It’s a Good Week to Pile on Bernie
I first noted this story the week of the Indy 500. Unfortunately the only site that I was aware of that carried the Bernie Ecclestone quotes wasn’t available for some reason. The headline would show up in my RSS reader but the URL was dead.
Now that Bernie is reeling from lefts, rights and a few uppercuts from all directions I might as well pile onto his misery. Sports Illustrated now has the story and I have a question for my female readers. How would you feel if this were directed towards you? “Women should be all dressed in white like all other domestic appliances.” This is how Danica Patrick reacted:
Patrick received a telephone call from Ecclestone last week during which he congratulated the Indy Racing League rookie for her performance at the Indianapolis 500, but also reiterated remarks he had made during an interview at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the U.S. Grand Prix was being held.Among the comments Ecclestone made in the interview and to the Roscoe, Ill., native was that “Women should be all dressed in white like all other domestic appliances.”
“I just didn’t make sense of it,” Patrick said during an IRL teleconference this week. “I was surprised, I guess, somebody would say that to me. And the days after, when it actually came out in the press, people were asking me ‘What do you think of that?’
“I was like, ‘You know what he told me? He said that on the phone.’
Patrick said some of Ecclestone’s comments were positive and complimentary, which made the exchange more perplexing.
“I can’t believe that he would say it to me over the phone, not to my face, but directly to me,” she said. “I was a bit confused. … So I don’t really know what to think about it.
“I don’t know if he was talking about someone else or the majority or what, I’m not really sure. Or, maybe that’s his real feeling.
“If that’s the case, then you know, [it] doesn’t really matter because I’m racing in the Indy Racing League.”
Good ole Bernie makes Robbie Gordon look like famed feminist Gloria Steinem. Now can anyone doubt, with this nut in charge, why F1 is so screwed up?
Bernie The Bozo’s comments about Little Miss Perfect may have been offensive, but who cares? Danica Patrick can’t be taken seriously as a racer when her primary deal has been modeling and all those idiotic quasi-porn pictures she’s done.
Come guy, being 10th in the Championship standings and the far and away leader for IRL rookie of the year award means nothing. Only in your world of very plain to see bias against her.
Marc, she crashed into cars at Homestead from over a second back, driving into that mess without cracking the throttle - what fundamentally bad drivers do. Everyone was wondering what she’d do after fourth places at Motegi and Indy, and we saw at Texas - she timed third, bailed out of traffic, lost the lead draft, and nearly got lapped. She’s way ahead in the rookie points - it tells me more about Rahal-Letterman Racing and its technology gap over the other rookies’ teams than it does about Patrick.
Mike - “Marc, she crashed into cars at Homestead from over a second back, driving into that mess without cracking the throttle
Marc,
The simple fact that you would even compare Danica’s asscrack and lingerie photos to Dale Earnhardt’s picture being in Playboy is utterly ridiculous. Why not compare Danica’s pictures to Carl Edwards being one of People’s eligible bachelors if you’re going to reach that far?
How is Mike being any more sexist than you are when you call him a sexist just for daring (let’s string him up now) to criticize Danica? It seems funny to me that that is the argument everyone seems to use when they jump to Danica’s defense whenever anyone offers any legit criticism of Danica.
Why is it that everyone wants to spell out Danica’s supposed great professional accomplishments in the same sentence that they trip all over themselves to excuse her mistakes? She’s either the shit or she’s not. Make up your minds.
I wanna know why Danica is offered more leeway than any other rookie? I didn’t see anyone scrambling to defend Ryan Briscoe for wrecking out Ed Carpenter at Texas like they were scrambling to defend Danica’s mistakes at Homestead and Indy. Gee… I wonder why that is? Couldn’t be that the people screaming longest and loudest whenever Danica is spoken of in a less than slobbering fashion are the biggest sexists of all, could it?
But hey, what do I know? I’m just a sexist female biased against her own gender.
That said, re: Bernie’s laughable, sexist idiocy, that’s all it is. Unlike Robby’s comments, which had nothing to do with gender and which were based on a proven fact, Bernie was just spewing his own opinion based on nothing but his dated upbringing. It’s sexist, yes, but would only be offensive to me if he were in his twenties and not his seventies.
“The simple fact that you would even compare Danica
Marc, it is not relevent that she timed at over 212 - from the distance she had to the wreck she could have made SOME effort to get off the gas (like the cars around her did), and she did not even try.
“Danica began racing karts at age ten, won regional titles….” So did Mike Wallace, A.J. Foyt IV - just about anyone who is involved in major-league racing. What special car knowledge does she bring to the table? What special killer instinct does she have? So far she’s shown no killer instinct (which is why Sara Fisher ultimately failed despite some excellent runs in the first couple of seasons she raced IRL) and we need to remember the old truth about racers - an aggressive racer can be calmed down; a timid racer can never be boosted up.
Both statements you take to task are demonstrably ACCURATE, not false. The excuse-mongering for her sloppiness is what is demonstrably false, because we’ve seen it all before, with Sara Fisher, Patty Moise, Shawna Robinson, Lynn St. James, Robin McCall. How did it work out for any of them?
When Tammy Jo Kirk raced in the Trucks, she actually WORKED on the race vehicle - Danica will never get her hands dirty aside from an occassional oil smudge. “I’d trust Bobby Rahal’s judgement…..” It wasn’t his call; it was the sponsors’ call. Put Ryan Briscoe or Ed Carpenter or A.J. Foyt IV into cars wioth the same level of technology and funding as Patrick and they’ll actually run to win.
…because we
Marc, how is the fact that Tammy Jo Kirk actually worked on her racecars germaine to the subject? Simple - Tammy Jo took racing seriously enough to actually work at it. That she didn’t make it didn’t change that she actually made the effort to succeed.
I need links to others’ comments to show a fundamental weakness in Little Miss Perfect’s driving? Like you can’t tell from watching how people race and studying racing over the years to figure it out? It’s a pathetic argument on your part.
“When it comes to a male driver…..” Yeah yeah yeah, and you complain about points I make not being germaine? She has NOT done well at her level of experience - it’s all because she got some of the best racecars in the garage area. Put A.J. Foyt IV in cars like that and you’ll see them go to the front and race to win.
But the media has fallen in love with her. Hype. All they’re doing is proving Rush Limbaugh’s point about media coverage of Donovon McNabb.
“It
Marc, it is a pathetic argument on your part because you can see for yourself that she does not bring any killer instinct or special car knowledge to the table. The burden of proof is on her to prove that she can race; it isn’t on critics.
And yes it does fly, Marc, because you’ve seen A.J. IV race and you already know he has the talent to win. Pathetic squared is your whole argument.
“Marc, it is a pathetic argument on your part because you can see for yourself that she does not bring any killer instinct or special car knowledge to the table.”
And now you’re presuming to know what I think and see, again reading minds!
I’m done with you Mike, see ya!
No, I’m not presuming, because it isn’t reading minds to figure out that you are seeing the same things I am.
You’re done with me? Good, because you don’t have a decent argument.