Posted on 05/23/2012 7:11:51 AM PDT by SmithL
Safeway has enough on its plate - market share under siege, tough union negotiations, rumors of a takeover - without a senior executive putting his foot halfway down his throat, at its annual shareholders' meeting no less.
Vice President and General Counsel Robert Gordon thought he was cracking wise with a lame joke involving the Secret Service, President Obama and two Arkansas razorback hogs deemed an "excellent trade" for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco.
Among the less-than-laugh-out-loud-responses was a letter from members of the Bay Area congressional delegation, led by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, whose district includes the Pleasanton company. It demanded an apology to Pelosi and Clinton, among other "corrective steps," for the "shocking lack of respect, not only for two of the most important and respected people in our country but for all women."
As of Monday, one week after the shareholders' meeting, the only corrective action was a brief statement from Gordon "sincerely apologiz(ing) if the opening comments I made at the recent annual stockholders meeting offended anyone."
Miller's chief of staff, Daniel Weiss, was not impressed. "It should go without saying that it is not an apology if you use the word 'if' in it," he said. After contacting Safeway, I was told Gordon "has now written a letter of apology directly to Secretary Clinton and Leader Pelosi," with a similar letter of apology from CEO Steve Burd, both mailed Tuesday.
"We also contacted the members of Congress who wrote to us on this matter," said Brian Dowling, a Safeway spokesman, who did not divulge the contents of the letters.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Bay Area congressmembers call Safeway lawyer’s joke ‘sexist’
Inside Bay Area ^ | 5/18/12 | Lisa Vorderbrueggen
If he just joked about Sarah Palin, then nobody would have batted an eyelid.
Yeah, it was offensive...to the PIGS!!
I don’t see any joke there at all.
It was simple economics.
One should always trade things that can not produce value for things that can.
Exactly! Sarah Palin jokes are okay. But, to be a good liberal, we must not joke about leading Democrats such as Pelosi or Hillary.
And do not ever joke about our dear leader, ever!
I still don’t get Obama’s joke about a pit bull and Sarah Palin that he told at the White House correspondent’s dinner. But, there too, since it was a Sarah Palin joke, there was no criticism of that one. Dear Leader tells a joke, and we’re all commanded to laugh on cue!
“shocking lack of respect, not only for two of the most important and respected people in our country but for all women.”
I don’t see where he specifies female hogs, nor did I realize that razorbacks were held in such high regard.
Important and respected???? What a pompous pile of pig dung!
Maybe he should have put lipstick on the two razorback hogs...
good joke - delivered at the wrong place and time to the wrong audience.
This guy should have known waaaaaay better.
That I agree with, follow the sage words of Michael Jordan, “Republicans buy shoes, too.”
I laughed at the joke. I’m simply not politically correct enough.
The guy should definitely be ashamed of himself for recycling a joke and getting it out of context.
Safeway has had a rough year in the news.
How convenient for the boobs of Congre$$ ??
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