SwiftVets.com

[Mother]

Allow me to preface today's front page article (from a capitol city newspaper that endorsed Kerry, in a red/hugely military state) with a little ditty. I don't know where this came from but I suspect my Marine recruit (17 days, now, to Parris Island) sent this to his girl at UNC:

But boys would be gone without the warmth from
A womans good, good heart.

And then, allow me to beg the question:
Are they going to go after her- not because she's intelligent, black, female, and strong- but rather because her name brings po' John some PTSD of his traumatic war wound?


http://www.newsobserver.com/nation_world/story/1842257p-8162997c.html
Kisses spark a fuss
Presidential affection is off-putting for some
By JOSH SHAFFER, Staff Writer

Is a kiss just a kiss when it comes from the president, smack on the lips, on worldwide TV?
For some, President Bush puckered his lips past the line of dignity this week when he planted one on Margaret Spellings, his nominee for education secretary.

He is, after all, her boss. And the kiss came the day after he gave Condoleezza Rice a peck on the cheek when he nominated her for secretary of state.

All the lip-smacking made some viewers, especially women in high-profile jobs, a tad uncomfortable.

"It looked like a love fest instead of an appointment," said Hannah Gage, a Wilmington radio station executive who sits on the UNC Board of Governors. "The only thing that didn't happen was [Spellings] didn't kiss him back."

After sexual harassment cases involving CEOs and politicians began grabbing the nation's attention, observers have watched the workplace turn into a no-touching zone. It isn't prudish to shudder at a kiss from your boss, they say, even if he's the president.

"People have been filing lawsuits over what used to be seen as benign comments," said Toni Coleman, a relationship coach and psychotherapist in the Washington, D.C., area. "The double whammy here is he's the president and all eyes are on him."

The White House has shrugged off the kiss questions.

This is new territory because few women held Cabinet posts in the past. So it is hard to judge Bush against his predecessors.

"I'm rolling the newsreel camera in my mind," said William Leuchtenburg, one of the nation's top experts on the presidency and a professor emeritus of history at UNC-Chapel Hill. "Lyndon Johnson was a big hugger. It would have come naturally to Reagan as an actor, having done all kinds of meaningless kisses on screen.

"Bill Clinton was very affectionate," he added, "but not with Cabinet officers."

There is precedent, though, for skittishness over public affection.

President Clinton told 60 Minutes that during the 1993 Mideast peace talks Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin reluctantly agreed to shake hands with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "But no kissing," Rabin insisted.

Vice President Al Gore famously gave his wife a long, wet kiss onstage at the Democratic Convention in 2000, a kiss that turned off more than a few viewers.

Kissing is just too familiar for the workplace, said Maralee McKee, founder of The Protocol School of Orlando, Fla.

When two people shake hands, they do it as equals, she said. But one person is always the kisser, and the other is the kiss-ee, creating a sense of one-upmanship.

"It's a little off, I thought," said Ellen Peirce, associate dean for the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill. "I don't think Bush would have kissed any of his male Cabinet members. I don't think he would have kissed anyone on the Supreme Court."

A kiss is welcome, if not expected, in Europe. "In Italy, oh my gosh," said Lilyn Hester, media coordinator with the Raleigh communications firm Capstrat.

Plus, Bush is a Texan, and Southerners can be more demonstrative with affection.

"It's kind of just social to give sugar in the South," Hester said, "and sugar is everywhere."

Gage admits that there are a lot of huggers on the Board of Governors, and she has even received the occasional kiss.

But not on the mouth.

WHEN TO KISS
Here are some experts' general guidelines of when a kiss is OK and when it is not.

* Kissing an old friend at an awards ceremony or a going-away party is OK if everyone knows the context. But on camera at a press conference, or when speaking in a formal setting, it's too familiar.

* Avoid the lips. Keep it on the cheeks, if at all.

* Kisses are customary greetings in parts of Europe.

* Kissing rules may be more lax for certain professions. Lip mashing is expected of actors and game show hosts. Morticians shouldn't touch.

* When in doubt, shake hands.

KISSING IN THE CAPITOL
Todd Felts, assistant director of Levick Communications in Washington, D.C., shared this story about some kissing that went on 20 years ago in the state Capitol in Raleigh.

"Back in the '80s, I came to Raleigh to serve as a governor's page for Governor [James] Martin. On the last day of our weeklong job, we all went to visit then- Secretary of State Thad Eure. He would have all of us line up in a single-file line, and he would go down the line and give us a Tar Heel lapel pin. But, here's the kicker. He would kiss each of the high school girls on the lips.

"Needless to say, when I returned to the Capitol years later to work in Governor [Jim] Hunt's press office, both Secretary of State Eure and his old-fashioned tradition of kissing were long gone. As we both know, the impact Secretary Eure had on North Carolina politics -- at that point he had served for years -- his kissing didn't seem to bother anyone, even the high school girls who patiently waited for him [to] move down the line before taking their shirt sleeve and wiping off the last gift they received before going back home."
Staff writer Josh Shaffer can be reached at 829-4818 or jshaffer@newsobserver.com.

