On Friday, Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch did a radio interview on the right wing Jerry Bader Show where the discuscion turned to John "Sly" Sylvester's comments last year where Sly had to apologize for jokingly suggesting that Kleefisch got the Lt. Governor nomination because she prostituted herself to Milwaukee talk show hosts:
Bader: What John Sylvester said back then, what he said about you, imagine if I said that about Kathleen Falk...
Kleefisch: Oh my
Bader: ...and imagine if instead of radio hosts I said union head... leaders... imagine that...
Kleefisch: yeah
Bader: I would be gone!
Kleefisch: Yes. Yes, you would.
Bader: And, you know, he gets a free pass... and if you don't know what he said about her, I'm not going to repeat it, but, that, that... its just speechless to me that you have on the one side war on women... and, and he called Condoleeza Rice Aunt Jamima
Kleefisch: Yeah, you know, what he said, you know, for your listeners that don't know, guys it was the grossest thing you can say about a woman. That's where he went.
Bader: Yeah
Just so we're clear, this is what Sly did: He went off on a comedy riff where he imititated Kleefisch, in a high-pitched voice, making cold calls to out-of-state businesses and trying to get them to move to Wisconsin. His bit went like this:
"Would you like to move to Wisconsin? Would you like to move Coupon Cabin to Wisconsin? I’m Rebecca Kleefisch. I perform fellatio on all the talk show hosts in Milwaukee. And they endorse me and that’s how I became lieutenant governor. And then I got colon cancer and I ran around the state to help people, even though I have government health care, screw everyone else."
Clearly, it's sexist to say that a woman got to where she is because she prostituted herself, but it is also just as clear that Sly was saying it for comedic value in his imitation. It was supposed to be outrageous and over-the-top to make it funnier.
No doubt, in an attempt to be funny, Sly stepped over the line and he apologized for it, but let's keep in mind, that only last week Kleefisch made the exact same reference about Falk.
When Kleefisch said-- in an op-ed column-- that Falk went out and "got a sugar daddy" (union bosses) she was accusing Falk of "the grossest thing you can say about a woman": that she was prostituting herself to climb the ladder. And yes, "getting a sugar daddy" universally means setting up a prostitution arrangment between a wealthy man and an unwealthy women.
No reasonable person doubted that when Kleefisch made those comments, she was calling Falk a prostitute. According to the popular site Mediaite, the "term “sugar daddy” is a euphemism for pimp." You know what that makes Falk.
In fact, Kleefisch's comments were much worse than what Sly said. Not only is Kleefisch the Lt. Governor and Sly a rowdy radio show host, but Sly was joking in an off-the-cuff remark, while Kleefisch was dead serious and made her comments in an op-ed piece. And, most importantly, Sly has apologized and Kleefisch has not only not apologized, but has continued to make similar sexist comments about Falk.
And while we're talking about outrageous hypocrisy-- this is all taking place on the same Jerry Bader Show that said he was "reporting factually" the absurd lie that Barbara Lawton was not only in a phony marriage with a man, but that she had a secret lesbian lover and that her jilted lover was coming forward with a very naughty video that showed "visual evidence of the relationship." Unlike Sly's comments, however, Bader was not joking-- he told his listeners three times that he was reporting "factual" information.
Yet, Jerry "I would be gone!" Bader got a slap on the wrist and is miraculously still working.