Albanyguy

Which is why the FRC hired Josh to help them tap into that Quiverfill/Gothard demographic.

I'm guessing that there will be a Josh Redemption Tour (before friendly Fundy audiences) followed by a career in the "ministry". When I was watching Robert Jeffress shrieking at Keith Ablow on Hannity the other night, I was thinking that he'd be the perfect career mentor for Josh. He still thinks that the Duggars are "wonderful" and that Josh has been forgiven and freed from his sins. Josh could go work under him at his church in Dallas and then gradually work himself up in the ranks of Fundy preachers (where you don't always need to be educated or ordained to spread the message). Standing at the pulpit laying down the law to an admiring audience would be right up Josh's alley, almost as good as being with the FRC, especially if he could use it to somehow get his mug back on TV.

Just the thought of a woman who's allowed to carry a badge and a gun (and who gets to boss around all the male police officers under her) is enough to make Jim Bob's testicles shrivel up. I think this is fairly typical of people who 'strike it rich" as reality TV stars (as well as many Lottery winners). They've never had much money in the past, have no experience handling large amounts of money (taxes, investments, trust funds, etc.) and tend to go crazy spending lavishly on all the things they've never had and always wanted. Also, they often seem to fall into the trap of assuming that the gravy train will never end, instead of realizing that their good fortune has a built-in expiration date (because the public will tire of them and their show will be cancelled) and planning accordingly. If we were talking about anyone else, I would agree with you, but Jim Bob and Michelle have always been willing to play fast and loose with the facts in order to make themselves look good or promote their agenda. I think they've pretty much given up the right to expect people to take anything they say at face value.

It's so hard to separate fact from fiction with the Duggars, but it's my understanding that the doctor who told them that their miscarriage was caused by birth control pills was the one who first introduced them to Gothardism. If that's true, then it was probably a different doctor who first prescribed the pills. Then, after the miscarriage, they fell afoul of this particular Gothardite doctor who saw a troubled couple who already had a fundamentalist background and who were ripe for the plucking.

They sure are. They must be feeling the backlash from their pro-Duggar stance. The hosts this morning on Fox & Friends were still plugging tonight's Megyn Kelly installment for all it's worth and beating the "The police report shouldn't have been leaked!!" drum. But, like Dr. Keith Ablow yesterday, the guest panelists (including Geraldo Rivera) weren't playing along. They hit all the same points that were hit on CNN, Today and GMA: that Jim Bob & Michelle completely failed to protect their daughters; that the daughters are still being thrown under the bus to protect Josh; that Josh should be speaking for himself instead of hiding behind his parents and that the question of the legality of the leaked police report is a smokescreen. OTOH, I just saw a clip of Megyn Kelly from her show last night and she seems to be becoming even more strident in her defense of the Duggars. She was demanding of one of her guests "How can you pick and choose what you're outraged by? How can you feel outrage over what Josh Duggar did to his sisters but not be outraged by what the media is now doing to them by publicizing the police report?". Ummm, actually, Megyn, it's pretty easy.

I think that TLC made the decision to cancel 19K&C a while ago. Possibly they held off on making the final call until after the Megyn Kelly interview the other night, but I'm sure they had already faced the fact that the show had to go. The people at TLC have to know the Duggars pretty well after all these years and I can't believe they were holding onto much hope that Jim Bob and Michelle would be intelligent and articulate (and honest) enough to turn the tide of public opinion around for themselves. But I think TLC was probably hoping that they'd do well enough so that a spin-off with Jill, Jessa and their husbands was still a possibility. And I think THAT is the reason they haven't officially cancelled yet. They were hoping that they would be able to placate the show's remaining fans and keep the gravy train running by making a double announcement: "It is with deep sadness that we are ending our relationship with Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, but in our commitment to helping this troubled family heal, we are proud to annouce the debut of a new series starring Jill Dillard and Jessa Seewald, following these exceptional young women as they explore their exciting new lives as wives and mothers". With no mention of Josh and with "Duggar" dropped from the girls' names. If I'm right about this, then tonight will be the final nail in the coffin for the Duggars. If the girls come off as evasive and rehearsed as their parents (and despite my very real sympathy for them, I think that they will) it's over. And even if they come off as genuine and elicit support from viewers, it's still over. Who's going to feel comfortable watching a lighthearted show about the romantic hijinks of a pair of newlyweds when we all know about the elephant in the room?

