Right targets Laura Bush over headscarf

October 26, 2007

In one of the sillier far-right whine-fests of the year, conservatives were outraged back in April when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Syria, and wore a head scarf while visiting the 8th-century Omayyad Mosque. Drudge got the ball rolling with a big photo of Pelosi’s attire, and the rest of the right pounced.

One wrote, “The Speaker of the House is not only going out of her way to defund America’s troops in Iraq and shake hands with leaders of terrorist states like Syria, but is now donning the garb of America’s enemies…. What’s next — a suicide bomber belt?” Another argued, “The anti-American propaganda this woman has given the very people who want to totally destroy us is immense.” Yet another said, “This picture disgusts me. What message is Nancy Pelosi trying to send?” Many of the right’s leading sites had similar comments and criticism.

When pictures surfaced of Laura Bush and Condoleezza Rice wearing head scarfs during their own visits to the Middle East, the outrage quickly faded away.

That is, until today.

During a tour of the Middle East this week, Laura Bush again donned a traditional hijab given to her as a gift by a Saudi Arabian doctor. Subsequently, several progressive bloggers questioned whether similar “opprobium” would follow from the right wing this time. Now we have our answer.

The conservative blogosphere has released its seething intolerance, collectively rising up to denounce Laura Bush as “Ms. Pander Clause” for wearing the head cover.

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2007/10/mrs_bushs_peopl.html

It’s hard to believe how worked up some conservatives are over this — and just how far their rhetoric has gone today.

It’s not just the far-right fringe, either. The Weekly Standard, for example, is outraged: “I find the image from Saudi Arabia so disturbing. … That she would oblige her hosts by wearing a shmata on her head is a tacit endorsement of Islam’s subjugation of women.”

Perhaps the most striking example of the conservatives’ ire comes by way of Atlas Shrugs. (emphasis, and grammatical errors, in the original)

We are the king of the world. We are the best and the brightest. We are America goddammit. WTF are we bowing to Islam for? This ain’t PR no matter what Karen Hughes and Condirasha say. This is not not going to make the Islamic world hold hands and sing campfire tunes. Uh uh. This is submission and the worst message to send to Muslims.

Carolyn sent the pic and Schlussel link, shaken by it, with this note, ” This should be the photo that sinks the West. If the Bushes don’t get the proper advice, they will destroy this country before their 14 months are up. Today, the shuttle commander and the space station commander are both women. In Saudi Arabia the women cannot even go out of the house. [Or drive – Atlas]

This picture will say to the Arabs they are winning, and those women who would like to be free, will be very disheartened.Those who subscribe to Islamofascism will, of course, cheer.

Whose country is this, is the question. Is Bush the President shilling for the Saudis? What is Mrs. Bush doing there and in the UAE in the first place.That scarf and abayah has just insulted every single woman in the free world.

Well, on the one hand, I suppose the right deserves some credit for consistency. They were apoplectic when Pelosi wore a headscarf, and at least a fair number of these same folks are just as livid today. Score one for bipartisan disgust.

But on the other hand, their rage is terribly misguided. This need not be complicated — when U.S. officials, lawmakers, and diplomats travel overseas, they’re careful to honor local traditions. Male diplomats know not to show Muslims the bottoms of their shoes. They know not to eat with their left hand. They don’t give unwelcome backrubs to foreign heads of state (well, most of them know this). The First Lady’s trip was no different.

Laura Bush was a guest in Saudi Arabia, she was given a scarf as a gift, and she honored and respected the practices of her hosts, just as other women representing the Bush administration have done under similar circumstances.

Western civilization will survive. I promise.

yeah, because the weekly standard (and the rest of wingnutia) is so effing concerned about the subjugation of women the world over.

  • What’s sad is many of these people completely miss Bush’s involvement with Saudi Royalty. But this makes them livid.

    Well at least its a vaguely consistent livid.

  • I wonder if George Bush does any foot tapping while he’s strolling along holding hands with Saudi leaders?

  • Anybody else think this thing was organized so these people could prove to their base that their activists are not hypocrites?

    It’s going to take no toll on her at all, personally or otherwise, and the ire will quickly fade. Probably the readers of those sites barely even care, if it’s her doing it.

  • Well—it would seem that, according to FatA$$ed Slugs (definitive spelling mine, of course), “the lame-duck period of the Bush presidency has begun….”

  • Actually Laura looks kinda cute in that scarf. I would entertain the possibility of Laura, the Atlass Shrugged chick in her supergirl suit and I having a long weekend at a love shack.

