Ernst 'very offended' over Sen. Harkin's comment

[alp227]

Source: Des Moines Register

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is being quoted as saying there may be a sense that Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst is "really attractive" and "sounds nice," but he warns she would the wrong choice for Iowans.

BuzzFeed News carried an online story Sunday that included video of Harkin, a Democrat retiring from the Senate, as he spoke last week at a Story County Democratic Party barbecue. Ernst is opposed by Democratic Bruce Braley in the contest to replace Harkin.

The source of the video is not identified, but it's well known that so-called "trackers" representing both Democrats and Republicans regularly attend Iowa political events, scouring the recording afterwards for any remark that might be controversial.

"In this Senate race, I've been watching some of these ads," Harkin said on the video. "And there's sort of this sense that, 'Well, I hear so much about Joni Ernst. She is really attractive, and she sounds nice.'"

Read more: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/2014/11/02/iowa-harkin-senate-ernst/18389193/

[MurryMom]

1. Republican War against truth

The Republicans' War Against Truth forbids any factual statements being made close to Election Day.
Otherwise, why be offended?

[Frustratedlady]

2. Thin skinned, much? eom

[alp227]

8. LOL. Right wingers oppose political correctness...until THEY become the butt of the joke nt

[MBS]

25. " " " "" n/t

[Midnight Writer]

82. She's playing what the RW call the "Victim Card"

[BP2]

3. It IS sexist, even if she is a liar n/t

[emulatorloo]

6. That is how the Koch Bros ads present her

Attractive and really nice. Harkin's referring to those ads and their presentation. Harkin is not a sexist. Go to the link to read the full context.

On edit posted context below.


"In this Senate race, I've been watching some of these ads," Harkin said on the video. "And there's sort of this sense that, 'Well, I hear so much about Joni Ernst. She is really attractive, and she sounds nice.'"

"Well I got to thinking about that. I don't care if she's as good looking as Taylor Swift or as nice as Mr. Rogers, but if she votes like Michele Bachmann, she's wrong for the state of Iowa."

Ernst, appearing on Fox News on Monday morning, was critical of Harkin's remarks.

"I was very offended that Sen. Harkin would say that, I think it's unfortunate that he and many in their party believe that you can't be a real woman if you're conservative and female. I believe if my name had been John Ernst on my resume, then Senator Harkin would not have said those things," Ernst said.

Ernst also said claims by Democrats that Republicans are engaged in a "war on women" is phony.

"First, I am a woman and second, I have been to war, I am a combat veteran," Ernst said. "This is not a war on women. Any time Democrats are using the word war they need to do it to honor our service men and women."

[karynnj]

56. John Ernst? Not true as nearly every article on Scott Brown references how attractive he is

Not to mention in a NH race for Congress, a Republican (not running) said the Democrat would not win because she is ugly. Not to mention, there were MANY comments that called the very attractive Michelle Obama "ugly".

Since when have "attractive" and "nice" been things you had to apologize for saying.

There is something strange in the Republicans not having to apologize for calling our candidates ugly - or worse - and them demanding Democrats do so when they admit a Republican candidate seems "nice" and "attractive".

What I wonder is if this will backfire here because Iowa has known Senator Harkin for 30 plus years! This seems desperate.

[Historic NY]

4. In other words the contents don't fit the package..

[Peacetrain]

5. Well as an Iowan... if that offends her to the bone..

She has no place in the US senate.. You need a tougher hide than that.. just saying..

[caber09]

7. Braley leads 56 - 36 percent among those who already have voted....

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/iowa/release-detail?ReleaseID=2110

If this is anywhere near the truth ( and I sure hope it is!), with continued GOTV effort and more than 1/3 of voters voting already, how is it possible that Ernst would win if you factor in usual R turnout are just voting earlier plus alot of the early D vote being newly registered/those who normally sit out midterms with typical D voters still yet to vote....I am not a math major, please advise, how is it possible with numbers to end up losing?

[Beaverhausen]

9. Ugh- wish he hadn't said that

This is a race we need to win and this stupid remark could put her over.

