Mika Brzezinski is so outraged that people are discussing Hillary's cleavage . . . that she hopes it helps the Dem prez candidate.

The topic arose at 6:18 A.M. EDT on today's "Morning Joe." The affable Willie Geist, a frequent panelist, is serving this morning as guest host for the absent Joe Scarborough. He broached the subject.

MORNING JOE GUEST HOST WILLIE GEIST: One of the other big stories that everybody is talking about is this Hillary Clinton cleavage thing.

MORNING JOE NEWSREADER MIKA BRZEZINSKI [in an exasperated tone]: Oh my gosh.

GEIST: . . . There's a shot of it right now; that's not so bad, I've seen much worse.

BRZEZINSKI: Are you kidding me? That's a great outfit. But what annoys me is that people wrote about it and talked about it. And if has helped her in any way I guess it doesn't bother me because that was ridiculous.

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Mika's statement strikes me as a non sequitur. She's angry about the coverage, and therefore hopes it helps Hillary? I suppose Brzezinski's logic is that since poor Hillary has had to suffer to outrage of having her cleavage discussed, it's only fair that, in compensation, she should benefit politically from it.

But it seems an odd juxtaposition to me; something that would only occur to someone who, in the first place, is looking for reasons why Clinton's candidacy should be advanced.

Willie obviously wasn't as outraged as Mika, since he chose to roll David Letterman's riff on the subject. The late night host said Hillary "looked so hot":

• Senator Ted Kennedy sent over a drink.
• Everyone thought she was Senator Vitter's date.
• By mistake Bill hit on her.

And yes, there was a rim shot.

MIKA, flashing that sense of humor: That's terrible. I will not [laugh].

Here's why I think it's fair to discuss the case of the senatorial cleavage: Of all the candidates in the prez race, Hillary is the most scripted. Seemingly not a word she says or a gesture she makes has not been carefully thought through by her brain trust. In that light, it's difficult to see how Hillary turning up on the Senate floor in a pink top and flashing some cleavage could possibly have been other than a deliberate decision to achieve some goal related to her campaign. Appeal to younger women, show her feminine side -- who knows? I think it's reasonable for people interested in politics to try to decipher what Hillary was hoping to achieve, and whether she attained those presumed goals.

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.