Let’s say you’re a candidate under fire for the way you’ve treated women. Would you step to a podium and call the female leader of the other party a “princess”?
You would if you’re Herman Cain.
Answering a question about health care at the CNBC debate near Detroit Wednesday, Cain said Republicans had already created a plan to fix health care but then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi shut it down.
Only he didn’t say then-Speaker.
“Princess Nancy sent it to committee,” Cain said. The crowd cheered, and Cain’s campaign was so fond of the line they blasted it out on Twitter.
The crowd may have cheered because “Princess Nancy” is a line prominent conservatives have been using for a long time. Sean Hannity was quite fond of it during Pelosi’s tenure as Speaker and conservative talker Neal Boortz used it, too. The term has a Facebook page which appears pretty new.
Not all Republicans are fond of using the term “princess” about a prominent woman in politics. Former Bush administration press secretary Dana Perino tweeted this:
“Ay yi yi, former Speaker Pelosi called a princess in the debate? Not fair. We may disagree on policy, but she earned the Speaker title.”
Late update
After the debate, Cain backed down from the “Princess Nancy” line his campaign’s Twitter feed liked so much.
“Well, that was a statement that I probably should not have made, but I was trying to make a point” he said.
And so we add Princess Nancy to the pantheon of Herman Cain misspeaks.
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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