And let's not underestimate the level of control exerted over these women by the men who have "authority" over them. I wouldn't put it past Josh and David Waller to decide that it was in their best interests not to allow Anna and Priscilla to be alone together to discuss the current situation.

Fox News just had their resident psychologist, Dr. Keith Ablow, on to comment on last night's interview. Ablow is just another TV famewhore like Dr. Drew and Dr. Phil, but today my respect for him went up a notch because he refused to toe the official pro-Duggar line. He said that Jim Bob and Michelle are "in deep denial", "lack empathy for other people" and "should have known that having 19 children meant that they wouldn't be able to provide proper care and supervision for all of them or pay attention to them as individuals". He also blasted Jim Bob's self-serving definition of how old you have to be to qualify as a "pedophile". Sensing trouble, Elizabeth Hasselback tried to deflect him by saying "But they said they put up safeguards!" and Dr. Keith shut her down on that one, saying "They needed to do a lot more." Elizabeth and her co-hosts then started tut-tutting about the leaked police report (because THAT's the only real crime here!) and Dr. Keith again blew right through that one: "Certainly, sealed records should not be leaked, but that's not the most important thing here. Did the Duggars warn the babysitters who later came into their home about the danger their son posed? Did they warn their friends who had young daughters who came into contact with their son? Have they ever worried about the girls he's come into contact with as an adult?" He ended with "They handled this by sending him off to work construction for a couple of months? Give me a break!". Unlike Megyn Kelly, Dr. Keith isn't going to risk his professional reputation by being an apologist for child molestation, even at the risk of displeasing his bosses at Fox.

The Talk (the CBS afternoon chatfest with Sharon Osborne, Julie Chen, Aisha Tyler and Sara Gilbert) discussed the Duggars today with their guest Piers Morgan. Morgan and the hosts ripped Jim Bob, Michelle and Josh up one side and down the other, hitting every point we've been discussing here for the past two weeks: the molestation, the lying, the hypocrisy, the Duggars doing nothing to protect their daughters and shoving everything under the carpet so they could do their reality show. For once, nobody was making excuses for the Duggars or trying to sugarcoat Josh's actions. Piers Morgan hit the point that the Duggars covered up for Josh and then went on to repeatedly attack others (notably the LGBTcommunity) for sexual immorality, which is something that I haven't heard anybody in the media bring up yet. He asked the audience if they would ever watch 19K&C now that they know about this and the answer was a chorus of "NO!"s. And the audience booed Josh's picture when it was flashed on the screen. The executives at TLC will certainly be aware of this. Hopefully, it will help to counter-balance the Megyn Kelly interview on Fox.

I think that using "Who leaked the police report?" as a smokescreen is a tactic that could easily backfire on Fox/TLC/the Duggars and is one they may come to regret. If I were Jim Bob and Michelle, I wouldn't want to utter the words "police report" on camera any more than I'd want to utter the word "molestation". A lot of the people who tune into to Fox tonight and Friday will be regular Fox viewers who don't know much about the Duggars or casual "19K&C" viewers who aren't as familiar with the details of the case as we are here. Making a big deal about a mysterious police report that was leaked and then destroyed will make at least some of them curious to find out what's in it. It's available on line and, as we know, it's poorly redacted. Anyone who reads it will learn that: Josh wasn't just "accused" of molestation, he admitted it; it wasn't an isolated incident, but a repeated pattern of abuse that went on for several years; the youngest girl involved was only five years old; most of the girls were his own sisters; and Jim Bob and Michelle didn't "handle it the best way they could", they obstructed justice and sacrificed their daughters to cover up Josh's crimes. The report is a stick of dynamite that could blow up the Duggars' carefully constructed cover story. Granted, it won't make any difference to the leghumpers, but the Duggars are going to need more than the leghumpers in their corner if they want TLC to keep them on the air.

They aren't protecting the Duggars, they're protecting Mike Huckabee, who has been always been a huge part of the Fox News operation. If Huckabee had taken a measured, distanced approach to the Duggar scandal (like Rick Santorum), instead of being an apologist for Josh molesting his sisters, Fox probably wouldn't care so much about helping Jim Bob and Michelle rehabilitate their public image.

