Whoopi slams GOP
Calls outrage over Prez bashing 'a little fake'
WASHINGTON - 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."
The Bush-Cheney campaign has been making a lot of hay out of Goldberg's set at last week's celebrity gala at Radio City Music Hall, professing shock at her blue jokes.
Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman called the event a "hatefest" that proves John Kerry doesn't "share the same values" as the rest of America.
Kerry, who is trying to woo swing voters, did not stand by his celeb supporters. On the defensive, he distanced himself from Goldberg and said through spokesmen that he thought her comments were inappropriate.
Running mate John Edwards was asked about the flap yesterday by Fox News. "They weren't speaking for me, and they weren't speaking for John Kerry," he said, adding the ticket is "focused on our positive, optimistic vision of hope."
Mehlman has repeatedly demanded that Kerry's camp release a video of the event, even going so far as to promise not to use the footage in ads.
Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said tartly that he could have the video after Bush releases his military records and details of Vice President Cheney's secret energy task force.
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."
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