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There are some sweet little girls who are stealing the show left and right, the Presidential election show that is. I wrote about them here. Yes indeed, they love their dad and its so very evident that he is wrapped around their fingers …about 20 times each!
Giving hugs of encouragement to their dad prior and after a major GOP Debate is a GOOD THING (channeling Martha Stewart). However, having your daughters help you read a Christmas story is a BAD THING! At least according to WaPo cartoonist Ann Telnaes. She wrote this after the Ted Cruz Ad that aired during SNL last weekend:
In commentary accompanying the cartoon, Telnaes explained why she thought this was an exception to what she described as “an unspoken rule in editorial cartooning that a politician’s children are off-limits.”
“But when a politician uses his children as political props, as Ted Cruz recently did in his Christmas parody video in which his eldest daughter read (with her father’s dramatic flourish) a passage of an edited Christmas classic, then I figure they are fair game,” Telnaes wrote.
The cartoon below is WaPo’s writer and cartoonist Ann Telnaes idea of “Fair Game” regarding children of a Presidential candidate.
Washington Post Mocks Ted Cruz's Daughters as Monkeys https://t.co/FSeRkMHFHp pic.twitter.com/z0evOWvi7Q
— The Patriot (@ThePatriot143) December 23, 2015
Wow. Just. WOW. Take a GOOD look at the cartoon above. I’m trying really hard to find any sort of political humor or decency in depicting two sweet young ladies as monkeys ..to the extent of DRAWING them as monkeys on a leash! The reaction was swift and negative. Understandably a loving father immediately jumped into the fray to defend his daughters.
Classy. @washingtonpost makes fun of my girls. Stick w/ attacking me–Caroline & Catherine are out of your league. https://t.co/N61ys6z8w1
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 22, 2015
Yeah, Ann is classy alright.
.@tedcruz fundraising email, referencing the since-removed @washingtonpost cartoon of his daughters pic.twitter.com/eCuqfv0bIV
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 23, 2015
Double standards much?
WaPo can smear @tedcruz's daughters, but SCANDAL when a GOP staffer criticized an Obama in a private Facebook post. https://t.co/fyCsfhibBN
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) December 22, 2015
Exactly!
@AnnTelnaes I hope you don't have any kids Ann. This is beneath basic human decency.
— Dan Simpson (@DSimpson88) December 22, 2015
From one father to another…
Wash Post cartoon featuring @tedcruz’s children is disgusting. The Post saying the kids are “fair game” is even worse.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 23, 2015
Good for Rubio I say!
Unfortunately there are others out there who think that so-called “cartoon” by Ann Telnaes is worth defending. Or at the very least, Ted’s reaction to how she and the WaPo view his daughters should be downplayed. If you read Politico and nothing else, you’d think that Cruz only “lashed out” because the WaPo dared to use his daughters in a story. With the implication that the photo they used was something like you see just below.
Yessir, read the entire 5 paragraph story at Politico right here. I’ll wait. Notice something missing? I did and so did a whole lot of other people. Evidently Politico considers Cruz’s daughters “fair game” as well. UPDATE: Politico couldn’t take the heat and sneakily amended their story late last night to include a description of the cartoon.
Lets take a look at the cartoon with its wordy explanation again shall we? Oh wait, we can’t. The WaPo pulled it. They have THIS in its place.
Editor’s note from Fred Hiatt: It’s generally been the policy of our editorial section to leave children out of it. I failed to look at this cartoon before it was published. I understand why Ann thought an exception to the policy was warranted in this case, but I do not agree.
That is one of the weakest bullcrap excuses I’ve ever read! Supposedly the WaPo’s editor didn’t review Ann’s copy before it was published? Fred, you’d fail miserably at selling snow to Eskimos if that’s the best you can come up with. Secondly, he implies that he agrees that those sweet girls are fair game? Well then, how come the WaPo and its cartoonists haven’t gone after Obama’s daughters? There’s been ample opportunity this year… heck there’s been multiple opportunities since 2008 when Obama used them in a major campaign ad! Check out minutes 18-20 and you’ll see them.
Here’s the takeaway on this. The fact that Ann had to write a lengthy explanation justifying that piece of crap above should tell us one thing…she KNEW her cartoon went beyond all bounds of decency! Secondly, the liberals just need to stop with their ‘good for thee, but not for me!’ double standard piousness concerning Democrat vs Republican children.
There was nothing fair, decent, or even morally right about what Ann did. She knows it, Fred Hiatt knows it, and we know it.
Merle says: Put that witch back in the cauldron!
Merle
Jim says: I understand completely how, with newspapers unable to attract talent, that the editors ability to do his job i.e. Not reading this cartoon, that things like this happen. This is perfect example of how desperate the post has become in trying to get a reader
Joe Miller says: How about this? It’s one thing to criticize the behavior of a politician’s children when they’re at a public event as the GOP staffer did. It’s quite another thing to depict them as subhuman. That’s a fairly clear distinction, isn’t it?
Personally, I would prefer to just leave the children of candidates out of it altogether. Family members are “fair game” only if (1) they are adults and (2) they have done something illegal or unethical.
Yes, I know candidates sometimes use children/grandchildren as campaign props. There is nothing that can be done about it. Let the public decide when too much is too much.
Jim says: I’m missing something, why not do same cartoon but put Oblama s girls in there with Oblama doing the grinding
GWB says: I have to say that the cartoon isn’t particularly grotesque. It doesn’t really have much of a point, either. It’s very uncool to do, but it isn’t as bad as some things progressives have done recently.
“the SNL skit”
Just a small correction: it was NOT a skit. It was an ad produced by Cruz’ political team and aired during SNL. (Please, it was much too good to actually come from the pens of SNL writers of late.)
GWB – thank you! I was writing in wee hours of morning hence the misprint of SNL skit vs ad. Will correct.
And yes, I’d have to say – the cartoon was extremely uncool. What got me was the entire justification she wrote about it that accompanied said cartoon. Which told me that she knew she was pushing boundaries. 😉
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