On Tuesday's edition of The View on ABC, comedienne Kathy Griffin really seemed to be auditioning for the Rosie O'Donnell Chair in Conservative-Bashing. ABC's Barbara Walters began by deploring how two new Hillary biographies are "both nasty," spurring Griffin to accuse the authors of "good, old-fashioned, garden variety sexism." She also accused men of "taking down" vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, growled about "women eating their own" over an anti-Hillary letter in Newsweek, and said Condoleezza Rice is "not a pro-woman woman" because she "follows everything white men say....Any African American woman who is a Republican does not understand that she's not a part of their agenda. Wake up!" Walters told Griffin she was "so bigoted." Joy Behar cracked that Margaret Thatcher was a "woman with a penis." Only token non-liberal Elisabeth Hasselbeck insisted that Hillary ought to endure scrutiny like any other presidential candidate.
After the first commercial, Walters began by discussing a "recent" forum where Hillary discussed her faith. That would be the CNN-Sojourners event on Monday night:
WALTERS: So I was talking about Hillary and she said at a forum recently that what got her through the marriage was her faith. And I think a lot of people didn't know she was that religious. I did because she wrote about it in her book and i interviewed her about it, and she talked about how faith got her through. She's more religious than people think...
There are two books out on Hillary, both nasty. Why does everybody? -- If you're going to write a book, I guess in order to get people to buy the book, it's got to be nasty.
HASSELBECK: It’s has to have some kind of edge.
KATHY GRIFFIN: Admit it. This is good, old-fashioned, garden variety sexism. This is the first real formidable female candidate we've had -- [Applause]
JOY BEHAR: Since Geraldine Ferraro.
GRIFFIN: If she’s a woman, that’s it. Where is she now?
BEHAR: Geraldine Ferraro?
GRIFFIN: Yes.
BEHAR: Well, she’s been ill, but she’s still around.
GRIFFIN: I feel like they went for her and they took her down.
HASSELBECK: I don't think that any political candidate is exempt from scrutiny, especially during the time before an election. I think every single candidate is under scrutiny.
WALTERS: But there’s more, two books that come out at exactly the same time?
BEHAR: Can I read this letter in Newsweek? This woman writes ‘while I believe a female president is long overdue, I'm sad to say Hillary Clinton will be it.’ Listen to this part: ‘While she certainly has the ambition, intellect, political experience and money to win, she also has many polarizing traits...From a feminist perspective, any woman who stays married to a man who lied about an extramarital affair can hardly be admired.’
Now, she has the experience, she has the brain, the intellect, the ambition, she has the money, but because she stood by her man and the family values crowd loves that -- loves it! -- why are women now turning on a woman who stood by her man? Why couldn’t he move out? [Applause] Let him move out!
GRIFFIN: That's right.
HASSELBECK: I think it's exceptional that she did stand by him. I think that’s exceptional. I don’t think whether you stand by your man, or stand by your woman in your marriage should be a reason to not elect someone, or elect them.
GRIFFIN: Was that written by a man or woman?
BEHAR: A woman.
GRIFFIN: I'm so tired of women eating their own! Don't you get it? United we stand, divided we fall! [Applause]
HASSELBECK: I'm all about girl power, okay? But I don't want to elect a woman president just because she's a woman.
GRIFFIN, with pleading tone: You don't have to. She's really smart.
HASSELBECK: I understand that she's smart. I think we have smart candidates on both sides of the party lines. I think what's killing the fact that she could be president is the fact that people are really focusing on the fact that she is a woman. Now we're losing sight of let's look at her voting history and what she's done.
GRIFFIN: That's what the republicans want to say. 'I'm all for a woman, just not this one,' and they’re going to say it four years later, and four years later.
BEHAR: How about Margaret Thatcher, a woman with a penis?
HASSELBECK: I would love a woman president --
BEHAR, mocking herself: That was a cheap shot.
HASSELBECK: Not this one. Okay? She doesn’t represent, in terms of her voting, someone I would see –
GRIFFIN: But when people say I want a woman – ‘maybe Condi Rice.’ That’s not a pro-woman woman. Let me tell you something. Condi Rice is not a woman's woman.
HASSELBECK: Why? Why?
GRIFFIN: Because she follows everything white men say. She does what ever the white man does. .
HASSELBECK: What's wrong with the white man, a black man?
GRIFFIN: Let me tell you something. Any African American woman who is a Republican does not understand that she's not a part of their agenda. Wake up!
HASSELBECK: Are you kidding me?
GRIFFIN: But she’s smart. She’s very smart.
HASSELBECK: I think there is a reverse sexism –
BEHAR: One at a time.
HASSEBLECK: There is reverse racism and reverse sexism going on right now, and it is going on against the white man. Apparently, the white man’s going down, because everybody’s against –
GRIFFIN: Poor white man.
BEHAR: I feel bad for them. They just run the world.
HASSELBECK: I'm saying be fair about it. If women were to take power and then they said those white women or black women have too much power --
GRIFFIN: If they say that, I'll rescind all of that.
WALTERS [to Griffin]: You know I love you a lot, but what you just said is so bigoted.
GRIFFIN: Why?
WALTERS: She shouldn't be republican because she's black and not a good example for women because she’s black – . .
GRIFFIN: I didn't say that. I don't think that's who the Republicans care for in their agenda.
WALTERS: – Because her boss is a white man.
HASSELBECK: What agenda?
GRIFFIN: I think the Republican agenda doesn't look out for women and minorities. I’m sorry. That’s what I think.
HASSELBECK: Why?
GRIFFIN: I think they're out for their own. [Applause] White people, rich people, big money, white men...look at the way they're gunning for Hillary. [Crosstalk]
WALTERS: Why can't she be an example?
GRIFFIN: She's a great example of a great woman who does a great job. Do i think she should be president? No. Do I think she represents George Bush? Yes. Remember, she's in his pocket.
BEHAR: In her favor, in Condoleezza’s favor, I was just reading about her. She does try to go up against dick cheney and Cheney is a very difficult person to fight.
GRIFFIN: It's great that she's trying to fight the fight. I hope she fights the fight. Do i think she represents me? Absolutely not.
WALTERS: We're not talking about whether she should be president. We’re talking about the fact that she does the job.
GRIFFIN: On a lot of the pundit shows, they say ‘I'm not against a woman president, I mean, Condi for President.’ I’m thinking, okay, she’s a little more polarizing than Hillary.
HASSELBECK: Just because you don't support Hillary Clinton doesn't mean you don't support women.
GRIFFIN: Elisabeth, that may be true for you. I believe that’s true for you. But I think a lot of the people who don’t support Hillary, they have this vague, like ‘there’s something I don’t like about her, she’s just so strident.’ Well, if she’s going to be president, that’s what she’s going to have to be.
If you have to be strident to be president, Kathy Griffin can certainly place that on her resume.