I don’t know where you work, but if you’re male and a picture were to emerge of you groping the breast of a cardboard cutout of one of a member of your board of directors, chances are you would get fired immediately.
Of course in the Obama White House, that is not how things work. Incoming Obama administration director of speechwriting Jon Favreau recently had photos from a recent party he attended pop up on the internet. One of those photos showed him dancing with a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Hillary Clinton, and another where he’d placed his hand on the cardboard cutout’s right breast while a friend put a beer bottle to her lips.
From the Washington Post:
Question No. 58 in the transition team vetting document for the Obama White House asks that applicants: “Please provide the URL address of any websites that feature you in either a personal or professional capacity (e.g. Facebook, My Space, etc.)”
Question No. 63 asks that applicants “please provide any other information … that could … be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the President-Elect.”
For a while there this afternoon, President-elect Barack Obama’s immensely talented chief speechwriter, 27-year-old Jon Favreau, might have been pondering how to address that question.
That’s when some interesting photos of a recent party he attended — including one where he’s dancing with a life-sized cardboard cut-out of secretary of state-designate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and another where he’s placed his hand on the cardboard former first lady’s chest while a friend is offering her lips a beer — popped up on Facebook for about two hours. The photos were quickly taken down — along with every other photo Favreau had of himself on the popular social networking site, save for one profile headshot.
Asked about the photos, Favreau, who was recently appointed director of speechwriting for the White House, declined comment. A transition official said that Favreau had “reached out to Senator Clinton to offer an apology.”
Funny thing is I can bet my life that if Hillary or John McCain had become President, and one of their staffers would have appeared in a photo where he had a noose around a cardboard cutout of Barack Obama, such a person would have been summarily dismissed.
Oh well, I guess in the Barack Obama White House, it is ok to keep people who hold a sitting Senator (and former first lady) with the same high regard as they would a cast member from an episode of Girls Gone Wild or a participant in a colleg gang-bang. I mean seriously, what else is the implication/symbolism of one man putting a beer bottle to a woman’s lips while another gropes her breast?
Posted by PUMA Pundit
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