Sunday, June 10, 2007

Presidential Poles

Joe Scarborough, a clean-cut former Republican Congressman turned broadcaster, took a lot of flak last week for an allegedly salacious remark about the wife of Presidential Candidate-to-Be, Fred Thompson “working the pole.”

How soon they forget. In the late 1990s, Scarborough signed Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, earned a 95 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union and led the charge to impeach Bill Clinton for being too preoccupied with matters sexual.

When a straight arrow like Scarborough explains that he was thinking of exercise, not strippers, why would anyone doubt him? The man was talking about a cultural trend.

Scoffers should take a look at the latest manifestation of aerobic pole-working featured in a new luxury hotel in San Diego, “America’s Finest City.” The Ivy Hotel’s $3,000-a-night suite has king-size bunk beds, a group shower and, yes, a fireman's pole.

This is no sleazy retreat for Democratic peasants--it is being marketed to solidly respectable, fitness-conscious Republican convention-goers.

“The Ivy, which opened last month,” says the Los Angeles Times, “markets itself as class...decorated with floor-to-ceiling photos of legs clad in fishnet stockings and women in lingerie. Instead of curtains, red chain mail hangs from the ceiling. Couches are upholstered in red patent leather with black fringe. And in the restaurant...there is seating for six at a chef's bed.”

Relax, America. Six years of a teetotaling President have made us all uptight.

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