A Not-So-Rosie 'View'

Previously Recorded.

The message winked coyly at salivating pop watchers on Monday’s episode of “The View,” as the alphabet unfairly flirted with those of us hoping beyond reason.

Rosie was on, being her rosy self, and all seemed right with the delicate “big, fat lesbian” versus “innocent, pure Christian” balance of the universe. But, alas, Memorial Day’s episode was “previously recorded.” Damn the technology that brought us the rerun!

“The View” is the best—the guiltiest of guilty pleasures. But this year has been the super best of all because of Rosie O’Donnell, the former comedian/successful talk show host/failed Broadway producer/Democrat/lesbian.

With her obligatory male bashing (Bush, Trump and more Bush) O’Donnell made “The View” actually watchable—something no longer relegated to the ether of TiVo or sneaked through head phones at work when we should be watching CNN. She even made the show CNN-able.

With O’Donnell the Democrat, Barbara Walters the who-knows-what, Joy Behar the other Democrat and Elisabeth Hasselbeck the super Republican, “The View” made politics a regular condiment in the morning, almost as good as coffee but with fewer calories. Politics, women, roundtables and not-PBS are virtually unheard of. The show was, for all intents and purposes, kind of groundbreaking this year.

Yes, “The View.”

But that’s all over now since the incident. It all started when O’Donnell purportedly compared U.S. troops to terrorists with this quote: “655,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. Who are the terrorists?” Which, to be fair, is a bit misleading.

Either she was accusing America, President Bush, Vice President Cheney or the troops (or maybe even Donald Trump) of being a terrorist—but someone was being called a terrorist, and in a post-9/11 world that’s a dirty word, right?
 
O’Donnell implied something vague, which allowed the rest of the world to infer something equally vague. That’s when the pundits took to the Internet and accused her of being, at the very least, unpatriotic.

“When is someone going to sue this liar? She needs to be held accountable for her words,” wrote one commenter on the conservative website freerepublic.com. The Media Research Center, a group that tracks liberal bias in the media, has been profiling O’Donnell’s “more noteworthy left-wing outbursts” in a “report” called “The Full Rosie.” 

Hasselbeck didn’t have her back, says Rosie. TV violence then ensued.

From the “big fight” show:

The O’Donnell: “Do you believe I think our troops are terrorists, Elisabeth? Yes or no?”

Innocent Elisabeth: “I don’t put suggestions out there that lead people to think things and then not answer my own question.”

Joy, the voice of reason: “Don’t yell at each other, please let’s have a conversation,” she pleaded. “Why is this personal? There’s a war going on out there.”

Then the terms “coward,” “cowardly,” “emotions” and “facts” came up. And therein lies the real travesty about O’Donnell’s rushed departure: why can’t women talk about politics without taking it personally?

People talk about the lack of female pundits (I have in this paper), one reason being that they don’t value “chest-thumpery” and “shouting shows.” But last week’s episode of “The View” was just that—a bunch of chicks shouting at each other (in split-screen time no less) about their hurt feelings.

So far, there are more than 9,000 signatures on fireelisabethhasselbeck.com, but according to Tuesday's show—the first withou O’Donnell in the moderator’s chair—the two firebrands have “started the process of forgiveness.”

Still, there’s a sterling silver lining to this dust-up—Star Jones-Reynolds is probably out somewhere having a congratulatory double-fudge sundae.