.Last night, Bill O'Reilly posed a curious dilemma to regular O'Reilly Factor contributors Gretchen Carlson and Margaret Hoover during a discussion about the effects of the BP oil spill on the local economies of the Gulf. "As you may know, BP has put $20 billion to help folks who have lost wages and earnings because of the oil spill," said O'Reilly, introducing the topic. "Now some New Orleans strippers say their business is off and want some of that dough."
What followed was one of the more bizarre discussions of stripping ever to occur on the Factor, with guests Hoover and Carlson overwhelmingly receptive to the cause of stripper compensation since "it's BP money. It's not taxpayer money." Even more bizarre was O'Reilly's heated defense of strippers against their mobster bosses. Transcript highlights, with video, below:
O'REILLY: I wouldn't give the owners of the club jack.
(CROSSTALK)
O'REILLY: I mean, it's the employees.
CARLSON: That's who's filing the claim.
O'REILLY: It's the bartenders. It's the janitors and everybody else, if they have to lay off some people or something like that. That's who should get the money.
CARLSON: If they're...
O'REILLY: The mob guys who own the place, the Mafia guys who own it -
- come on!
(CROSSTALK)
O'REILLY: And I'm not implying that this particular club is owned by the mob. I'm not doing that. I'm saying the industry itself is rife with that, and they're not getting anything.
Bonus quote: O'Reilly nearly slips up.
O'REILLY: Ecosystem aside, Hoover -- I love those -- you give them money or not?