Pirate's Cove

A little mental exercise, folks: consider that the person in the below pictures was a Republican. Would they and the story be all over the media, instead of just a few outlets and blogs?  From NBC 12 in Richmond (WWBT)

She wasn’t very well-known until about six hours ago, now a Virginia woman running for congress is in the national spotlight. Pictures revealing of Krystal Ball were plastered over dozens of political web sites Tuesday afternoon. They show her posing suggestively with sex toys.

Ball is a 29-year-old first time candidate. She has the Democratic nomination in a race against Republican Rob Wittman.

The photos appeared on two different Republican blogs before going viral. She is dressed in suggestive costume, leading a man, she says is her ex-husband around the party on a leash. Her ex-husband has a sex toy strapped to his nose.

Yes, her real name is Krystal Ball, and no, she is not a stripper. And yes, the sex toy is a dildo. And now that the shoe is on the other foot, the few media outlets are like “dude, that is so mean” rather than “hey, this is so bad, let’s find more dirt”

Instead it has revealed a different emotion.

“I’m angry at the way women in this country are unfairly treated in this regard when they step up and run for office.”

Woman like Sarah Palin and Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell. People Ball doesn’t agree with, but she still feels were unfairly targeted.

And, at The Politico

Krystal Ball, a Democratic candidate for Congress in Virginia, is condemning what she calls “sexist” treatment after a Republican blogger in Virginia posted a series of sexually suggestive photos of her from a Christmas party six years ago.

Ball, a 28-year old accountant running against Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) in central Virginia, said that while she is “embarrassed” by the photos, she is “angry” that they have been posted on the Internet by a partisan blogger. The pictures — which POLITICO is not posting — are from a party about six years ago and depict Ball posing with her now ex-husband in a joking yet sexual manner. The pictures were originally posted on a Republican blog called “Virginia Vertucon” and have also been re-posted by a Republican blogger who calls himself Black Velvet Bruce Li.

Let’s say the pictures where of Palin, Christine O’Donnell, or any other Conservative woman. Think The Politico or WWBT would have posted the photos? Me too.

Rob Whittman has asked the original blogger, The Black Velvet Bruce Li blog (which is probably getting killed with hits right now, so loading is slow to non-existent at the moment). So, I won’t post the really bad photos. You can go to Gawker for that. (not really bad, but, may not be considered safe to view at work)

Should they disqualify her or harm her campaign? IMO, no. No one was harmed, it was harmless adult fun. This has no bearing on how she would legislate, though, her wearing that on the House floor could be interesting, to say the least. It’s not like she was bilking property investors out of their homes, filing junk science lawsuits, or all the other bad things politicians do prior to getting elected.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU. Re-Change 2010!