Pundit On Wheels

by digby

Kyra Phillips is now doing commentary. (Perhaps she’s had the segment for a while and I just couldn’t tell.) But today, I noticed. And I’m gobsmacked:

Ok, full transparency here. I am not a fan of beauty pageants. I think they actually take us backwards. And the media blitz over this blond bombshell Miss California is case in point. She looks great in a bikini and apparently in those topless photos that we haven’t seen yet. But why is her opinion on gay marriage relevant to you and me?

Which take me now to the other side of the world and a beauty contest that’s more like a beauty contrast. Saudi Arabia, a place where women don’t have rights like they do here in the states, but maybe there is something to say for how it judges its beauty pageant contestants. Saudi’s Miss Beautiful Morals begins this week-end. No bathing suits, no choreography, no tuxedoed judges. Just good old fashioned Q&A on morals. 200 Saudi women in Islamic veils will be quizzed on discovering inner strength, leadership and respect for parents. Men are not involved, by the way. Women are the judges. The winner receives cash and prizes.

And it’s a pretty good bet old pictures won’t come back to haunt them.

Well hell, where do we sign up?

According to Kyra, beauty contests are a step back for women and we should instead embrace the forward looking, modernism of Saudi Arabia. And asking Miss California about gay marriage is not a moral issue with any relevance to “you and me” but asking about respect for parents among women in a repressed patriarchal religious monarchy is something worth emulating. (There sure won’t be any topless photos! They cut off their heads! Hahaha!)

It was so bizarre that even Rick Sanchez, who isn’t exactly an intellectual ball of fire, seemed confused about what he was supposed to think about her “observation.”

Kyra has a lot to offer the punditocrisy, obviously. I’m just surprised it took CNN so long to recognize it. After all, she is known for sensitivity and quick mind. Joan Walsh commented on this example back in 2003:

“CNN hit rock bottom on Wednesday morning, when anchor Kyra Phillips interviewed Ali’s doctor in Kuwait, Dr Imad al- Najada explained that, although Ali told reporters he was grateful for his treatment, he also hopes no other ‘children in the war will suffer like what he suffered’. Phillips seemed shocked by Ali’s apparent inability to understand we were only trying to help him. ‘Doctor, does he understand why this war took place? Has he talked about Operation Iraqi Freedom and the meaning. Does he understand it?'”

I think I see a Washington Post op-ed column in Phillips’ future if she continues to play her cards right.