Uproar as LibDem leader Zhirinovsky attacks pregnant reporter
Published time: April 18, 2014 13:28
Edited time: April 18, 2014 14:25



Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky (RIA Novosti/Vladimir Fedorenko)



The flamboyant leader of the populist nationalist party LDPR could be silenced for up to three months by ethics commission over a bizarre incident in which he insulted a pregnant journalist before starting shouting Christian messages.

The attack that has already caused a major scandal in Russian media and political circles took place before the Lower House’s plenary session on Friday.

A reporter asked Vladimir Zhirinovsky if Russia should reply to the entry ban recently imposed by Ukraine on Russian men, the politician made a loud and illogical speech, first accusing female politicians from Ukraine of suffering from nymphomania (to which he referred to by the obsolete term “uterine frenzy”), then suggesting that the reporter must have a similar condition. When the woman said she was pregnant, Zhirinovsky affectionately told her to stay home instead of going to work. After this he suddenly pushed one of his aides at the reporter telling the young man that he should “rape the woman hard.” Then he shouted “Christ is risen! Truly he is risen!” and “kiss her!” several times, most likely hinting at the Easter celebrations two days away.

As another female journalist stepped in to defend her colleague Zhirinovsky called her a lesbian and passed several homophobic remarks.

The whole incident was caught on cameras and the reaction has been sharp and unambiguous.

Deputy head of the State Duma commission for ethics, Andrey Andreyev, told the ITAR-TASS news agency that for his stunt Zhirinovsky could be forced to apologize and lose the right to speak in the State Duma for up to one month.

Lower House speaker Sergey Naryshkin told Interfax that he deplored Zhirinovsky’s behavior and offered apologies to the reporters instead of the LDPR leader. He has also asked the ethics commission to report on Zhirinovsky’s behaviour.

67-year old Vladimir Zhirinovsky is the founder and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR). He is also one of Russia’s veteran politicians, whose career dates back to Perestroika times. From the very beginning he was known for heated arguments and bizarre statements that often led to disputes.

The more recent ones included forced birth control in the North Caucasus, restrictions on the sex lives of LDPR members, and claims the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor was the test of a secret American weapon.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

So, tell me, who is the craziest politician in your country/region?

 Chaos Legionnaire wrote:


I am actually surprised that this Zhirinovsky guy is still around. He has be saying and doing stuff like this for decades now. The general consensus on this guy has always been that he is crazy, and yet he remains in power. So what does that tell you about his constituents?

Voters should have known better than to give Cook County Judge Cynthia Brim another six years on the bench in November. It turns out they didn't know everything, though.

There were plenty of headlines after she was arrested in March for shoving a deputy providing security at the Daley Center. Local bar associations that screen judicial candidates had recommended that she be denied retention because of poor performance.

But there's more.

Since becoming a judge in 1994, Brim has been hospitalized five times after going off her antipsychotic medications. That was revealed Monday at her trial, at which she was found not guilty of misdemeanor battery because she was "legally insane" at the time.

"This is not the action of a rational human being," Brim's attorney told the trial judge. "This is someone acting pursuant to the symptoms of a mental disorder."

The trial judge agreed, and we won't argue. We wish Brim only the best in her struggles. But it's clear her mental health issues have had unacceptable effects on her work.

One of the episodes noted in court was in 2004, when she was removed from her courtroom by firefighters and taken to the hospital. The day before her arrest last March, Brim had been ejected from her Markham courtroom after a 45-minute rant. She's been suspended ever since, still drawing a $182,000 taxpayer salary.

Over the years — in 2000, 2006 and 2012 — the bar associations have found her not qualified. This page has recommended a "no" vote for retention. At the same time, Democratic leaders have urged voters to keep her on the bench.

That was the case this year, when she was backed by the Cook County Democratic Party and the Committee for Retention of Judges in Cook County. The latter is a campaign committee funded by judges. Surely the judges knew Brim had mental health issues that impaired her ability to do the job. Yet she was endorsed anyway.

The Democratic Party does this because party leaders like to have the loyalty of the local judges. The judges do this because they figure solidarity is a lot better than inviting the voters to scrutinize and pluck off any of them.

To earn retention, judges need a 60 percent "yes" vote. Brim got 63.5.

Her acquittal Monday doesn't mean she'll be back at work right away, or ever. She's expected to remain on suspension pending an investigation by the state Judicial Inquiry Board.

Prosecutors argued at trial that Brim should be held criminally responsible for her actions because she made the decision to discontinue her medications. But her defense needed only to establish that she couldn't have understood her actions were criminal at the time. So she's not guilty. We have no problem with that. But she has no business on the bench.

The Judicial Inquiry Board should take care of that.

But how can we tolerate a judicial election and retention system that allows this to go on for years? The system works beautifully for political insiders and for the judges who owe their careers to those insiders.

For everybody else, it's a rotten crime.

 Chaos Legionnaire wrote:


But then, there's crazy, and then there's Zhirinovsky crazy.

 Jihadin wrote:
Stop calling my entertainment "Crazy"

“It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”

Bitch set me up!

 Compel wrote:
Well, he's not exactly in the same 'scary' league as the others here

Currently at 12 to 1 odds of being the next British Prime Minister...

 Compel wrote:
Well, he's not exactly in the same 'scary' league as the others here

Currently at 12 to 1 odds of being the next British Prime Minister...

Lord Monckton told those present he believed global warming was a scam to keep the focus away from Agenda 21; a United Nations action plan which he says aims to depopulate the nation, impose a world government and usher in the return of Communism.

 Dheneb wrote:
There's crazy, and there's Lord Monckton crazy:

Lord Monckton told those present he believed global warming was a scam to keep the focus away from Agenda 21; a United Nations action plan which he says aims to depopulate the nation, impose a world government and usher in the return of Communism.

Source

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Do we have any North Koreans on the forum?

 Dheneb wrote:
There's crazy, and there's Lord Monckton crazy:

Lord Monckton told those present he believed global warming was a scam to keep the focus away from Agenda 21; a United Nations action plan which he says aims to depopulate the nation, impose a world government and usher in the return of Communism.

Source

 Maddermax wrote:
Here, we have Crazy Clive Palmer, the eccentric billionaire. Having decided to build an exact replica of the Titanic for giggles, and an animatronik Jurrasic Park for the hell of it, he decided he also wanted a political party. In less than a year of deciding that, he pushed millions upon millions of dollars into forming his own party, and at the 2013 national election, ran a candidate in *every single national seat* in the country. He only one a single house seat (his own), but payed enough for his party to win the balance of power in the senate.

He's also pretty barmy, claiming the Australian Greens party (our major 3rd party) is a front for the CIA, who are trying to wreck the coal industry. But if you have money, you can get away with that sort of thing...

Palindrome wrote:

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Do we have any North Koreans on the forum?

that would require internet access (and electricity) so probably not.

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
I want to know what Zhirinovsky is smoking, that is some heavy stuff.

Geert wilders is like the Mayor from osaka, Tōru Hashimoto, who also says a lot of stupid stuff just to keep relevant in the news.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
We have Rob Ford... does that count?