[Inatizzy]

Good Lord, they make excuses for Clinton getting a BJ in the oval office, but make a big deal about Bush giving an air kiss to someone.

If if doesn't bother Laura then it shouldn't bother anyone else.

[MSeeger]

Okay, so President Bush kissed this lady on the lips, probably not more than a second, and the media is making a big fuss about this....why?

Don't these people have anything better to do with their time?

*rollinghereyes*

Puh-leez!!!!

Maria
_________________
Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Gal. 6:7

[Mother]

WSJ.com
BY JAMES TARANTO
Thursday, November 18, 2004 4:03 p.m. EST
Bad-Mouthing the President
USA Today is trying to start a kerfuffle by accusing President Bush of being too affectionate toward some of his cabinet appointees:

Bush has bussed two women in public in the past two days. First, Condoleezza Rice, whom he kissed on the cheek twice when he nominated her for secretary of State on Tuesday. He went even further with Margaret Spellings, whom he smacked on the lips when he nominated her as secretary of Education on Wednesday. . . .

Risky business, says Amy Oppenheimer, a California business consultant on workplace harassment issues. Powerful men kissing their subordinates in public can be misconstrued by the kissee or people watching the kiss.

And there's the whole male-female thing, too: Bush didn't kiss his close pal Alberto Gonzales when he nominated him for attorney general last week.

"Kissing is social behavior, not professional behavior, and people have different boundaries about it," says Oppenheimer. "The only person who would know if (a woman is) uncomfortable with it is her--and why would she say anything if she weren't?"

We wondered if Oppenheimer had anything to say about Bill Clinton's behavior toward his female subordinates, and we weren't disappointed. In 1998, when Judge Susan Wright dismissed Paula Jones's sexual-harassment lawsuit, she was quoted in the Houston Chronicle:

Attorney Amy Oppenheimer, an expert on sexual harassment lawsuits, said no one should be shocked by Wright's decision. "It's not surprising that the court would find a one-time incident that was obnoxious and inappropriate wasn't enough to deprive her of her constitutional rights even if it could be proven," Oppenheimer said.

Of course, Clinton didn't actually kiss Jones; he just (allegedly) ordered her to "kiss it." On the other hand, when Kathleen Willey accused Clinton of groping her and the White House tried to discredit her by releasing friendly letters she'd subsequently written to him, Oppenheimer seemed to side with Willey in an interview with the Los Angeles Times:

"On the one hand, she wants to make it clear that she finds the behavior unacceptable," said Amy Oppenheimer, an attorney in Berkeley, Calif., who trains employers and employees and testifies as an expert in sexual harassment cases. "But on the other hand, she needs to make it clear that she's not going to betray him, she's not going to cut off the relationship, and she still wants the advantages of knowing him.

"I think that's a really understandable reaction."

[wwIIvetsdaughter]

More hypocrisy from the left, where was the NOW gang (aka National Association of Gals NAGS) when Clinton was up to his hijinks in the Oral Office?

[srmorton]

A brief kiss on the lips is a common greeting in the South for very
close friends. There are two men that I greet this way in a social
setting. One is a very close personal friend of my husband's. He
has known him since high school. His wife and I are close friends
also, ever since we were pregnant together in 1980. I always greet
the husband with a kiss, just as my husband greets the wife. The
other man is a co-worker who is also a close personal friend. He
and I were once equals, but he is now my boss. We have been
greeting (or saying good-bye) with a kiss for over 20 years and we
saw no reason to change that just because he is now the Executive
VP of the college where I work and I am still just a lowly instructor.

Once again, the MSM is making a mountain out of a molehill!
_________________
Susan R. Morton

[rparrott21]

Arafat kissing his followings, now that's sick....The Condi peck, just shows how much respect the President has for hat er...she is all class.....

[msindependent]

Oh good grief, since when is a quick peck on the lips or cheek not acceptable. Give me a break.

[eXcel]

Is Bush practicing to make nice nice with the French? I thought the Dems liked international understanding and cooperation. . .

[LewWaters]

All I can say is Paula Jones, Anita Broderick, Monica Lewinsky et al.

If this isn't the epitome of leftstream media hypocrisy, I don't know what is.

Bush crosses the line by kissing a Cabinet appointee, but with Clinton, what he did was a private matter.

Sheeesh, WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
_________________
Clark County Conservative

[Taylor]

They're just jealous cause is not a Democrat doing the kissing! lol
_________________

[PhantomSgt]

Everyone knows no tounge no kiss. I did not see one flash of tounge during that peck on the lips.
_________________
Retired AF E-8

Independent that leans right of center.

[LewWaters]

And, how do ardent defenders of Clinton's armorous extra-marital trysts treat this?

[Ohio Voter]

I guess one could say that is a long lingering kiss since the point of impact is caught as a freeze frame photograph. [grin]

I tell ya, these MSM liberal elite just do not understand the southern born and raised folks. [having a good laugh here]

[oasis]

Hello,

It's a public kiss. Those with moral values see it one way and those with no moral values see it another way.
_________________
-Oasis

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