In the many discussions of the David Schuster ""being pimped out" comment about Chelsea Clinton, I have been surprised by many of the comments and diaries defending Schuster and minimizing the effects of what he said.

As the war of words between Rush Limbaugh and John McCain reached a fever pitch this week, it took MSNBC reporter David Schuster to remind Americans that the two right-wing titans share some common values.  For all of their current disagreements over the direction of the Republican Party, Limbaugh and McCain agreed on one thing.  They both called a young Chelsea Clinton ugly – and worse.

I have two daughters, both in high school, who use the word "pimp" daily. It's a joke to them. The jokes aren't appropriate for adult conversation, but I've never docked an allowance or confiscated a cell phone for the use of the word "pimp" because the jokes aren't all that bad.

It's a joke that spans generations. This afternoon, a 50-something co-worker in sales asked what I'd been up to lately. She's said she'd been "pimping" too much to keep track of the rest of the office lately. We laughed.

But the multigenerational Clinton family has no such sense of humor.

Today, MSNBC responded to a Clinton hissy fit by suspending David Schuster. He said they'd been "pimping" Chelsea to call super delegates or movie stars or some such. Stupid comment, but whatever, that shit goes on all the time. Folks here cheered and jeered.

Count me among the jeerers.

Because, to paraphrase the Untouchables, when we put one of theirs in the hospital, they'll put one of ours in the morgue. At least they'll sure as hell try.

UPDATE: As commenter josephk notes below, Olbermann has accused Bush of "pimping Petraeus."

I'm glad to see several people who are just shocked and dismayed at the comment made by MSNBC's David Shuster yesterday. As one of my sisters put it, "It was inappropriate...
I think that people tend to overreact to these kinds of things."

Exactly. I've seen and heard men and women alike express disgust with Shuster over his comments. Were they inappropriate? Yes. The word "pimp" in any of its forms implies prostitution. But I hope we are all smart enough to realize that what he was really saying is that the Clinton campaign is utilizing Chelsea. This is not even close to what Don Imus said and it's not anything remotely worse than some of the things conservative radio hosts say on a daily basis.

I've always respected Shuster. I commend him for apologizing. It was the classy thing to do. But it was a mistake and a stupid slip-up, which is far less important than these ten things.

Apparently conservatives are energized by the Benazir Bhutto assassination because they think it proves how much America needs an aggressive foreign policy in a dangerous world.

REPORT SHOWS GIULIANI LYING ON STUMP ABOUT TERRORISM, 9/11

Major Media Outlets Ignore Story, Push Myth Fed By Campaign

On October 23, 2007, Village Voice journalist and Giuliani biography Wayne Barrett broke a story that should still be dominating the headlines to this day.  According to Barrett, previously secret documents reveal that Giuliani is lying about his past knowledge of terrorism and in particular: about being prepared and vigilant about Al Qaeda before and after 9/11.   Giuliani--whose entire campaign is based on the idea that he has been and continues to be 'strong on terrorism'--should be tumbling in the polls as a result of newsroom after newsroom running the story of a GOP front-runner whose 'strong on terror' campaign was revealed as a complete fraud.