I think Michelle is another big stumbling block. She loves being a TV star and she has always been jealous and resentful at any attention directed towards the girls (including Anna) and away from her. The idea of her pretty young daughters starring in their own TV show, a show in which she will not be allowed to appear at all, must be driving her over the edge. Especially since such a show would mostly revolve around the girls getting pregnant and delivering babies, which has always been Michelle's territory. Jim Bob may ultimately be willing to allow a spin-off that doesn't include him and Michelle, partly because of the money and partly because he would see it as leaving the door open a crack for him to eventually get his mug back on camera. But I don't think Michelle's narcissism will permit her to allow it. And despite all the wifely submission bullcrap, I think it's Michelle who rules the roost. No decision is ever made without her being on board.

This morning's Washington Post has a quote from Michelle's book "A Love That Multiplies" that could serve as a good response to the fools who are yelling "God has forgiven Josh, so stop being mean to him!": “God can forgive any wrong choices a person is willing to confess and forsake, but there are still painful consequences to be endured.”

Rick Santorum is slated to announce his run for the White House later today (yeah, good luck with that, Ricky, let us know how that works out for you). It just occurred to me that he's been very quiet about his connection to the Duggars since the scandal broke. No press release, no Facebook post, no public support. He's been a lot more cautious than Mike Huckabee who came out in support of Josh and has been getting blasted by the voters he thought he would be scoring points with. And Santorum is the politician the Duggars have done the most to support. They've been right beside him on the campaign trail every step of the way. He's been more than happy to associate himself with their celebrity. I guess it's times like these when you find out who your friends are, huh, Jim Bob.

I think it's very likely that Derrick and Ben only found out about the molestation last week, either right before or right after the shit hit the fan. I can easily see Jim Bob and Michelle "counseling" Jill and Jessa not to breathe a word about the family scandal to their new husbands ("It's in the past...you'll just stir up more trouble...he'll look down on you when he learns how you defrauded your poor brother"). These girls have been so brainwashed that they probably went into their marriages thinking of themselves as "damaged goods" and hoping their husbands would never have to find out. Plus, they were really marrying virtual strangers and had no idea how Derrick or Ben would react.

Because when you're growing older and are obsessed with staying youthful like Patricia and Whitney, sunlight is the enemy and darkness is your friend.

I think the reason was that Jim Bob hated his father and was enjoying a sadistic form of revenge.

Thomas may bitch and whine about Bravo, but if they ask him back for a third season, he'll leap at the chance.

If Whitney's father's name is Smith, his mother's name was Dey and his stepfathers' names were Fleming and Altschul, where does the "Sudler-Smith" come from? Since it doesn't sound like it was his surname through birth or adoption, I'm guessing that 'Sudler" is a name from somewhere in the family that Pat (or possibly Whitney himself) hyphenated with "Smith" in order to make it sound more aristocratic.

She's trying to spin living on the houseboat as an economy measure, but it has to cost more than the rent on a modest one-bedroom or studio apartment would. Unless, of course, the houseboat belongs to a friend or family member and she's staying there for free (or unless it was Bravo's idea and they're offsetting the cost).

Jim Bob would probably tell the kids "That means a camel with two humps!".

I can't imagine Jim Bob and Michelle welcoming an unhappily-married daughter back into the family home. No matter what, they'd turn her right around and send her back to "work things out", probably after giving her a brief time-out in the prayer closet. If she balks at submitting, they might even bring in the big Gothard guns to make her see the error of her ways. Their reaction would be one-third "Jesus doesn't like divorce!", one-third "What will people (and TLC) think!" and one-third "Daddy's not spending one nickel to support you and Mommy's not taking a chance on getting stuck doing your laundry and watching your kids!".

I wish there had been someone there to point out to Jim Bob that when King James wasn't writing the Bible, he was having hot man-on-man sex with his boyfriend, the Duke of Buckingham. * * Okay, the issue of whether King James I was bisexual is a matter of historical conjecture, but there's enough there to make Jim Bob's head explode.

A question for the posters who live in South Carolina: did the commercial we saw actually air on TV during the campaign? Is it possible that it was just something outrageous that Whitney cooked up for Southern Charm and that Thomas gleefully went along with because he knew it would enrage Kathryn?

Kathryn on T-Rav's campaign commercial: "1. Lame. 2. Ewww."