weekly standard sharpton lamont

Uh.  Mah.  Gawd.

Okay, what is it about Ned Lamont's win in the Connecticut Primary that seems to have brought out the absolute seething fascist asshole in everyone from Lieberman himself to Wolf Blitzer to Bill Kristol?  Not that the absolute seething fascist asshole was far below the surface with any of those men, but this week's Weekly Standard cover is the latest egregious salvo from a very long week of having to deal with a veritable parade of race-baiting, fear-mongering stooges turning out to bash Ned Lamont and everyone alligned with him.

Oliver Willis was the blogger who brought this story to my attention, so let's go over to his take on it, shall we? 

To wit:

Conservatives cannot help themselves. They try, time and time again, to excuse themselves from their movement's racist past. They try to deny that the foundation of the current Republican party came about as segregationist racists were turned out of the newly progressive Democratic party in the wake of the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies.

Conservatives wonder why Americans of all stripes idealogically and racially don't buy their protestations that they aren't racist. But it is because of the behavior - in this instance exhbited by The Weekly Standard - that constantly denigrates anyone who isn't a rich white Christian male. The right looks down their nose at anyone who they consider "different" and wonders why the perception of them is so at odds with the world they've built up in their own minds.

Oh, Oliver, don't be silly.  Republicans love The Darkies!  Just ask 'em!  They even let them work in their yards and kitchens!  Why, some of their best employees are minorities!  Like Arm$trong William$ and Clarence Thomas!  Those guys alone are proof that the GOP doesn't mind having some brown-skinned people around as long as they know their place, follow orders, and don't become a voting bloc.  If that happens, well, there's gonna be trouble, and every effort must be made to trot out every bogus slur and stereotype, cos you know how they are.  They always vote for the damn liberals!  Why, god, why?

Back to you, Oliver!

It wasn't enough for the Weekly Standard to speak about their disagreement with Ned Lamont, his supporters or even the controversial politics practiced by Al Sharpton (who I happen to disagree with). No, the Weekly Standard, said by some to be the favored political journal of the White House and a major player in conservative politics via editor-in-chief William Kristol (former Dan Quayle chief of staff) - chose to depict the African-American Sharpton as just another white gloved chaueffeur, subserviently ferrying around his white "massa" Ned Lamont.

What the hell is wrong with these people? It shows the lack of moral compass they've exhibited for years now, and displays that it is so ingrained in their system and the world they live in that there's nothing apparently negative about depicting a black person - even one like Sharpton - as just a modern day Step N Fetchit.

True.  Painful, but fairly accurate.  Of course, the real Reich Wing trick would now be to attack Willis and suggest that he's a racist for invoking the specter of Step N Fetchit, much like they've accused Lindsay from Majikthise of Jew-on-Jew anti-Semitism for reading Gunter Grass's Tin Drum, in that its author was briefly involuntarily conscripted into the SS Youth.  

Shyeah.  Calling a Jew an anti-Semite for reading Germany's most passionate anti-fascist author.  My guess is that Tim Blair (he of the anti-Semitism accusations) never heard of Gunter Grass (let alone read him) before this latest kerfuffle.  Anyone who's read The Tin Drum or even seen the film knows that it's a fiercely anti-Nazi work, but let's not let that get in the way of projecting our knee-jerk prejudices on to our enemies, right Rightards?  How else would Michelle MalKKKin get her kicks slamming FDL if she couldn't project?  That would ruin everything!

Something is up, here.  Ned's primary win appears to have set all the red lights flashing on Karl Rove's desk.  We've got another bogus terror alert.  We've heard Lamont called "The Al-Qaeda Candidate".  Ken Mehlman flounced his way on to the talking head shows the day after the primary to insist that a vote for Ned Lamont is "a vote for another 9/11".  Ann Coulter got assigned to smear Maxine Waters, of course, and the dominant narrative all week from everyone up to Ol' Holy Joe hisself has practically had Lamont personally buying the box cutters for the original 9/11 hijackers.  And now this asinine magazine cover that screams, "Ned Lamont is working with the NI&&*RS!!  HE MUST BE STOPPED!"  What the fuck?  What the hell is so threatening about democracy working like it's supposed to?

Oh, but of course, if you watch the news, you know it's just not that simple.  The Democratic party has "taken A HARD LEFT TURN in Connecticut" by daring to assert that perhaps a Democratic senator who spends his legislative life making it easier for a corrupt administration to illegally invade other sovereign nations is maybe not what they had in mind when they voted Democrat.  GOD FORBID!  KATIE BAR THE DOOR!  THOSE WILD EYED LIBERALS ACTUALLY VOTED FOR THE CANDIDATE WHO REPRESENTS THEIR INTERESTS!!  IT'S TIME TO DECLARE A NATIONAL FUCKING EMERGENCY!!

Surely, there is something more at stake here for BushCo than the loss of their most sycophantic toady in the Democratic party.  They wouldn't pull out the stops in their Smear and Fear Machine like this unless they're really, really afraid of something.  What could it be?  It's not like Ned is that far left.  Lindsay says:

I've been looking to join the far left of the Democratic party for years.
So, you can imagine my excitement when I heard the far left was poised to take over the Democratic party from its rumored stronghold in Meridan, Connecticut.

I made a pilgrimage on the Metro North Railroad to seek an audience with Rainbow Ned and his blogger ashram.

Ned turned out to be a cool guy, but he doesn't seem like much of a lefty. His campaign staff didn't strike me as especially counter-cultural either.

I was there for two days, and he didn't promise to nationalize a damned thing. Frankly, I don't think he's serious about banning the Bible. Mostly, Ned talked about fighting terrorism, getting our troops out of Iraq, and creating jobs for Connecticut.

Sigh.  I know.  He doesn't even want to outlaw traditional marriage and make every American family sponsor a transgendered Palestinian teenager in their homes.  Yeah, I still support him, but I guess I'll have to hold my nose.  What kind of liberal doesn't even want to burn down all the Christian churches in America and build mosques on the ashes?

So disappointing. 

Well, there's always 2008.