For the second week in a row, HBO's Bill Maher went after Ann Romney, the wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
On Friday's Real Time, the host said, "I'm not attacking Ann Romney. She's brought up five very shiny and remarkably lifelike boys" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
TODD BUCKHOLZ, DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC POLICY FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH: My wife pointed out a stay-at-home mom in Boston with five boys. Do you know what it's like changing snow pants and snow sweaters in Boston?
BILL MAHER, HOST: What’s it like without help? [Applause] You know, I mean, it’s, look, I have not, I mean Fox News was up my a-- this week about I was attacking Ann Romney. I wasn't attacking Ann Romney last week. I was just pointing out that going to work is a very different thing than staying home. I don’t know. I was going by my own experience having sh---y jobs.
CHYSTIA FREELAND, REUTERS: I'm the only person who's a mother here and I'm a working mother, and I have to say for myself when I step out the door on to the streets to go to my office, I breathe a sigh of relief. I find being in the office easier.
BUCKHOLZ: Absolutely, it is a respite. There are so many women who do go to work just as she said.
MAHER: And that’s fine. Again, I don't have the experience of both. So I take, I don’t know, I was never a mother. I did have sh---y jobs. I’m just saying it's different. It’s different. And I'm not attacking Ann Romney. She's brought up five very shiny and remarkably lifelike boys.
[Applause]
FREELAND: But Bill, I do think that ever since the 1960's the Right has had, women, stay-at-home mothers have felt since the ’60s that feminists and the Left have looked down on what they do, and we shouldn't. We should admit, you know, we should say actually staying home with your kids - of course, it is an economic luxury - it's also really, really hard work. [Unintelligible]
MAHER: It’s just hard to see when you think about, you know, a poor, single mother on food stamps, it's hard to think of Ann Romney as the casualty in the war on women. That’s all I’m saying.
Like much of the rest of the liberal media, it's very clear that Romney's family are safe targets this campaign season.
Of course, don't expect any quid pro quo regarding Michelle, Malia, and Sasha Obama.
That, after all, would be in poor taste.