[BP2]

14. Agreed. n/t

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

10. She's got a right to be. Lousy choice of words.

If he wanted to 'go there', the safe way to do so is to say something like 'I realize she's pleasant, she's photogenic, she's got a compelling life story - all of the things that are helpful in campaigning - but she'd be a disaster for the state and the country if she gets into office.'

[emulatorloo]

12. Full Context here: Harkin discussing her Koch Bros ads vs her record

"In this Senate race, I've been watching some of these ads," Harkin said on the video. "And there's sort of this sense that, 'Well, I hear so much about Joni Ernst. She is really attractive, and she sounds nice.'"

"Well I got to thinking about that. I don't care if she's as good looking as Taylor Swift or as nice as Mr. Rogers, but if she votes like Michele Bachmann, she's wrong for the state of Iowa."

Ernst, appearing on Fox News on Monday morning, was critical of Harkin's remarks.

"I was very offended that Sen. Harkin would say that, I think it's unfortunate that he and many in their party believe that you can't be a real woman if you're conservative and female. I believe if my name had been John Ernst on my resume, then Senator Harkin would not have said those things," Ernst said.

Ernst also said claims by Democrats that Republicans are engaged in a "war on women" is phony.

"First, I am a woman and second, I have been to war, I am a combat veteran," Ernst said. "This is not a war on women. Any time Democrats are using the word war they need to do it to honor our service men and women."

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

16. The whole quote actually sounds worse than the short version.

He would still have done better to stop before the 'attractive as Taylor Swift' part.

[emulatorloo]

21. Fair enough. However her disingenousness on Fox will

piss off a lot of Iowa voters who trust Harkin and appreciate how hard he has fought for them in Senate.

So maybe it is a wash.

[belzabubba333]

31. like your were to tammy duckworth or john kerry or jean schmidt to murtha

if it so bothers you work on your own party first

[ashling]

11. Poor baby

Joni is so [strike through]offensive[/strike through] offended.

"Well I got to thinking about that. I don't care if she's as good looking as Taylor Swift or as nice as Mr. Rogers, but if she votes like Michele Bachmann, she's wrong for the state of Iowa."

Ernst, appearing on Fox News on Monday morning, was critical of Harkin's remarks.

"I was very offended that Sen. Harkin would say that,

[emulatorloo]

24. Ernst says "war on women" is phony. ?????

?????????
----------------------------
Ernst also said claims by Democrats that Republicans are engaged in a "war on women" is phony.

"First, I am a woman and second, I have been to war, I am a combat veteran," Ernst said. "This is not a war on women. Any time Democrats are using the word war they need to do it to honor our service men and women."

------------------------

She's an educated person, surely she understands the concept of metaphor and simile.

Funny how literal minded these liars get when it they need to score points.

[PeoViejo]

13. I guess the Koch Brothers feel

that, if it's good enough for Faux News, it's good enough for the Senate.

[Fred Sanders]

15. Ernst is a radical Christian warrior that believes God created the planet in 7 fucking days, and all

her firmly held beliefs are about to be representative of Iowa, including raping the Earth, because Jesus, and hating the poor, because Jesus, and imprisoning rape victims if they do any kind of abortion, because, freedom....is that Iowa? She refuses to state her views, just presents as a doll like face...but they have fucking CNN and the media, without it they are nothing.

She runs to Fox, from the Iowa press, and she gets rewarded with the win? WTF? Because the Koch Klown Kash does brain wash folks right into the voting booths?

Offended now, Ms. Ernst?

[vlyons]

27. Onward Christian Soldiers

Joni's theme song:

Onward, Christian soldiers!
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before.
Christ, the royal Master,
Leads against the foe;
Forward into battle,
See his banners go!

Alas, they perceive us as the enemy

[RBInMaine]

17. Oh my goodness, she needs to go play with the Koch Brothers. Grow up Ms. Koch.

[KingCharlemagne]

18. Methinks the lady doth protest too much. - nt

[Mike Nelson]

19. Guess he's going to be first in her line for...

...castration.

