On the Today show this morning, right-wing talk show host Laura Ingraham added a so-far-unheard-of resume item to Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s CV: Olympic curler.
It was unclear exactly what Ingraham was suggesting, though it might be read as something of an allusion to rumors that Kagan is a lesbian — not unlike the many “softball” references that have been bandied about right-wing circles.
Ingraham herself brought up the “softball” line on Today.
“I mean, whether she plays softball, or whether she hangs out with Justice Scalia, whether she hired a couple conservative professors over the years, all of that might be kind of cute for a personal resume. But it’s absolutely irrelevant to how you perform on the Supreme Court of the United States.”
Of course, that didn’t stop Ingraham from bringing it up in the first place.
Ingraham later said that Kagan’s qualifications represent “a vital debate to our country, and I think we should have it seriously and not talk about her poker playing, and uh, was she an Olympic curler? I heard that, not sure if it’s true.”
“I didn’t hear that one,” NBC’s Meredith Vieira said.
Ingraham isn’t the first to push the softball line. As Ben Smith pointed out yesterday, the Wall Street Journal came under big-time criticism from gay rights groups for running a front page photo of Kagan playing softball.
“It clearly is an allusion to her being gay. It’s just too easy a punch line,” said Cathy Renna, a former spokesperson for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation who is now a consultant.
Watch:
