Whoopi Goldberg’s Transparency: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

July 15, 2004

If transparency were a campaign issue John Kerry would have his butt handed to him on a platter. We can make it the requisite silver platter for the “everyman” Kerry. While his campaign likes to screech to high heaven that the Bush Administration is secretive (I admit that they have a tight lid on things but can you blame them?) it is the many instances of non-transparency that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt John Kerry’s distaste for providing the public with the details.

Recently, at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, John Kerry and the DNC hosted a gala Bush-Bashing event that targeted the wallets of the Liberal-Left’s elite. The event was well attended and boasted entertainment by some of the more politically active Hollywood has-beens: Chevy Chase, Jessica Lange, John Mellon Cougarcamp and Whoopi Goldberg. It pulled in approximately $7.5 million, which is a pretty good haul for a political fundraising event. But it was the “entertainment,” and in particular Whoopi Goldberg’s bit – was she ever funny? – that raised some eyebrows and sent Kerry campaign officials into “denial mode” yet again.

Goldberg offered a monologue that would have made Lenny Bruce uncomfortable. She reportedly fired off a stream of vulgar sexual wordplays on Bush's name in a riff about female genitalia and was reported as saying the country should "keep Bush where it belongs and not in the White House." She pointed to her crotch while making that remark.

The key word in the above paragraph is “reportedly” because the Kerry camp has refused to release any tape of the event. Evidently they don’t feel the rest of the country needs to know about the hate and profanity highlighted in their heavy-hitter, big donor event. Evidently it is more important for the common folk of the country to simply accept John Kerry and John Edwards as having “values” more than it is for us to know they reaped tremendous monetary benefit from an arguably x-rated and valueless stand-up routine that centered its sentiment on hate, divisiveness and extremism. To be certain, the withholding of these taped comments is the antithesis of transparency. To be certain yet again, this isn’t the first time that the Kerry campaign has shied away from full disclosure.

It wasn’t too long ago that Vietnam veterans all over the country were demanding John Kerry (you did know he served in Vietnam, right?) release – in total – his military records, records that include his complete medical files. These honorable men and women want to prove a point to the American electorate, that John Forbes Kerry is less than the celebrated war hero he is trying to paint himself. They want the American public to be aware of the fact that all of Kerry’s Purple Hearts were awarded for superficial, non-life threatening wounds that warranted his injuries the category of “walking wounded.” They want the American voters to know the “heroic” beaching of his swift boat in the pursuit of a wounded North Vietnamese soldier – a man he proudly proclaims he finished off despite rules prohibiting the execution of wounded enemy soldiers – should have garnered him a court martial instead of a Silver Star because he put his crew’s life in danger. The Vietnam veterans want the American public to know the truth.

To date, John Kerry has refused to release a set of military records complete with a full accounting of his medical files. Instead he has released fragments that his campaign has posted on their website…unfair, unbalanced and not transparent.

In comparison, the Kerry campaign, its surrogates…ahem, Kennedy, cough…and the mainstream media created a firestorm until every last detail and accounting of President Bush’s Texas Air National Guard records was fully disclosed.

Then we have reluctant wannabe First Lady Teresa’s financial disclosure, or non-disclosure, as it were.

Teresa Heinz Kerry, billionaire, has refused to disclose her full financial statement because she says her children are involved. Well, isn’t that special. Evidently it is more important to shield grown children from the media spotlight when it comes to finances than it is to disclose the financial dealings of someone who would be integral in shaping the opinion and policies of a future president. Apparently it shouldn’t matter to the American people that Teresa holds heavy sway with foundations that support groups the likes of the Tides Foundation, an organization has and does champion ultra-liberal causes. What should matter most is the protection of her grown children from the mean and evil spotlight of the American media.

In contrast it begs to be asked, why didn’t the Bush Family think of simply denying access to the media when it was busy feeding off the exploits of their two then college-aged daughters Jenna and Barbara? Or the medical woes of Jeb Bush’s daughter down in Florida? What were they thinking? By the way, both the Bush Family and the Cheney Family have never flinched at making their financial dealing open to full disclosure.

The Kerry/Edwards campaign – is it okay to say that even though they haven’t had their convention yet? – is particularly good at instructing the people of the United States to “do as they say, not as they do,” and the transparency/full-disclosure issue is no exception.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media continues to champion the Liberal-Left by giving Kerry and Edwards a pass by not pursuing full disclosure on a plethora of issues important to the American people. They offer this friendship to the Kerry/Edwards campaign while attacking the Bush Administration on everything that they can come up with. And they say there isn’t a liberal agenda in the mainstream media.

As the foul-mouthed, hate-filled Goldberg might say, this is really bush league.

Frank SalvatoCopyright © 2004 Frank Salvato