Eight years after President Clinton blasted rapper/author Sistah Souljah in front of the NAACP, the White House race has once again been used as a backdrop to declare war on a hip-hop artist. This time, it's the wife of Republican vice presidential nominee Dick Cheney attacking the lyrics of Marshall Mathers, better known to hip-hop fans as Eminem.
In her testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday, Lynne Cheney officially threw down the gauntlet between herself and Mathers, both heavyweights in their respective fields. So how would the two match up if they went toe to toe? Call Don King, check the betting line in Vegas and take a look at Salon's tale of the tape below. And let's get ready to rumble.
| Marshall Bruce Mathers | Name | Lynne Vincent Cheney |
| 27 | Age | 58 |
| 5-11 | Height | 5-4 (give or take) |
| Penned and performed some of the most misogynistic and homophobic lyrics of the year, added some catchy hooks and funky beats and rode the controversy to the top of the pop charts. | Record | Avowed social conservative. Earned bona fide culture-warrior credentials during her time as head of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which she later sought to abolish, and as a co-host on CNN's now-defunct "Crossfire Sundays." |
| His album "The Marshall Mathers LP" has sold more than 5 million copies since its May 23 release. He graced the covers of countless magazines this year, including Rolling Stone, Spin and Entertainment Weekly. He remains, after Britney Spears, the second-most talked-about personality in the music world. | Reach | This year, she returned to the national spotlight two years after her "Crossfire" gig. She remains, after her husband Dick, the second-most talked-about personality in the Cheney family. |
| Eminem, Slim Shady | Nicknames | n/a |
| Wife, Kim*; one daughter, Hailie Jade, 4.
*Eminem's wife filed for divorce after the rapper rhymed about killing her on his latest album. The song "Kim" included lyrics like "Sit down bitch/you move again/I'll beat the shit out of you." Can't imagine that "KIM -- ROT IN PIECES" tattoo on his torso helps, either. Though Eminem never followed up on his threatening lyrics, Kim did attempt suicide in July. Mathers is currently being sued for $10 million by his own mother for defamation of character. |
Family | Husband, Dick; two daughters, Mary* and Elizabeth; three grandchildren.
*When ABC News' Cokie Roberts asked her about having a daughter who has "declared she's openly gay," an irate Cheney shot back: "Mary has never declared such a thing." "Basically, I don't talk about Mary's personal life," Cheney told the Washington Times. "We kind of have a mother-daughter agreement: I don't talk about her personal life, and she doesn't talk about mine." |
| Guys who kiss his wife in public (Mathers was arrested and charged with assault in June for allegedly hitting a man he found kissing his wife at a nightclub). | Pet Peeves | In her own words: "political correctness, broken families, churches that don't work as well as they used to, schools that don't educate." Add to that, in the words of columnist Joanne Jacobs, "postmodern, postcolonial, pro-feminist, multicultural mush." Others include Hillary Clinton: "What really drives me crazy is when Hillary acts like the happy wife. Walking hand-in-hand off the helicopter together at critical moments. It is just so distressing to me." And, of course, there's Eminem. |
| "I'm so fed up with the fame and the whole aspect of just not being able to walk down my own block or go shopping at fucking Toys 'R' Us or something. It's like these kids think that they're the only person that's come up to me that day and that they can bug the shit out of me. I try to be nice, but there are times I have snapped and pulled guns out on them." | Quote | "Some in the entertainment industry are consistently failing to act responsibly. They are producing violent, sexually explicit material, and they are peddling it to children. They claim unbridled license to do so under the First Amendment; however, their persistent irresponsibility, ironically, threatens the First Amendment."
"Under the Constitution the only thing the job calls for is waiting: waiting for the president to die or be impeached; waiting for the Senate to wind up in a tie vote so the vice president can break it ..." -- a description of the vice presidency from Cheney's upcoming novel "The Body Politic." |
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