If Bill O'Reilly Got Caught Robbing a Bank, He'd Say It Was Taken Out of Context

This post, written by TRex, originally appeared on FireDogLake

"If Bill O'Reilly was caught robbing a bank, he would say he was taken out of context." Paul Waldman, Media Matters.

It looks like Asst. Principal O'Reilly has really, really stepped in it this time. Everybody's talking about his ill-considered, condescending remarks about his dinner at Sylvia's in Harlem with Rev. Al Sharpton.

And I mean, everybody.

On the Today Show yesterday morning, Matt Lauer was trying to spin it all as an unfortunate misunderstanding, with the help of black Republican activist Joe Watkins. Watkins sounds like Edina from AbFab when Patsy burned Safi with her cigarette, "She's just trying to be nice!"

Watkins insists that O'Reilly was trying to pay black people "a compliment" by saying that, "we're all the same". Except that no-one is shocked and amazed like Bill when white people can run a nice restaurant and say please and thank-you. It's one of those compliments like, "You sure don't sweat much for a fat girl!" O'Reilly is basically saying, "For a bunch of ignorant darkies, the folks at Sylvia's do a real good imitation of a white restaurant."

With compliments like that, who needs insults?

The ladies of "The View" have weighed in.

Sherri Shepherd: First just let me say to Bill O'Reilly, have you never been around black people, that you think we don't know how to eat, that we don't know how to cook? We don't know how to order food? We don't know how to think for ourselves? What is this?

Sure, Bill, except that you provided the hatchet and swung it yourself. But otherwise, you're right on target.

And don't get distracted by Bill's claims that this is just business as usual,, nothing to see here. His phone call with Rick Sanchez from CNN yesterday was apparently pretty explosive. He's in full meltdown mode.