The Clinton campaign is pissed about remarks from MSNBC’s David Shuster, who said that Chelsea Clinton was being “pimped out” by the campaign. Under pressure from the campaign, MSNBC suspended Shuster.:

On Thursday, Shuster guest-hosted Tucker Carlson's MSNBC show, "Tucker," and in referring to Chelsea Clinton's role in calling superdelegates on behalf of the Clinton presidential campaign, he asked whether she was "sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?"

Later that night, he heard from an outraged Reines, who called the remarks "absurdly offensive."

Shuster was unrepentant. He told Reines his commentary was justified because of the contrast between Chelsea Clinton's overt political role and the aggressive way campaign aides "jump down the throat" of reporters who seek to question her about it.

However, once the Clinton camp threatened to back out of a MSNBC debate, the network changed their tune:

Behind the scenes, Phil Griffin, senior vice president at MSNBC, took the criticism over Shuster's remarks from the Clinton camp especially seriously, and Tim Russert helped mediate the situation, according to sources.

But one high-level NBC source told Politico that apologizing was an act of cowardice on behalf of the network.

While I certainly question what is so offensive about the term “pimped out”, what I really want to question is why Chelsea Clinton is so beyond reproach. Why is she so damn special? She’s a 27-year old woman, a public figure, campaigning for her mother, a woman who has made her very status as a mother an issue in the campaign.

My theory is that the Clintons want to make Chelsea untouchable for two reasons. First, because they’re parents and they love their daughter. Second, is because after just a little examination, Chelsea becomes less of a golden child and more of a Hillary Jr.

While the Clinton campaign narrative is one of 35 years of public service. Of course, only one of those 35 years were spent with Children's Defense Fund. Most of those years were spent practicing corporate law with Rose Law Firm in Arkansas. Likewise, Chelsea Clinton may, after 9/11 thought that “For most young Americans I know, ‘serving’ in the broadest sense now seems like the only thing to do,” but that fact is that she now pulls down a six-figure salary working for a NYC hedge fund and admirers have to point to the fact that she held entry level ticket prices for a ballet event down to $75. Ooooh, power to the people!

I don’t begrudge either Clinton for getting hers. Good for them. However, I find the way they paint themselves as agents of change and champions of the little people as, well, “absurdly offensive” and not just a little hypocritical.