On Thursday’s episode of The View Joy Behar did what she does best: defend the indefensible. The ladies of the show were responding to comments made by Democratic donor and PR guru Hilary Rosen, who on CNN Wednesday said regarding Ann Romney, “His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She's never really dealt with the kind of economic issues that a majority of women in this country are facing.”
The ultra-liberal Behar couldn’t resist the opportunity to attack Mrs. Romney by saying that, “whenever the wife of a politician, very few of them actually work for a living. And she’s talking about economic issues -- she's not the one who's putting bread on the table as millions of women are doing.” [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
Behar's defense of Rosen was met with strong criticism from her fellow panelists, including liberals Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd.
Conservative-leaning Elisabeth Hasselbeck was the strongest voice in striking down Behar and Rosen’s insulting comments saying that, "Women work in partnership with their partners. And I think it's terrible that a DNC insider, a liberal insider... gets out there and marginalizes and discriminates against any woman whether she’s home or working or has kids.”
Even as fellow liberals the Obama campaign itself has publicly disagreed with Rosen's attack, Behar refuses to show civility or budge from her partisanship long enough to offer a kind word for Ann Romney.
As we've repeatedly noted, Behar has shown a penchant for being the most strident, most shrill anti-conservative voice on The View this campaign season where she has viciously attacked conservative women such as Sarah Palin and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
You can read the relevant transcript below.
ABC THE VIEW
April 12, 2012
11:03 a.m.
WHOOPI GOLDEBERG: So, on a completely different note, after Mitt Romney said his wife Ann tells him about economic issues women face today, Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen is under fire for responding with this, and I quote. His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She's never really dealt with the kind of economic issues that a majority of women in this country are facing.
JOY BEHAR: Yeah, it’s true. I mean, you know, you can say it was sort of a mishandled sort of quote. But whenever the wife of a politician, very few of them actually work for a living. And she’s talking about economic issues -- and she's not the one who's putting bread on the table as millions of women are doing.
ELIZABETH HASSELBECK: Hang on hang on. Women work in partnership with their partners. And I think it's terrible that a DNC insider, a liberal insider, hang on, gets out there
GOLDBERG: Just call her a strategist.
HASSELBECK: And marginalizes and discriminates against any woman whether she’s home or working or has kids.
BEHAR: She’s not marginalizing. She’s talking about a specific thing. She's talking about earning money
HASSELBECK: She's talking about any woman who is home who may be home with their kids.
GOLDBERG: I’m sorry, I just feel like -- and I'll tell you why I don't like what she said, because women who stay home and raise their children are working.
SHERRI SHEPHERD: They work.
GOLDBERG: This is something that we have had to deal with for years, trying to explain to men about what raising children is like. So, for me, I just thought it was -- she spoke before she thought.
SHEPHERD: And even if she thought --
BARBARA WALTERS: Also, you know, there was a time with the women's movement, when if you didn't have a job you know, if you stayed home and you said I'm a housewife or I raised my children, you had to get any kind of a job, we have gotten to the point I hope where there is a choice. What Mrs. Romney said was, I made a choice. To stay home and raise five boys. And believe me, it was hard work. So I mean...
BEHAR: . But it wasn’t about economic-- it wasn't economic work, it wasn't that she had to go out and fry doughnuts at Wendy's.
HASSELBECK: How was her husband supposed to be gone if she wasn't there? Let me tell you something...let me finish.
BEHAR: No let me finish. It’s nothing wrong with staying home with a child. I did it myself for three years when my child was born.
HASSELBECK: Who handled the bills? Who saw the money coming in? Who went to the grocery store and knew how much milk was costing when the husband was at work?
BEHAR: We had no money so that’s not even an issue. In all seriousness, she's talking about earning money, that's all she's talking about.
Hasselbeck: No, she's not.
BEHAR: And she's talking about women out there who are not rich like the Romney’s .
GOLDBERG: This young woman made a misstep. I don’t...I think if she had thought about what she meant to say, this would not have been the way she said it. I think the way she said it was really wrong. And that’s why everybody is You know, I think --
SHEPHERD: And I think that even she would have been in trouble, cuz it's almost like that subject of, you know, do you breast-feed or don't you breast-feed? Whenever you say you don't know what it's like as a stay-at-home mom and what we're going through you always will get in trouble. I'm not quite sure how she could have phrased it to stay out of --
BEHAR: The problem Sherri is when she said she never worked a day in her life, there was something snotty about that.
GOLDBERG: That is the issue and it's wrong.
BEHAR: But I understand what she meant.
WALTERS: But Romney has from the very beginning in a sense said don't hate me because I'm rich, you know how we all hate those women who say, don't hate me because I'm beautiful? What he has said, and I don’t want to quote, what he has said, you know one of the good things is that I am able to make money and I can tell you how to make money. When we have had both Bush’s, the wives stayed home. Reagan, Nancy Reagan, stayed home. This is a woman who knows what the problems are with raising children. What the problems are with trying to keep a marriage that's balanced. There are other things.
SHEPHERD: But does she know what the problems are if I don't have health insurance for my kids?
WALTERS: She doesn’t have to.
GOLDBERG: But that's -- but what she says is, you know, there are some problems I didn't have, but there are other problems that I did have to face.
HASSELBECK: Is it fair she has MS? Is it fair she had breast cancer?
BEHAR: That’s irrelevant to this point.
GOLDBERG: Well, the issue is, I think, and you know, this is just me, I think she could have phrased what she had to say in a completely different way.
HASSELBECK: She won’t do that Whoopi. She’s unapologetic. She’s gone on. Cuz I give you credit for being so far right now.
GOLDBERG: But I’m just telling you where I'm at. I just think she's...I just...whatever.
WALTERS: Thank goodness, I hope we have gotten to the point in this country, it has taken many years where women can choose. If you can afford to stay home with your kids --
BEHAR: if you can afford it.
WALTERS: Otherwise, you have to pay for nannies.
