Kathie Lee Gifford makes me want to throw up

Watching Kathie Lee Gifford on the Today show is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. It's painful and regularly induces a series of involuntary spasms manifested as full body cringing. What's worse is that in her catty, pastel-clad hostile takeover she's taken Hoda Kotb hostage and using her Malibu-mom mind control to zap any intellect from her victim. What were they thinking?
Recently in the blogosphere, there was press of her poor handling of the mommy-blogger contingent as she forced Heather Armstrong (aka Dooce) out on the ledge of the very precarious question of the web vs. family privacy. Yet sadly, Kathie Lee mismanages every guest in ways you wouldn't even imagine. She makes inappropriate and demeaning comments, such as the one today when she implied her guest (a Men's magazine editor) had nothing of value to say but was "nice to look at." Excuse me, what? Has this "fourth hour" of the Today show been renamed, "Cougar Hour?" For real. During the same segment they were showcasing men's swimsuits meant to be age-appropriate and when faced with a early twenties-type dressed in Old Navy board shorts, KLG remarks "Old Navy has the coolest stuff... and at the greatest prices" - and while attempting to appear attentive her eyes shift away from the young model in a way that says, "my line with WalMart tanked but I'm open for endorsement opportunities, hint, hint... anyone at Old Navy listening?" It's obscene. Again, I feel really bad for Hoda Kotb. It's like a magnetic field swirls around Kathie Lee and anyone within five feet turns into a blathering idiot. At one point Hoda actually lifted the mic toward an attractive model in short trunks to ask if the shorts were comfortable. He of course said so, to which Hoda replies, "hehe, I just wanted to hear him talk."

Please, powers that be at NBC: cut and RUN. This woman is a banshee. She has dumbed-down your demographic and added the equivalent of a low-fat, Country-Tyme iced-tea sweetened with Xylitol and Splenda to your lineup. Dump her and allow Hoda to go into rehabilitation so she can reactivate the other 90% of her brain Kathie Lee voraciously sucked out.
Image courtesy of thestreet.com.