Don't stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed. - George Burns

Friday, July 16, 2004

Did you know that Whoopi Goldberg wasn’t fired from her Slim Fast gig for saying offensive things, which violated the morals clause in her contract?  No, it was a racist, right-wing conspiracy to crush dissent.

Whoopi Goldberg lashed out at Republicans again yesterday, branding them hypocrites for trying to “punish” her for joking about the President.
Fired from her gig as SlimFast spokeswoman, the salty entertainer hit back at Republicans who threatened a SlimFast boycott over sexual puns she made about President Bush’s name at a Democratic fund-raiser.

“America’s heart and soul is freedom of expression without fear of reprisal,” she said in a statement.

“I find all this feigned indignation about ‘Bush bashing’ quite disingenuous,” she said, noting the Bush administration has savagely gone after critics like former Sen. Max Cleland, Iraq whistleblower Joseph Wilson and ex-terrorism chief Richard Clarke.

“For the Republican Party to pretend this is new to them seems a little fake,” she said.

“The fact that I am no longer the spokesman for SlimFast makes me sad, but not as sad as someone trying to punish me for exercising my right as an American to speak my mind.”

Look Whoopi.  It’s very simple.  You were hired to present a public image for the Slim Fast line.  You then alienated the roughly 50% of the country that supports the president with your vulgar commentary.  Slim Fast is therefore fully within their rights to fire your ass for potentially damaging their sales and their public reputation.  Nobody is “punishing” you, Whoopi.  You can still get up anywhere you like and say as many anti-GOP things as you like.  You just can’t do it when you’re the public face of a major corporation.

Diversity promoter Asa Khalif, who has made headlines for accusing celebrities of insensitivity, cried foul in the Goldberg firing. “I smell racism from beginning to end,” said Khalif, head of Racial Unity USA in Pennsylvania. “SlimFast must realize that black women have every right to voice their views.”

That smell, Khalif, isn’t the smell of racism, it’s Whoopi’s dreadlocks.