[Frustratedlady]

22. Bingo! Talk about sexist. That ad was certainly aimed toward one group.

If she could produce that ad with a straight face, Harkin's comment shouldn't have been offensive to her.

Gonna dish it out, be prepared to take it.

[Voice for Peace]

33. DUzy!

although I don't know if DU still has DUzies.. still, it
made me

[emulatorloo]

38. Ha ha, brilliant!

[Blue Owl]

47. Yup he really dropped the ball with that comment

[NBachers]

73. Getting a bit testy, isn't she?

[ReRe]

20. She has absolutely no idea...

... how absurd it is that she is running to sit in Sen Harkin's retired seat in the Senate.
Talk about "offending."

[3catwoman3]

26. A senate version...

...of Clarence Thomas and Thurgood Marshall.

[ReRe]

30. Seriously...

... I know Iowa is kind of like Kansas, but I don't think a majority of Iowans are going to take such a turn in replacing Tom Harkin. How long did he represent Iowa? And yes, your analogy is a good one.

[emulatorloo]

41. We are a purple state. That's why Koch Bros are dumping tons of money

into lots of races here. Their ads really try to "mainstream" these extremists, while dumping raw sewage on the Dems.

Eastern part is more or less blue, Western part pretty red. Harkin much beloved, I think Braley will pull it off.

In 2012, Kochs dumped a TON of money into the city council election in the next town over from me. People got pissed about all the outside money coming in, and the Koch candidates went down in flames.

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

[ReRe]

49. Believe me...

... my eye is on Iowa. Fingers and toes crossed.

[JustAnotherGen]

23. I don't care

As much vitriol that is thrown at Liberal/Progressive women? I'll save my 'poutrage' for after the election.

She hates me - she's against women who have ectopic pregnancies getting medical care that literally saves your life.. She would have demanded a state sanctioned murder of me in May 2013.

So she hates me - I don't care if it's sexist or anything else. She has to learn what it feels like.

Obviously -this made her whine - I hope it hurt.

[3catwoman3]

29. The ignorance of wanting prohibit...

...the termination of an ectopic pregnancy is just mind-blowing. No way such pregnancies are viable. Not possible. Does she think every ectopically implanted embryo/fetus can be reimplanted in the uterus?

[JustAnotherGen]

42. I don't know

But my husband just about saw red when I showed him the legislation she tried to get into Iowa.

Obviously - the stork brought her children.

Obviously - she's never had a miscarriage.

Obviously - she's never had a salpingectomy. Know how HE (my husband) found out about the ectop? While I was under for the salpingectomy.

Did not even show up on the pregnancy test all women get prior to surgery.


Obviously - she has no clue how heart breaking that decision is.

Obviously - she needs to shut the fuck up and eat her peas.

Get used to the heat lady - because you are never going to get away from WHO and WHAT you are.

Are the people of Iowa really that stupid that they would vote for this vile, disgusting monster?

[Lurks Often]

28. Unfortunately the hypocrisy on this thread isn't a surprise

If this had been said by a Republican politician people here would be screaming bloody murder, but because a Democratic politician said it, people here are going out of their way to explain it away and even defend Harkin's sexist comments.

Double standards much?

[alp227]

32. Please read the nuance in Harkin's comments.

Harkin wasn't expressing a personal opinion about Ernst but rather interpreting the MESSAGE by Ernst's campaign ads.

[Lurks Often]

36. I find the comment sexist n/t

[emulatorloo]

44. i find Ernst's anti-woman policies sexist

[Lurks Often]

48. And that's fine,

but I expect better from a liberal/progressive discussion board when a Democratic politician makes sexist comments and people defend those comments, when if it had been a Republican who made the exact same comments about a Democratic woman, the thread would end up with 100+ replies all condemning the Republican.

[emulatorloo]

57. Get back to me after you have seen Ernst's ads 24/7 for a month

And reviewed Harkin's record in the Senate.

We are on the ground here in Iowa. This is not some sort of hypothetical DU litmus test.

