Ken Berwitz
Ted Cruz has put out a 1:30 commercial in which he sits with his wife and children and parodies Christmas stories to make political points. In it,one of his children reads a supposed story passage which refers to using a personal server – an obvious dig at Hillary Clinton. You can watch the commercial by clicking here.
Personally, I consider Senator Cruz using his children this way to be in extremely bad taste.
But it has nothing on what Washington Post cartoonist ann telnaes did.
She used this commercial as an excuse to depict Mr. Cruz\’s two young daughters – ages 7 and 4 – as monkeys. You can see her odious “cartoon” by clicking here.
This goes 1,000 miles beyond tastelessness. It is ugly to the nth degree.
And what is telnaes\’ rationale for doing so?
“when apolitician uses his children as political props, as Ted Cruz recently didin his Christmasparody 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.”
That, folks, is a hot steamy load of BS.
President Obama has two daughters just as Ted Cruz does. And he has used them “as political props” just as Ted Cruz has. Did telnaes ever declare Sasha and Malia Obama “fair game”? Depict them as monkeys? How fast do you figure she have been canned out of the Washington Post if she did? But for Ted Cruz it apparently is no problem at all.
You don\’t have to take my word for the ugliness of this “cartoon” either. Read the comment section – which usually is packed solid with people who would avidly dislike Ted Cruz, and see how negatively they react.
Is an apology in order? You bet it is.
Would anyone take an apology seriously? would anyone believe ann telnaes meant it? Of course not.
But, then again, what\’s the difference? The damage has been done. That “cartoon” is out there for time immemorial , so an apology means nothing now.
Way to go, tesnaes. No one can deny you\’re loaded with class.
All of it rock-bottom low.
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UPDATE: The cartoon has been pulled – not by the unrepentant, still-ugly ann telnaes, but by Fred Hiatt, The Washington Post\’s Editorial Page Editor. In Hiatt\’s words:
“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”.
Too little, too late.