  • I think the Republicans feel that their voters are really turning on them, is all I’m saying. What better way to prove to people you’re not a dick than byb a display of integrity?

    Remember when that dude paid those poor peoples’ debts in Dangerous Liasions? But it was just to shag the chick?

  • I have a strong feeling that if Bush was within a football field of 40% in the polls that the right wouldn’t be making this noise.

  • I’m looking at that picture of Laura in the hijab and wondering why the little girl with her isn’t wearing one. I mean in Ickslam, Mormonry and part of the American South she’s fully of marriage age.

  • It’s just not their m.o. to be so consistent and normal about something like this. I mean, come on, no one’s going to stay mad at Laura Bush for putting a kerchief on her head. It’s so wierd that several outlets decided to go after her for it.

    That’s why I suspect this is a scam.

  • I’m looking at that picture of Laura in the hijab and wondering why the little girl with her isn’t wearing one. I mean in Ickslam, Mormonry and part of the American South she’s fully of marriage age.

    Little girls don’t always have to wear it, but I think they can only get away with it in some countries, not in others.

  • For authoritarians, conformity is a sign of power. It’s all about getting people to conform to your norms, and never doing the same in return. It’s the same thing as when they demand that everyone in America speak English, while refusing to learn foreign languages; as this is how they gauge strength. These people are very sick.

    Assuming this outrage is at least somewhat real, I think Bush is about to lose a few more percentage points. Things are going so badly now that they’re all looking to scapegoat Bush. Couldn’t happen to a worse president.

  • Swan said:
    I mean, come on, no one’s going to stay mad at Laura Bush for putting a kerchief on her head. It’s so wierd that several outlets decided to go after her for it.

    It’s no mystery, my friend. Laura, that traitorous scum, is not only wearing a full burka, she has a purple ribbon on her cuff signifying tolerance for gay rights. She’s giving the old FU to conservatives everywhere.

  • I just want to draw it out in a little more detail–

    Look at all the stuff the right had to criticize George W. Bush, Laura, their daughters, admin figures, Republican congressmen, and conservative pundits over over the past 7 years, consistent with their own schticks. But think of the relatively few instances when they did criticize any of those people– how does it fit that now they’re going after Laura over this?!?

    We could make a huge list right now, start with the president and his family, and go on to Cheney and his family and then everyone else.

    I’ll start:

    1) George and Laura’s young daughters have racy sexy lives Chelsea would have got crucified by the conservatives and the press for, and one of them wrote a book including a chapter on condoms (it was humorous or a sex-tips thing, not a “God hates condoms” thing).

    2) Cheney’s daughter is a lesbian.

  • I love the sound of wingnuts eating their own in the morning.

    Hey, wingnuts… I’ll bet you really love it when Bush speaks spanish, too, doncha?

    I can’t wait til next year when they really see the “thumpin” heading their way. You think this is funny, just wait.

  • And remember, the conservo-blogs, etc., didn’t criticize any of the conservative women who did this before– Condi and Laura, right?– they’re just doing it now, and it’s not just one or two outlets that happen to be doing it. It’s a coordinated changes in tactics. Pretty significant, eh, dear Watson?

    Bush speaks spanish

    From bullet points, and about as well as a person in his first two weeks of Spanish class.

  • Swan said:
    We could make a huge list right now, start with the president and his family, and go on to Cheney and his family and then everyone else.

    Excellent idea, Swan.

    3) Rick Sanoturm has had canine relations so often he is actually known as Rick Man-on-dog Santorum by his wife and friends. Unlike the wide-stance foot tapping that some Republicans resort to to iniate relations, a simple leg-hiking lets that attractive canine know that Rick is interested.

  • Why arent’ the wingnuts also screaming about the fact that Laura doesn’t wear an american flag pin?

    Obviously this woman in unpatriotic, hates America, and wants the terrah-ists to win. OFF WITH HER HEAD!

  • Well, I’d prefer it if they were consistent, and seemed to have a better grasp of fairness and right and wrong.

  • Pingback: Think Progress » Right Wing Enraged: Laura Bush Is A ‘Butt-Kisser’ For Wearing Headscarf In Mideast

  • Well, I’d prefer it if they were consistent, and seemed to have a better grasp of fairness and right and wrong.

    If they were and they did then they wouldn’t be conservatives.

  • I wonder what her position is on yarmulkes. Or on the Catholic requirement for women to wear a hat or scarf, not too many years ago.

    I note that Schlussel refers to the women as ‘alleged breast cancer survivors’. WTF? I suppose that wariness comes from being an alleged woman…. from the pic, I can’t be sure.