As skidmore says below:

----------------
Her entire campaign has been about she's a mom, a soldier, warm and fuzzy, can make biscuits and neuter hogs, and Grassley was insulted. Constant recycling of these type of ads interspersed with some really nasty ads from some outside pacs.

All (Harkin) was saying is that her ads are set to portray her as attractive and nice. This has been the case. We are innundated by endless ads that give you whiplash between warm and fuzzy and some nasty bits from various out of state groups. Very little is said about her positions on issues in those ads so she is obscuring what she represents. All that has come out issue wise has been culled from speeches she has made and for which she will not clarify if asked.
----------------

You are entitled to your opinion, but our reality shows that your opinion is not based on fact.

[Lurks Often]

59. A politician's appearance should NEVER be the subject of whether

they are qualified or not. Period.

Harkin could have found a different way to say that Ernst isn't qualified without resorting to comments about the physical attractiveness of Ernst or Taylor Swift.

[emulatorloo]

61. See my edit above. Added skidmore's very accurate description of Ernst ad campaign

Harkin's description of the campaign is accurate as well.

Don't bother replying, because you have zero credibility on this race as far as I am concerned.

[Lurks Often]

62. And your are entitled to your opinion

I still see a lot of hypocrisy in this thread

[Scootaloo]

69. They're both sexist.

it's not a zero-sum game where sexism from one cancels out sexism from the other.

is Ernst's more damaging for women? yes, absolutely. Does that make it okay for Harkin to focus on her looks? Not at all.

C'mon people, standards.

[ReRe]

35. As has been reminded to others...

... your assumption that he is being sexist is unfounded and would know this if you would just listen to the video clip. That is what the Koch Bros said, not Tom Harkin. He was just responding to what they had said. Now if he had said this out of the blue, it would be sexist. You can call anyone anything you want, but sexist does not describe Tom Harkin.

[Lurks Often]

37. I read the article in the paper and I find his comment sexist

[ReRe]

40. And what newspaper would that be?

Would it be a newspaper that has indorsed Ernst?

[Lurks Often]

43. And is it?

And did they make up his comments?

[emulatorloo]

46. No, but your interp is way off base.

You have'nt seen the Ernst ad campaign Harkin's describing. His description of the ads messages is 100 percent accurate.

You also don't know Senator Harkin as well as we do.

You are entitled to your opinion of course.

[ReRe]

51. Huh?

How is that an answer to my question? Again, what newspaper article are you basing your assumptions on and did it endorse Ernst?

[Lurks Often]

52. The link the OP posted

and do your own research and decide if the paper the OP linked to endorsed Ernst and even if they did, did the paper accurately report what Harkin said

[ReRe]

54. Heck, I just listened...

... to the words out of the horses mouth, not the interpretation of the newspaper. I'll go see right now if they have endorsed Ernst. It would make a ton of difference if they endorsed Ernst and misinterpreted the words out of his mouth in the clip.

[alp227]

64. the DMR went for braley

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/editorials/endorsement/2014/10/25/bruce-braley-endorsement-us-senate-better-choice/17907819/

[ReRe]

67. Yeah...

... as soon as the dude told me to look it up myself, I did.

[karynnj]

70. If you could picture the media constantly saying the same about a male candidate, wouldn't that

make it non sexist? If so, look at NH - where many have argued that Brown is attractive and a nice guy -- both mentioned often - even though he was clearly anything but nice, charming or a gentleman vs Warren.

[Lurks Often]

74. It's sexist regardless of the gender

We should be voting in people who will do a good job, not based on their gender, color of their skin or how good looking they are.

[karynnj]

75. I agree with you that looks etc should not be a criteria

However, one test of whether something is sexist is if it would only be said of one sex. In fact, I assume that for either sex, either party - all other things be held constant, there would be a bias to like someone if they are BOTH good lucking and seem to have a pleasant personality.

I named Scott Brown, but I suspect that John Edwards had he been unattractive would never have been anywhere near as strong a contender as he was. (I also think that we also see people we like as more attractive than we would an identical twin we don't like.)

