The Curious Case of Meghan McCain

I love a good celebrity feud, even if the celebrities are political pundits.  Like the classic romps between Olbermann and O’Reilly/ Hannity that involve some level of irreverence or blatant disregard to professional journalism; yet, I still can’t see them doing what Meghan McCain and Laura Ingraham are doing.  

While McCain deserves much criticism from her constituents for vying for the face of the Republican Party while pumping liberal talking points, does Ingraham really need to bring body image into the debate?  There are so many logical attacks a conservative can make to Meghan McCain’s writing that don’t bring in middle-school-locker-room comebacks.  

If you're too busy watching "real" celebrities fight eachother on VH1 to keep up with fueding among the conservative party, then here's a quick sonopsis of McCain and Ingraham's back and forth.  On her radio show, Ingraham mocked McCain over her interview with Rachel Maddow by speaking like a valley girl and claiming McCain wished she was on MTV's"The Real World" but couldn't be because they don't take "plus-sized models."

McCain responded to this attack on her Twitter quoting the Milk Shake song (which is arguably not even about curvy women, as some believe) and rallying all of her "curvy girls out there."  McCain then took this further by giving a full response on her blog.

You can't make this stuff up...

I don’t know what’s more troubling, an established pundit wasting her time trying to de-legitimize a political noob, or McCain actually using an entire blog post on the Daily Beast to address this issue.  McCain claims that due to all the media attention given to this back-and-forth, a substantive response is necessary.

I’m sorry Ms. McCain, it’s not.  If you want people to take you seriously work really hard, make thoughtful political commentary, write books, become a TV show host on CBS and MSNBC, get a nationally syndicated radio show and then respond to Laura Ingraham’s protruding tongue.  Unfortunately, while what Ingraham did was uber-lame, your time would be better served describing how Republicans know how to fix the economy rather than Twittering about uniting curvy girls.

It’s a sad reality that clout gives you the license to do and say ridiculous things but that is nothing new.  Neither is getting a job/ platform because you have a famous father.  

So who do I feel bad for in this situation? As much I hate the say it…The Republican Party.  While trying to rebuild from the ashes left in the wake of President Bush, they have to deal with in-fighting among the people fighting for the spotlight.  

While McCain thinks she is just taking on her party by calling-out Ann Coulter and supporting stem cell research and gay rights, she is really just confusing everyone -- young and old.  She wants to be the conduit between the youth and the Republican Party, but the only way she can do that is by tricking them into believing conservatives support stem cell research and gay rights, and hate Ann Coulter.

Ingraham should have stopped her commentary at, “How long before she totally abandons the Daily Beast and makes it official at the Huffington Post?” because she’s exactly right.  She must have felt personally attacked by McCain’s posts because she totally pulled a "Ja’mie" in the rest of her response.

-Brendan Jackson