A friend — a woman friend — passed on to me this item from The Post and Courier. She told me it might not appeal to me because it was “chick stuff” — that she nearly passed on it for the same reason (you’d have to know this woman, who in some ways thinks more like a guy than I do) — but that she thought it was worth a moment’s attention. An excerpt:
A lot of women are going to be disappointed with your comments on conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham’s radio show….
Maybe you were still feeling some fallout from reporter Renee Dudley’s story about your European job-recruiting trip funded by the taxpayers.
But that was no reason to say what you said.
Near the end of your interview, Ingraham offers this observation:
“This character at The Post and Courier clearly wants to portray you as someone hypocritical, that you’re not what you pretend to be.”
(No, governor, you’re doing a really good job of that on your own, actually, but that’s beside the point.)
You responded: “All I will tell you is, God bless that little girl at The Post and Courier. Her job is to create conflict, my job is to create jobs.”
Little girl?
The governor of the great state of South Carolina called another woman a little girl?…
Gee, all they had to do to get my attention was yell, “Girl Fight!” I would have come running. Any guy who’s ever been a third-grader would. We’d also be careful not to get in the middle of it…
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Actually, the “little girl” thing would be more like something I would say. I’ve picked it up from my wife (I don’t say it nearly as often as she does, though), who often uses it to refer to females into their early 30s. Because we have children that age, so that’s what they seem like to us.
But Nikki Haley saying it? No way. She’s practically, but not quite, in that category herself…
Who’s getting the popcorn? This should get good.
Whatever happened to “don’t pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel”?
Oh, Nikki doesn’t know that. Because she is advised by kids (“little boys,” perhaps I should say) who actually think that because Facebook (which our gov uses to shoot herself in the foot) exists, she can blow off the press.
Jim Hodges thought the same thing, because Kevin Geddings told him that — before Facebook, which made it even stranger. Another case of a “little boy” advising a man, and the man, sadly, listening.
So let me get this right: the 25 year-old reporter is a “little girl,” but the 24 year-old Haley staffer is a seasoned professional who can represent the state with corporate executives?
[Irony alert… said 24 year-old was conducting these meetings during the trip that the 25 year-old was reporting on.]
When I read about Gov. Haley’s comment in The State article, I immediately thought it was typical mean girl behavior by the Governor. Very immature and unprofessional. And Brad, I’m sorry to say this, but your calling this a “girl fight” tends to place the Post and Courier reporter in the same poor light as the Governor, although the reporter has shown much more mature and professional judgment by not responding to the Governor.
Nikki doesn’t understand irony. She uses the dry cleaners, bless her heart.
Abba, I wasn’t thinking about the reporter. I was seeing Nikki, and this Laura Ingraham person, and the woman who was writing the column taking Nikki to task, and the woman who brought it to my attention, and yeah, the reporter was in there somewhere, I guess, but she wasn’t in my field of vision because she wasn’t saying anything that I knew of.
And what I saw was a girl fight. With Nikki being the most visible, climbing up another girl’s back, pulling her hair and trying to scratch her eyes out…
Also, more seriously, it seemed like something between women, about something said by one woman about another woman, and the thing said was something that would particularly wound a woman, especially a young one, and another woman was saying something about that, and there just wasn’t any guy stuff in there anywhere.
I suppose I also, on some level, was thinking SEO. Which is unseemly, in a gentleman. Stooping to engage in trade and all.
Calling it a “girl fight” is deeply offensive. Governor Haley inappropriately referred to an adult female reporter, more properly referred to as a “woman,” as a “little girl”–part of her faux-folksiness. The reporter was just doing her job–not engaging in a “fight.”
Still not seeing anything that lives up to that headline about an “apology.” Anyone else see anything? It’s not like any of those little boys and girls at the governor’s office communicate stuff to me…
By the way, if you want to hear the original remark, it’s right after the 11-minute mark on this link.
And after listening, I take it back: Maybe Kathryn is right. Maybe she WAS trying to be folksy.
She was just doing it with her usual deft, subtle touch.
One, as I just said, I wasn’t thinking about the reporter. And two, I don’t want to get in the middle of it.
And three, she wasn’t being folksy. She was trying to belittle her. Which is why folks are angry. Which in turn is why a miracle has happened: Nikki Haley has apologized for something she has done…
Or at least, that’s what the headline says. I don’t see any actual quotes of apology. I’ll keep looking…
She “regrets” she said it but doesn’t actually apologize. I don’t believe for one second that she was just being folksy. She was knocking her down and trying to cast doubt on the reporter’s professional ability.
Something Darling Nikki has never had.
In case all of y’all can set your identity politics sensitivities aside for a moment, you’ll see that what she just said was WORSE. Particularly for what it tells of the way she deals with having done something wrong. It’s always somebody else’s fault.
Oh, yeah, she was the very picture of grace on this one:
“The story painted a grossly inaccurate picture and was unprofessionally done,” Haley said in a statement. “But my ‘little girl’ comment was inappropriate and I regret that. Everyone can have a bad day. I’ll forgive her bad story, if she’ll forgive my poor choice of words.”
“Bless her heart”
Nikki is the one I am referring to. Renee and the P&C is OK!