Why is Walters talking about Hillary Clinton's backside?

"It's a little smaller on top and fuller on the bottom," the host of "The View" says.

Published June 5, 2008 9:15PM (EDT)

"It's a little smaller on the top and fuller on the bottom."

No, that's not a rejected lyric from "Baby Got Back," though the words do refer to a woman's butt. The speaker? Barbara Walters, and she was talking about none other than one Hillary Clinton. Walters, who tends to blush and clam up whenever her co-hosts on "The View" make any reference to sex or lady parts, made the comment as part of an anecdote claiming that she was "responsible for Hillary Clinton in pantsuits." You can watch a clip of the pantsuit kerfuffle at Jezebel.

In other "View"-related women-objectifying-women news, Rosie O'Donnell recently told Howard Stern that she finds her former co-host, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, attractive. "When you look at her physically, you don't want her?" Stern inquired. (Ah, that Howard Stern. Always asking the tough questions!) "See, the 'want' is the big thing," said O'Donnell, implying that other aspects of Hasselbeck -- her personality? her Republicanism? -- render her less than desirable. Perhaps most notable of all is the way Fox News has been all over Rosie recently. This is its second story on something the comedian said about "The View" this week. In the first piece, O'Donnell compared the show to a "women's prison movie." Combine that with the Hasselbeck comments and you might start to visualize something too hot for daytime TV.

The person you have to feel sorry for amid the "The View's" three-ring shit-show is Michelle Obama. She's scheduled to appear on the show June 18 as a guest co-host. What with allegations flying that she's angry and unpatriotic, I'm guessing she sees a stint on "The View" as a chance to soften her image. But the way things are going, she'll be lucky to get out of there without critiquing Cindy McCain's boobs or tongue-kissing Joy Behar.


By Judy Berman

Judy Berman is a writer and editor in Brooklyn. She is a regular contributor to Salon's Broadsheet.

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