Alleged Comelec affair irrelevant

By Alex P. Vidal

“An affair wants to spill, to share its glory with the world. No act is so private it does not seek applause.”—John Updike

NINETY percent of my past employers in New York were Jews.

And most of them didn’t like TV host and actress Whoopi Goldberg.

Not because she is a bad person; it’s because some of them, including an Orthodox couple in Brooklyn I sued in the Department of Labor three years ago, think Goldberg, born Caryn Elaine Johnson, adopted her stage name to be deliberately Jewish-sounding even if she doesn’t have a Jewish ancestry.

Some of the Jews in America recently nearly rekindled their dislike of the 66-year-old comedian when she made a mea culpa while hosting “The View” on ABC News by declaring, “the Holocaust isn’t about race,” but rather about “man’s inhumanity to man.”

But despite the apology she made later, ABC News president Kim Godwin still suspended her for two weeks.

In my opinion, the suspension was unnecessary given the severity of her regrets and sincere acceptance of the error.

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The panel was discussing a Tennessee school board’s removal of the Holocaust book “Maus” from its curriculum earlier this month.

All five co-hosts opposed the board’s decision, saying that the acclaimed graphic memoir should be taught in classrooms; but Goldberg differed strongly from her colleagues on the question of exactly why the Holocaust should be taught to students.

“If you’re going to do this, then let’s be truthful about it,” Goldberg said, before elaborating that “these (Jews and Nazis) are two white groups of people.”

Co-host Joy Behar objected, arguing that Nazis “considered Jews a different race.” Guest co-host Ana Navarro asserted that “it’s about white supremacy, it’s about going after Jews and Gypsies.” But Goldberg continued to speak.

“The minute you turn it into race, you go down this alley,” she continued, as the show’s producers began playing music as a cue to cut to commercials.

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Goldberg has actually apologized in a note posted to Twitter. And on February 1 (Tuesday), she opened up “The View” offering yet another apology.

“Yesterday on our show, I misspoke. I tweeted about it last night but I want you to hear it from me directly,” the comedian and actor said. “I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined, because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention. I understand why now, and for that I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful, and it helped me understand some different things.”

“I said the Holocaust wasn’t about race and was instead about man’s inhumanity to man,” Goldberg said Tuesday on “The View.” “But it is indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race.”

She continued, “Now, words matter and mine are no exception. I regret my comments, as I said, and I stand corrected. I also stand with the Jewish people as they know and y’all know, because I’ve always done that.”

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The alleged dalliance between a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official and a senator is irrelevant.

It has nothing to do whatsoever with the ongoing catfight in the national Comelec office.

True or not, whatever is the relationship—past and present—between the Comelec official and the senator, who are both married, is none of the people’s business.

Extra-marital issues are separate from election-related issues.

The former is a salacious showbiz appetizer, the latter a pertinent public interest.

The public should focus on the question of whether retired Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon was right when she “prematurely” revealed her opinion on the disqualification case against presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and accused fellow Commissioner Aimee Ferolino of “conspiring” with a senator to “save” Marcos Jr.

Let Boy Abunda and Vice Ganda tackle the alleged affair. Let’s zero in on whether money changed hands, as Guanzon had alleged, in order to allegedly sidestep the feisty Negrense lawyer’s vote to disqualify Marcos Jr.

Even if it is true that there’s a “deeper” relationship between the Comelec official and the alleged philandering senator even before the current tumult had erupted, it does not necessarily follow they would connive and risk their reputations over a controversial case that’s impossible to be kept under wraps.

On the other hand, it is also possible the alleged “intimacy” had helped “pave the way” for the alleged sinister plot to “protect” Marcos Jr.

As mentioned earlier, showbiz is showbiz and election issues are separate issues, and never the twain shall meet.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)