[guest post by Dana]

Last week I posted about Kellyanne Conway and that photo of her perched on the sofa in the Oval office, and said, “This isn’t helping your boss, Kellyanne. Appearances matter, optics matter, and how you carry yourself matters.”

Sure enough, in spite of Conway’s reasonable explanation for why she was in the position, a male Democrat jumped at the opportunity to denigrate a Republican woman by making a crude joke about her:

At Wednesday’s annual Washington Press Club Foundation congressional dinner — a fundraiser for journalism scholarships and a lighthearted gathering of Washington’s media and congressional elite — Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) made a cringe-worthy joke about that now-famous photo of Kellyanne Conway kneeling on the Oval Office sofa:

“You even mentioned Kellyanne and the picture on the sofa. But I really just want to know what was going on there, because, I won’t tell anybody. And you can just explain to me that — that circumstance, because she really looked kind of familiar there in that position there. But don’t answer. And I don’t want you to refer back to the ’90s.”

Just a few minutes earlier, Republican Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) had said: “Has anyone seen the controversy around Kellyanne Conway and the couch in the Oval Office? Come on, people. You remember the ’90s. That couch has had a whole lot of worse things. Come on now.”

Benny Johnson of the Independent Journal Review, who was in the audience when Richmond made the crude reference, asked Richmond for clarification about what he had said:

“I just said she looked comfortable in that position. I can’t let Tim get away with making a Clinton joke without making one of my own.”

Thursday morning, Richmond attempted to explain it away:

“Since some people have interpreted my joke to mean something that it didn’t I think it is important to clarify what I meant. Last night was night of levity. Where I grew up saying that someone is looking or acting ‘familiar’ simply means that they are behaving too comfortably.

I decided to use that joke due to the large social media backlash over her inappropriate posture considering there were more than 60 HBCU Presidents in the room.”

Riiiiiight…..

Yesterday I watched with amusement as Jake Tapper confronted Nancy Pelosi, and questioned her about whether Richmond owed Conway an apology for his disparaging “joke”. (Bear in mind that March is Women’s History Month, and that Kellyanne Conway made history as the first female campaign manager to put a candidate into the Oval Office….). However, Pelosi once again confirmed that she is no champion of women, and brushed away the incident:

“Shouldn’t the congressman apologize to Kellyanne Conway, and honestly where is the Democratic Party in expressing outrage over this?” host Jake Tapper pressed.

“Well, I wasn’t at the dinner. I’m just finding out about this. But the fact is, I’m still in sort of a state of, what is going on here that the person who occupies the White House is a person who was on that Hollywood video that said the crude things he said about women,” Pelosi said.

“You all are criticizing Cedric for something he said in the course of the evening. And he maybe should be criticized for that. I just don’t know the particulars,” she added. “But I do everyday marvel at the fact that somebody who said the gross and crude things that President Trump said — wouldn’t even be allowed in a frat house — and he’s in the White House.”

Tapper appeared almost stunned by Pelosi’s comments, but he tried again. He went on to clarify his line of questioning to ask if the Democrats’ “moral authority” is being undermined because they don’t criticize Democrats who make sexually crude comments toward women — only Republicans.

“Well, I think everybody was making crude comments,” Pelosi replied. “I—I just don’t know…I wasn’t at the dinner.”

Last night, Richmond offered a quasi-apology to Conway:

“After a discussion with people I know and trust I understand the way my remarks have been received by many. I have consistently been a champion for women and women’s issues, and because of that the last thing I would want to ever do is utter words that would hurt or demean them. I apologize to Kellyanne Conway and everyone who has found my comments to be offensive.”

Oh, bullshit he’s always been a champion for women. Richmond knew how vulgar his insult was. He said it purposefully and with intent. And you know why? Because Conway is a Republican female, and thus little more than punchline to Democrats. You can be sure he would not have dared to make the slur about a female Democrat in such a position of power because he would then have to face the collective wrath of the Democratic women in white – who have been strangely silent about this incident.

This sort of anti-woman behavior is precisely what we have come to expect from Democrats. Especially from those that crow the loudest about being champions of the gender.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

Tim Carney at the Washington Examiner draws attention to the way Donald Trump has been personally profiting from people paying for access to him:

If you pay $200,000 a year to the company Donald Trump owns, you too can have access most weekends to the president and his top officials. As an alternative, your organization could cut a $150,000 check to bring in a couple of hundred people who will have a chance to schmooze with the president and cabinet officials. Foreign moguls and dignitaries welcome.

This isn’t Bill Clinton’s Lincoln Bedroom. This isn’t the Clinton Foundation during Hillary’s reign at the State Department. This is Mar-a-Lago.

Donald Trump, for the fourth weekend in the past five, has gone down to his Florida resort, and once again he is mingling with guests.

Carney makes the point that in the past, access to the President — a very, very valuable commodity — has been sold by associates of the President, such as Jack Abramoff. But now, it’s the President who personally profits:

Trump refused to sell his company or unload his properties. While he has given up management of them, he still owns them. That means he still profits when someone books a gala there or becomes a member. And if you’ve followed the lobbying game in Washington, you know that special interests are likely shelling out the cash to get a chance to be close to the president — not necessarily because they expect Trump to reward them as a quid pro quo for their membership, but because joining Mar-a-Lago is the best way to get close to him.

Mar-a-Lago doubled the price of membership in January, after Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton made access to him more valuable.

Trumpers will claim he has no choice but to retain an ownership stake in Mar-a-Lago, and to spend a lot of taxpayer dollars to move his presidency to a resort he owns every weekend. “What do you expect him to do?” they will cry.

But if Hillary Clinton pulled a stunt like this, Trumpers would be screaming. When you listen for their howling about this pay-for-access scheme, all you’ll hear from them is the relaxing sound of crickets.

[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]