On the November 30 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Rush Limbaugh proclaimed: My “cat's taught me more about women, than anything my whole life” because his pet cat “comes to me when she wants to be fed,” and "[s]he's smart enough to know she can't feed herself. She's actually [a] very smart cat. She gets loved. She gets adoration. She gets petted. She gets fed. And she doesn't have to do anything for it." Limbaugh has previously stated, on the March 1, 2005, edition of his show, that "[w]omen still live longer than men because their lives are easier"; on January 10, he suggested that some women “would love to be hired as eye candy.”
Later the same day on MSNBC's Tucker, guest host Joe Scarborough, in a conversation about the November 29 appearance on ABC's The View by actor Danny DeVito in which DeVito referred to President Bush as “numbnuts,” stated, "[W]e're getting so much politics on The View. Shouldn't this be a program at this time of the year about how to make Christmas balls out of popcorn and pine cones?" After Huffington Post media editor Rachel Sklar replied to Scarborough's statement by saying, “I'm just going to forget you said that,” Scarborough added, "[I]t is a dayside show for women ... come on."
From the November 30 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: My cat -- here's how you can get fooled. My cat comes to me when she wants to be fed. I have learned this. I accept it for what it is. Many people in my position would think my cat's coming to me because she loves me. Well, she likes me, and she is attached, but she comes to me when she wants to be fed. And after I feed her -- guess what -- she's off to wherever she wants to be in the house, until the next time she gets hungry. She's smart enough to know she can't feed herself. She's actually a very smart cat. She gets loved. She gets adoration. She gets petted. She gets fed. And she doesn't have to do anything for it, which is why I say this cat's taught me more about women, than anything my whole life. But we put voices in their mouths.
From the November 30 edition of MSNBC's Tucker:
SCARBOROUGH: Of course, Danny DeVito was on yesterday and said some very ugly things about the president. Let's take a quick look at that clip.
[start video clip]
DeVITO: [slaps face and makes sounds]
BARBARA WALTERS (host, The View): You're waking up, aren't you?
DeVITO: Trying to like, you know, figure out what to do with our country and our women and men in the military.
[end video clip]
SCARBOROUGH: Of course, Rachel, of course Danny is talking about the president of the United States. But we're getting so much politics on The View. Shouldn't this be a program at this time of the year about how to make Christmas balls out of popcorn and pine cones?
SKLAR: Oh, I don't know, Joe. Were you recently appointed the head of programming for The View?
[laughter]
SCARBOROUGH: No.
SKLAR: This should be a program about putting popcorn on pine cones? I'm just going to forget you said that.
SCARBOROUGH: Come on -- it is a dayside show for women. It is --
SKLAR: Why shouldn't they talk about politics?
SCARBOROUGH: It is -- come on.
SKLAR: Let me tell you something about The View. Let me tell you something about The View. The View is getting some really interesting debates going. And that is becoming a must-see. The View is generating a lot of news and a lot of discussion. I think -- I think the show is doing a great job. And it's doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing, which is discussing all sides of all manner of issues. I think the thing about the DeVito --
SCARBOROUGH: You know, nobody has ever accused me, Matthew [Felling, Center for Media and Public Affairs], of being a program director for any TV show, including my own, thank God.