Freak show .... Jerry Springer runs for office.. as a Democrat !! just imagine...

[MORTARDUDE]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...9/ED223126.DTL Freak show

Debra J. Saunders Tuesday, April 29, 2003

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THERE is some good news in talk-show host Jerry Springer's possible run for the U.S. Senate in Ohio: Springer is a Democrat.

Imagine: If Springer wins the primary, the Democratic nominee for president has to stump in Ohio for the White House standing shoulder-to-shoulder with America's most sleazy TV talk-show host.

I'd like to think that there are some Democrats running for the White House who wouldn't stoop so low. But there's only one way to find out.

One GOP operative expects Springer, a former mayor of Cincinnati, to beat state Sen. Eric Fingerhut in the race for the Ohio Senate seat held by Republican George Voinovich because Ohio Dems are eager for a candidate who can fund his own campaign -- as Springer is expected to do, should he choose to run.

Which means Ohio voters could get a bird's eye view of modern class warfare -- in this case, no-class versus high class, as the super-rich Springer goes after the incumbent, who, according to USA Today, recently purchased his first dishwasher.

Talk about opposites. Conservatives have begun attacking Voinovich because he and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, forced Senate GOPers to hold the proposed Bush tax cut to $350 billion instead of $726 billion. Voinovich isn't backing off.

Even voters who disagree with Voinovich have to respect him for his principled stand, whereas it's not clear that Springer has any principles. Springer told Cox News that his show doesn't exploit people: "People choose to go on, and the fact is that in a free society, that is exactly the opposite of exploitation."

No, the opposite of exploitation is charity. Or selflessness. Exploit is to "make use of meanly or unjustly for one's own advantage."

Monday, while preparing to write this column, I tuned in the last half of Springer's show. The show is worse than I remembered.

The guests are pathetic people -- so inarticulate that they are reduced to swearing and taking fey punches at each other, and so needy that they are willing to publicly demean themselves for a chance to get on trash TV.

You hope their stories are fake. You hope that Windy, the stripper who went on the show to tell her unemployed boyfriend Mike that she was dumping him for a woman, only then to tell her girlfriend Stephanie that she was cheating on her with a guy named Scott, is a put-up job. After all, Windy says she has four children.

But it's hardly soothing to think that someone would see Windy's story as entertaining.

The show is supposed to be a guilty pleasure, but it offers no pleasure -- and I say that as someone who enjoyed watching Tonya Harding take on Paula Jones in the boxing ring.

Toward the end of the show, Springer invites audience members to tell the guests what they think of them. No doubt the intent is provide home viewers with a sense of release as they hear others say what they were thinking.

Except there is no relief in watching people with so little going for them that they feel the need to lord over Springer's cast of losers.

Springer's political supporters are left urging observers to keep an open mind and separate Springer the Man from Springer the Show. That can't be done.

Springer would have to do serious penance -- by ministering to lepers for a decade, maybe -- for anyone to forget how he has degraded needy people for cheap thrills.

The Jerry Springer show's audience isn't known for its subtlety. "Jerry. Jerry. Jerry," it chants. And: "Take it off. Take it off," to female guests, who have kept their shirts on. Producers constantly bleep out "dialogue" and blur the image of women's chests. But they can't blur over the void where the would-be senator's character is supposed to be.

E-mail Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@sfchronicle.com.

[usmcsgt65]

Springer happens to be a very good politican. I was still living in Cincinnati when he ran for mayor and won. After losing a re-election, he became a local newscaster, and was very good at it. He understands what it takes to get elected. Springer knowns how to communicate with people. His at ease in front of crowds. If Las Vegas can elect a mayor who had ties to the mob, Springer can get elected in Ohio. After all Springer went bad after his show moved to Chicago.

[SuperScout]

Just ask yourself, which political party has a "tent" large enough to host such a freak show sponsor? Let Springer run - it only shows just how low the Democratic party has sunk, confirming the sum of all fears!

[colmurph]

What's the big deal? The "Reverend" Al Sharpton is running for President on the Democratic Ticket! I hope he get's nominated! It will guarantee Bush another 4 years. LOL

[philly]

I don't know if Jerry Springer is such a good communicator. I think he leaves that up to his dramatic panel of guests..you see physical communication...a slap upside the head...pulling off wigs; you hear communication such as who slept with whose moma and wife. Jerry stands 6-7 ft. from his panel laughing over the weirdos he calls his guests. Good communicator if you are only looking for sign language...

smile you're on Candid Camera.

[usmcsgt65]

Most of the people on site only know Springer from the freak show. If he should run in Ohio, somebody will do a bio on Springer again. One of his strong points as mayor was the comunication with the different groups of the city. I lived in the county. Never voted for him. If I lived in the city, I would not have voted for him. I liked Charlie Taft (youngest son of Pres. Taft).