[Vinca]

34. I'm siding with Joni. Harkin should have compared her to nutbag Todd Akin.

[TwilightGardener]

39. Attractive? Am I missing something? Does Harkin need a new lens prescription?

[Skidmore]

55. No. All he was saying is that her ads are set to portray her as

attractive and nice. This has been the case. We are innundated by endless ads that give you whiplash between warm and fuzzy and some nasty bits from various out of state groups. Very little is said about her positions on issues in those ads so she is obscuring what she represents. All that has come out issue wise has been culled from speeches she has made and for which she will not clarify if asked.

[TwilightGardener]

58. I don't know how fuzzy ads can overcome Blagojevich hair on a woman.

All I'm sayin'.

[Major Hogwash]

80. Or that Karl Malden face!

Christ, what were they thinking when they chose her?
Who was her opponent, Boris Karloff?

[Skidmore]

45. Her entire campaign has been

about she's a mom, a soldier, warm and fuzzy, can make biscuits and neuter hogs, and Grassley was insulted. Constant recycling of these type of ads interspersed with some really nasty ads from some outside pacs.

[emulatorloo]

50. Dead on analysis of Ernst's ads.

Her attempt to paint Harkin as a sexist is 100 percent disingenousness.

[Midnight Writer]

83. Exactly. As a man, shouldn't I be offended by her castrating ad?

After all, she doesn't talk about "spaying" the women in Washington.

I watched her televised reaction to Harkin's comments. She wasn't offended; she was delighted. She could hardly suppress her smile.

[Skidmore]

84. The point was that there is really no substance to her ads.

Just holding out gimmicks. Iowa does not need a Teabagger.

[BeyondGeography]

53. Yawn

No upside for us but not seeing it as damaging either this late in the day.

[Dawson Leery]

60. Harkin is right. Earnst (ISIS in Christian form)

had built her entire campaign on how wonderful and "down home" she is. She has built herself as a sweet and innocent person who is above the fray of the political world.

In reality, she is just as bad as "legitimate rape" Todd Akin. She opposes all abortions including to save the life of the mother. She has said she is preparing for a war against the Federal Government (the Confederacy prepared for war against the Fed too).

[BlueStater]

63. I really can't believe this race is so close.

This woman is an idiot and is in absolutely no way qualified to be a senator. She's just as bad as Christine O'Donnell or Sharon Angle. And Iowa wants her to represent them in the US Senate? What the fuck?

[emulatorloo]

72. Gazillion dollars in Koch Bros money flooding the airwaves

So TV not very motivated to tell the truth about her.

[VA_Jill]

65. Well,

he could have said, "Ugly IS as ugly DOES"!

[LiberalFighter]

66. Just don't trust only your eyes.

Just because something looks appealing doesn't mean down inside they have the right stuff.

[tanyev]

68. Boneheaded remark, but I would be willing to bet there were high fives in the Ernst campaign office.

"Woo-hoo! Something the candidate can be offended about!"

[muntrv]

71. Hey Joni! Is Harkin engaging in a war on women?

[liberal N proud]

76. Can someone please use the B-word?

[Major Hogwash]

78. Sure, Ernst is a stupid butthole. She is a lying piece of shit.

She said today that many Democrats would be voting for her tomorrow along with Independents and Republicans.
She must be smoking a lot of crack to think any Democrat from Iowa would vote for her.

As a result, herewith and therefore, I predict that she will be beat by more than 5% of the total vote.

[liberal N proud]

85. For anyone wondering what B-word I was thinking about yesterday...

It was baby!

She is a cry baby and can't take the heat and therefor should not be running.


And some of you thought I was thinking of something else.

[Kalidurga]

77. I am so glad Harkin apolgized because...

she is not attactive and she doesn't sound nice not even close.

[Politicalboi]

79. Where are the Republican women when

Equal pay bills get shot down. Oh that's right, they voted against fair wages for women. These are just crocodile tears from the castration queen.

[RandySF]

81. Yet she stood and did nothing

While a female State Senate employee was harassed.