over Bristol Palin, they ought to show Chelsea a healthy dose of contrition.

Tags: 2008, Bristol Palin, Chelsea Clinton

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