You may be shocked

A lot of my readers know that, in spite of my second amendment stance, I am a big supporter of Nancy Pelosi. One of the things I hated most about changing my registration to New York City was that the Big Three Women of California, Nancy, Diane Feinstein, and Barbara Boxer, would no longer be representing me. I like all three of them and even if I don't agree with them on a lot of things I do on a lot of others. Plus they are all from the Bay Area so they are my peeps. Barbara lived three blocks form me in the City, and I saw on the street often. Nancy was my congress person for several years. Boxer, from Marin County, has always fought hard for causes I believe in. I was immensely proud when Nancy became speaker of the house.

So you might be surprised to hear that I don't think David Feherty should be fired. It's up to a federal prosecutor to decide if he should be arrested (I don't think that either, but the niceties of such things are not in my bailiwick), but he shouldn't be fired.

If you haven't heard Feherty, a golf analyst for CBS is also a long time supporter of President Bush's and of the war in Iraq, is in hot water. In an interview for a local Dallas magazine, which was interviewing him about Bush moving to Dallas, Feherty said "If you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death."

Is that reprehensible? Yes. Is it detestable? Yes. Is it criminal, I don't think so. But it is not a firing offense. This isn't really a freedom of speech issue. Feherty's freedom of speech, like mine, only protects him from government interference. His employers have a right to fire him at any time. A lot of people are complaining that he should be fired because if they don't take action then CBS is endorsing his comments. If these were comments he had made on the air then absolutely. But these are comments that he made in an interview, where he was asked to express his personal (albeit reprehensible) opinion. Don't get me wrong: I would love to see this boob get canned. But it would not be the right thing to do.

But more than that, CBS shouldn't fire this guy because I don't think his asinine opinion will hurt their golf ratings one little bit. Most of the people who play and watch golf are relatively conservative to begin with. There is very little love for the democrats on the golf circuit. I remember the Ryder cup team refusing to meet with President Clinton one year. One of them said "I didn't vote for him." In other words, golfers and their fans are the kind who will make disgusting jokes about Nancy Pelosi. He'll probably get a two and a half point bump out of this, and more if the controversy keeps going, and CBS is unlikely to fire anybody for boosting their ratings.