  • The current American right-wing is tribal and shows absolutely no moral consistency. All this means is that the bloggers in question no longer consider the Bushes to be part of the tribe.

  • I think applying the term “conservative” to radical right Republicans and Neocons and fanatical nonthinkers is a misnomer. Might want to coin a more appropriate term. Off hand the term “idiots” springs to mind.

  • If the Bushes don’t get the proper advice, they will destroy this country before their 14 months are up.

    Attention pAyn Rand fans and other pants-wetting fuckwits:

    If you think your country can be destroyed by a headscarf, find a sturdier country and emigrate.

    Hurry now. If five people sneeze simultaneously this place will be blown into orbit.

    Go on, us lowly libruls will stay behind and keep patching the huge cracks caused by equal marriage rights in Mass., Roe v. Wade, equal rights for African-Americans, Women’s Sufferage and all of the other America-destroying events that have occurred over the years. You get somewhere safe and turn on the TV to watch our final death throes.

    (Quick, someone be ready to lock the door after they go!)

    On a less snarky note: I saw the picture and thought there would be absolute silence from the fRighties. But now that I think of it I can’t say I’m too surprised. The First Lady occasionally voices an opinion that is not in lock-step with the mAdmin. For example, she’s been making a lot more noise about Burma than her useless bacon streak of a husband. Is it any wonder they’re taking an opportunity to pounce on this uppity female?

  • nice quote-

    Now, to save face, here comes Think Progress acknowledging that we (well, LGF at least) criticized her — and that we were wrong to do so, because her deigning to wear the Islamic equivalent of a chastity belt is a glorious celebration of someone else’s culture. I know I’m preaching to the choir but understand this about these idiots: for all the whining they do about the “right-wing noise machine,” for all the paranoid accusations they toss around about us supposedly getting our marching orders from Karl Rove, there are no conservative bloggers remotely as servile towards their political leadership as Media Matters and Think Progress are to theirs. You won’t hear any Republican candidates boasting about having started LGF; you won’t find any Bush cronies with their fingerprints on Hot Air. That sort of creepy, embarrassing task-mastery is reserved exclusively for the left and their faux-outrage Finger Wags of Shame, which are themselves designed simply to inject narratives into the mainstream media to spin coverage for political advantage, not out of any genuine objection. Consider this a reminder, just so we’re on the same page.

    http://hotair.com/archives/2007/10/26/lefty-spin-yesterday-righties-wont-condemn-laura-bush-lefty-spin-today-righties-will-condemn-laura-bush/

  • It’s about symbols, not substance. Remember Bush had such a boner over “sending mexed missages”?

    This is why they flip out over the flag, over their “under god”, over the flag, over the fucking ten commandments statues, over the president saluting the troops, over lapel pins, over putting your hand over your heart or your cock or whatever, over saying “merry christmas” or not, it’s all about bluster and apperances. That’s all they understand. That’s all they care about.

    Only stupid people go to war over this shit. Or even care. It’s religious, superstitious, medieval thinking.

    The enlightenment never happened for these ass-clowns.

  • Hey, schmucks with underwoods – I take it you’re a fellow Hollywierd screenritter with time on your hands now that the studios won’t buy anything or make assignments?

    Actually, the only way Pammykins will do a three-way (or even a two-way half-and-half) with you is if you look like a walrus – she has wet panties for the love of her life, John Bolten.

    Besides, as I once heard from an old Luftwaffe guy (who was speaking from experience), Nazi women are bum lays. I’m sure the Jewish Nazis (like Pammykins) combine the worst of both worlds – JAP who doesn’t “do the nasty” while sieg-heiling.

  • Steve Benen: “It’s hard to believe how worked up some conservatives are over this — and just how far their rhetoric has gone today.”

    The phrase. “In a rare moment of consistency…” comes to mind.

  • Dear Reap,
    If it makes you feel any better I don’t think the Fearmongers from the right side of the Blogosphere get help from Karl Rove (I think he’s been taking notes on your antics). I don’t think you all need help from the Republican Leadership

    Help from a psychologist, yes. Republican Leadership, no.

    The question now is, what do the people who are crowding the fainting couches over this event intend to do about it? Write letters to the First Lady? Call their Congress Critter? Hold ceremonial scarf burnings?

    Don’t bother to answer, I know what you’ll do: Whine a bit more until the next shiny thing catches your attention. When you’re savaging some nasty Librul for refusing to use the term IslamoFascistTerrorist you’ll consider yourselves politically pure because you once gave the First Lady’s choice of head wear a disapproving sniff.

    It would be funny, if laughing at mentally ill people wasn’t rather tacky.

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