Rosie’s ‘View’ won’t be the same without her

Meow. The reign of Rosie is over.

I guess we should have expected that a woman who would take the day off to celebrate her life partner’s 40^th birthday — when she basically only has to work about an hour a day — would be the same kind of gal who would have the courage of her convictions and leave that gig purportedly over the sparring match beamed around the world.

Two days after her heated debate with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck comes word that Rosie O’Donnell is leaving “The View.” Her sudden departure from the morning chat fest she had anchored since last September comes three weeks ahead of her planned exit.

She said she didn’t want to fight with Hasselbeck any more and now she won’t have to — at least not on TV.

The Disney statement read: “We had hoped that Rosie would be with us until the end of her contract three weeks from now, but Rosie has informed us that she would like an early leave. Therefore, we part ways, thank her for her tremendous contribution to ‘The View’ and wish her well.”

While it is less surprising than the “take this job and shove it” exodus of her predecessor, Star Jones Reynolds, it’s just as jarring.

Apparently neither Rosie or Star got the memo about daytime TV.

Everyone is supposed to play nice.  You’re supposed to save all the drama for the soaps!

But you can bet that all the stay-at-home moms, all the college students packing up for the summer and those of us on the left coast who wanted to sleep late but got tipped off about a knock-down, drag-out fight on “The View” from friends on the East Coast, were totally appreciative to be ringside for Rosie vs. Elisabeth, Round 625.

I’d rather watch a good verbal beat down than Mayweather vs. De La Hoya any day.

Joy gets the party started
On Wednesday, it all started with Joy Behar’s Bush-bashing laundry list. You could see the pre-natal veins in Hasselbeck’s head starting to protrude, especially after Behar accused Bush of stealing the election in 2000. The further down the list Behar got, the more agitated Hasselbeck became. 

After a short series of soft punches from Hasselbeck — remember her using TiVo as a defense on why she chose to watch “Dancing With the Stars” as opposed to Al Gore on CNN? — it became painfully apparent that Behar was going to win that round. Not one of Hasselback’s jabs landed.

Meanwhile, we have O’Donnell in the opposite corner stewing. Her lips are probably still sore because her pearly whites were obviously clamping down on them. But when Hasselbeck began defending the war, Mt. St. O’Donnell blew.

“The enemy is in Iraq? Did Iraq attack us?”

Honey, get the popcorn! It’s about to go down!

You could kind of see it coming because O’Donnell, who referred to herself as a “big fat loud lesbian” on Wednesday’s show, had been abnormally quiet throughout the entire Behar vs. Hasselbeck undercard. O’Donnell had been on the show long enough to know that it’s lose-lose any time she shares her opinions in that public forum.

Especially when Barbara Walters isn’t there to be the voice of calm and reason.

The problem with O’Donnell is that her self-avowed description of herself alienates a lot of the nice people who prefer more sanitized programming before lunch. They want to hear mindless banter about clothes, nutrition, weight loss, hot guys. But O’Donnell, who wears her gayness proudly and loudly and moderates the discussions on the show’s “Hot Topics” segments, like to discuss issues so flaming that even Walters’ reactions have become increasingly more subjective.

That’s why O’Donnell consistently finds herself vilified in the press when she attacks “innocent pure Christian Elisabeth.” If the two of them were selling soap, it’s probably safe to assume that many Americans would prefer buying it from a pretty blonde whose values are more morally sound.

Grow up, Elizabeth
Yet, at the risk of sounding overtly judgmental, I don’t really care for Hasselbeck. It’s nothing personal because I’ve never met her. I just don’t think she adds anything to the show and she’s a little too whiny for that time of day. She has that kind of voice that brings back memories of fingernails screeching on the chalkboard. I kind of wish she would have triplets and move to that rural area in Ohio that Dave Chappelle calls home.

Like Dave, she’s got some growing to do.

What truly amazes me, however, is that it apparently hasn’t occurred to Hasselbeck that she’s one of the only people in the country — blind, crippled, crazy or Republican — that still defends Bush and the war in Iraq.

You don’t have to ride the current wave, jump on the Al Sharpton bandwagon or be a hater — that certainly won’t get you that coveted invite to the state dinner for Queen Elizabeth — but, dang get a clue already!

Slide show   Rosie through the years From the ‘80s through ‘The View,’ a look at the feisty TV host’s career more photos

Conversely, I’m fairly indifferent when it comes to O’Donnell. I think she must like the taste of her own toes because she puts her foot in her mouth a lot. I think she was wrong for mocking the Chinese language and perhaps should have suffered harsher consequences when she claimed it was all in the name of comedy. And I was over that whole Donald Trump feud the day before it actually started.

The difference between O’Donnell and Hasselbeck is that even though you may not always agree with either of them, at the end of the day you still have some respect for O’Donnell’s convictions. It takes a lot of courage to out yourself on national TV — and I’m not talking about her sexuality.

And, when it comes to politics and friendship, I’m often on the same page with Ms. Ro.

That’s why I knew that O’Donnell was hurting that day even before she asked Hasselbeck if she had been there for her every time she’d been slammed in the press. This feud, which actually started Monday when Republican pundits criticized O’Donnell for insinuating that the U.S. troops in Iraq were the true terrorists, went a lot deeper than a heated debate over politics and war.

MORE FROM TELEVISION OPINIONS

Is Leno’s 10 p.m. experiment nearing an end?

Is Leno’s 10 p.m. experiment nearing an end? TV snobs are wrong about ‘Two and a Half Men’ For ‘Big Bang’s’ Sheldon, the nerd is the word Sykes and late night TV’s new color barrier Proudly un-hip, ‘NCIS’ still tops ratings Monty Python the original kings of gore ‘Glee’ has rabid fans, but they deserve better Newsweek: Is 'FlashForward' the next 'Lost'? Newsweek: 5 flagging TV shows that need to end Newsweek: White faces still dominate primetime TV   Add Television Opinions headlines to your news reader: