At the time, I asked myself, “What drugs were those people taking when they agreed this show would be a good idea?”  I couldn’t imagine who would want to hear what a cheating ex-governor had to say about anything and questioned why someone as accomplished as Parker would marry her broadcasting fortune to a man who seriously lacks respect for women.

Well, turns out CNN has decided to give the show more time than I thought they would, even with the craptastic ratings.  But it looks like Kathleen Parker may be the one to determine the fate of the show.  Even though Parker landed top billing, rumors of a cable news divorce abound. It turns out that Eliot has been sucking up all the oxygen on the set, leaving little room for Parker to get a word in edgewise, with producers doing little to change that.

In the world of punditry, there are still few women who get the same air-time or column inches that the guys do — whether they’re the old guard or the young turks.  Even when women like Parker, or Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, do break through they get treated more like Robin Quivers on the Howard Stern show — a comic foil to whatever the guys are up to on any given day.    When women do make a little headway, they end up being treated like sidekicks, as Spitzer has been doing to Parker.

Why does she need him anyway?  I’d think that CNN would be over the moon having someone of Parker’s caliber and would hang on to her for dear life over a politician who became a caricature of so many powerful political men by throwing away his elective career for sex.  But according to certain reports, CNN seems to favor the disgraced politician who’s shown virtually no remorse for cheating on his wife over a talented, thoughtful writer with an intellect that Spitzer can only hope to achieve in another lifetime.

I do have a piece of advice for Parker — if it’s Spitzer’s sharp elbows you feel are pushing you to the sidelines, you might want to think about throwing a couple jabs of your own back at “Client 9.” I know it’s not ladylike, and they probably don’t do that in the South, but you’ve got Pulitzer gravitas!  Remember that old adage — don’t get mad, get even.  You’re smarter and more tenacious than he is.  Trust me on this — your fans on both sides of the political aisle will appreciate you more for it.

Image courtesy CNN

As I’m managing my nerves while I prepare for my panel at the fabulous Blogalicious conference, I just wanted to make sure you had some good reading material to ponder and discuss:

It’s not corn sugar. It’s high fructose corn syrup and it’s evil. Just ask Liz or Jessica or MileHiMama.

Jessica Pieklo at Care2 doesn’t want to have “tea” with Dick Armey.

The MOMocrats weigh in on what constitutes investigative journalism and what doesn’t (they’re talking to you, James O’ Keefe).

Corina, Caroline and Angie (and her new Facebook page) weigh in on bullying and the fate of Tyler Clementi and what we can do as parents to help our children see that bullying is never the right way if someone is different from those doing the bullying. (A lesson I think plenty of grown-ups still have to learn).

Is it even possible that Christine “I’m-not-a-witch-I’m-you” O’Donnell could win the Senate seat in Delaware?

When it comes to the new Parker/Spitzer show on CNN, I’m afraid I am going to have to avert my eyes.

Your thoughts?

Steven A. Smith

Cenk Uygur

Joe Watkins

Roland Martin

Errol Lewis

Steve Malzberg

Joe Pagliarulo

Really?  Did they think we wouldn’t notice a little something missing here? Didn’t I write about this before??

Don’t get me wrong.  I LOVE being invited to appear on CNN or CNN.com, but how about more estrogen on these regular pundit shows.   Or as regular contributors?  At the moment, only about three percent of the “clout” positions on television news are held by women.  That’s worse than the 15-ish percent of women’s voices in the op-ed pages of major newspapers.

Ladies, maybe it’s time to launch our own show.  Perhaps there are some other PunditMoms or PunditGals ready to start a show with me?  Because if CNN and the others aren’t going to invite us to their party, maybe we’ll just have to have our own.

After that, John McCain canceled his appearance on Larry King! Now, comes this little gem on McCain’s campaign’s refusal to treat Palin like a real candidate rather than a Barbie doll version of what they want a VP to look like. Can you say this is really what sexism looks like?

Be careful, Campbell, next thing you know, they’re going to make you interview your husband, Fox News commentator and former GOP strategist Dan Senor. Now THAT would make for some good television viewing!

Like not being as nice to my conservative opponent!

The GOP presidential candidates seem to have themselves all worked up into a tizzy about illegal immigrants.

During the recent debate, I noticed that some of these guys, especially Mitt Romney (whose first name, by the way, is really Willard!) were almost frothing at the mouth to whip the general public into a frenzy about illegal immigrants. Not the ones who were interested in learning how to fly planes but not land them, but the ones who pick our lettuce and till our fields and clean our houses.

I understand that there is a process and that if people want to come here from other countries, it sure would be better to have them jump through the hoops that lead to legal residence and citizenship than sneaking across the border at night or hiding in a shipping container and hopping off at the dock.

Here’s my two cents for all the candidates, as well as the current administration — when you stop trying to deport people like the Servano family of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania (not too far from where I grew up), and spend more time paying attention to real threats on the border watch list, then I’ll know you’re really serious about my safety.

When Pedro Servano and his wife applied to come to America over 20 years ago from the Philippines, they were still teens and weren’t yet married. By the time they got approval, separately, to come here, they had married. But the visa paperwork had been submitted by their parents years before while they were still unmarried teens.

They forgot to tell the I.N.S. that their marital status had changed. So now, as a result of that glitch in paperwork, the Department of Homeland Security wants to kick them out of the country and send them packing back to the Philippines.

The Servanos have been here for over 20 years. Dr. Pedro Servano is here practicing medicine, his wife owns a small business and they have four children who are U.S. citizens, two of whom are college graduates.

Homeland Security wants to kick them out of the country because they forgot to tell someone they got married.

I’m really struggling to get my head around why so many in the GOP want to focus on migrant workers and people who made a mistake on their paperwork but are here as highly successful professionals? Why do they constantly remind us there are sleeper cells of terrorists who have made it into our country, but they’re dedicated to keeping musicians from around the world out.

I don’t know about you, but I certainly sleep more soundly knowing that a Welsh harpist was stopped at the border!

If anyone has a good answer, will you let me know?

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