Michele Bachmann has been all over the news lately because this week's Newsweek magazine cover features a sexist and unflattering photograph of the presidential candidate, sparking outrage and questions about bias against [1] conservative women. But on last night's broadcast of The Joy Behar show on HLN, her guests took the attacks on Bachmann to a whole new level.
After a three-minute segment about the Newsweek controversy, in which all three guests mocked the Tea Party favorite and three term House member, Behar then focused the discussion on rapper Kanye West's recent comments comparing himself to Hitler.
After airing the clip in which Kanye said 'I walk down the street, and people look at me like I`m (EXPLETIVE DELETED) insane, like I'm Hitler' Behar asked her panelists 'Why is it always Hitler?... Why not Osama Bin Laden? Why not Saddam Hussein?' Panelist Joe Levy, the editor-in-chief of Maxim magazine chimed in with 'Why not Michele Bachmann? Why not 'People look at me like I`ve got crazy eyes, like I'm Michele Bachmann'?'
No refutation from the panelists. Only laughter.
Earlier in the broadcast, Levy and fellow guests, comedienne Judy Gold and celebrity publicist Howard Bragman, made fun of Bachmann calling her eyes and her statements 'crazy.' Gold even suggested that Newsweek called Bachmann the 'Queen of Rage' because 'she hasn`t been laid since she got married,' a veiled reference to the rumors that Bachmann's husband Marcus, a doctor, is gay. Rather than ignore the tired joke [2], Behar indulged Gold:
BEHAR: Well, you know, we don`t - we don`t really know the truth of that, so -
GOLD: I do.
BEHAR: How do you know?
GOLD: I`m gay and I just know. If you think I get it -
BEHAR: You have gaydar from her husband?
GOLD: I have gaydar, let me tell you something. That is the face of someone praying the gay away. That is what they look like for praying the gay away.
But the panelists weren't finished bashing Bachmann. Behar admitted she thought the picture 'creepy' and then asked her panel, '… do you think they're trying to deliberately make her look crazy?' Levy agreed that Newsweek's choice of photo was deliberate, but added 'Or they could just go with publishing some of her statements, which would also make her look crazy.'
What's more, after Behar asked if the crazy eyes were a 'genetic defect,' Bragman compared the photo to scenes from a famous movie about… aliens. 'Look towards the light. It looks like Close Encounters to me… it really did,' Bragman said.
But Levy was quick to dismiss any outrage from those who might be offended by Bachmann's photo, namely her supporters. 'Oh look, I mean this - this whole thing with Bachmann is upsetting people whose idea of a quiet Sunday afternoon is drawing a Hitler mustache on the picture of Obama,' he said.
Behar's response? 'Right. Right.'