There is NOT an absolute right to Free Speech. The biggest problem in this whole debate is the utter ignorance of what Free Speech ACTUALLY means. You cannot yell "this is a hijacking" on an airplane. It is not a free speech issue for wacko protesters to go to a funeral and "protest".
Did you read the column? He mentions the limits of free speech.
Of course free speech is not absolute, but our traditional First Amendment had specific narrowly tailored categories of exceptions, e.g., content-neutral time, place and manner regulations, obscenity, defamation, fraud, direct incitement to violence, fighting words, clear and present danger, etc., that protected the maximum amount of speech (especially political speech that is at the core amendment). No one has a right not to be offended, which is why outlawing so-called "hate speech" per se is utterly destructive of the First Amendment.
You've made a straw man - no one believes in an ABSOLUTE right to free speech.
There is rarely an *ABSOLUTE* right to anything.
In this case we talking about:
1) a cartoon in a newspaper; and
2) a 3 Year jail sentence for discussion of a 60 year old historical event.
Neither has anything to do with yelling fire in a theater, incitement to violence, treason, etc.
I find the silence of conservatives very disturbing. Even worse, is the kind of sniggering, well they deserved it, attitude.