Our political Quote of the Day comes from law professor Jonathan Turley who has a great post (with quotes from bloggers and a blog commenter) on how some conservatives are in an uproar over Miss Michigan Rima Fakih, 24, becoming the first Arab-American to win the Miss USA Pageant. His post must be read in full but here’s our Quote of the Day:
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The extreme right has gone ballistic –painting Fakih as a mole for Hamas and part of some Islamic threat despite her appearing in a bikini and contradicting most of the mores of conservative Islamic mores.…I have no idea (nor do I care) what the views of this woman might be — nor do I see the relevance. The runner-up, Miss Oklahoma, was asked about her views on the controversial Arizona immigration law and said that she supported the law, here. While I believe the reasonable suspicion provision will unleash discriminatory enforcement, I do not look to Miss Oklahoma as a source of legal or policy wisdom.
As with the Prejean controversy, it continues to amaze me that people inject politics (and frankly substance) in this beauty contest. Usually it is an effort to elevate the competition but at times it is an effort to paint the contestants in a darker light. If Hezbollah planned to gain some advantage by winning the Miss USA competition, they are more desperate than I thought. Next they will be targeting the USA Spelling Bee.
You can follow the latest helping of 24/7 blog outrage by GOING HERE.
UPDATE: But is a NEW SCANDAL involving a beauty queen about to erupt? One in which the media, coupled with conservative blogs and talk show hosts, demand she is dethroned? TMZ reports that she won a radio show’s award for best pole dancer in 2007 and has a photo to illustrate the report.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.