Posted on 10/04/2007 5:54:18 AM PDT by kristinn
Two weeks ago, members of the right-wing Web site FreeRepublic.com were invited to a picnic at the White House.
The Freepers, as they call themselves, were invited to eat and mingle with the president and his aides, receiving praise from the chief executive and first lady for their work in supporting the war.
Regular features on Free Republic include threats to American citizens and public officials (liberals and Democrats, of course); racist, sexist and discriminatory rhetoric; and much mockery of the president himself, largely because of his insufficiently harsh stance on immigration.
"The only good Muslim," one site regular wrote after the president visited a Washington-area mosque "is an ex-Muslim."
Along with the Freepers were members of the political action group Move America Forward, chaired by San Francisco hate-radio host Melanie Morgan. Morgan's most famous public moment came when she called for the hanging of New York Times editor Bill Keller and laughed along her co-hosts as they talked about putting a bull's-eye on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The president honored those in attendance:
"Everybody is supporting our troops. I want to thank you for doing it. It's important people hear from you. It's important people hear your voice. And I want to thank you for organizing. I want to thank you not only for the grassroots support of our families, I want to thank you for going up to Capitol Hill."
A week later, the same people who threw the Freepers a party wanted any and all politicians to condemn anti-war organization MoveOn.org for a newspaper ad opposing the upcoming Capitol Hill testimony of Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus.
The same people who feted the Freepers and took pictures with them found the content of MoveOn's ad, which called Petraeus "Betray Us," beyond the pale.
Perhaps it was the rhyme. Freepers' posts rarely scan.
I don't know what's more disgusting, that the Republicans who lauded the pillars of right-wing hate turned around and asked Democrats in Congress to condemn MoveOn or that Democrats in Congress meekly assented, as though to their masters' demands.
Brazen hypocrisy at least has the appeal of chutzpah.
I don't know how many times a bully has to kick you in the face before you stop bending down to tie his shoes for him. I don't know how many times Democrats have to learn this particular lesson.
You'd think they'd have learned it in 2002, when Republicans won a Senate seat in Georgia by mocking war hero Max Cleland as insufficiently patriotic. Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, was derided as weak on national security while his chickenhawk opponent was positioned as the toughest guy in the room.
You'd think they'd have learned it in 2004, when delegates to the Republican National Convention wore Band-Aids with Purple Hearts on them to belittle Democratic nominee John Kerry's war wounds in Vietnam.
You'd think they'd have learned it just by watching the ongoing Republican presidential primaries. Conservative commentator Lee Rodgers recently said Republican Sen. John McCain, another hero of the Vietnam war, was able to coast in his political career because of his status as a former prisoner of war.
"He's had a free political ride for a long, long time because of the 'Oh, poor John, he was a POW in Vietnam' syndrome. But I think the country is getting pretty well fed up with that," Rodgers said.
It's not about patriotism at all. It's not about whose speech went too far. It's not about who was offensive and who wasn't.
Petraeus is a fairly important and powerful man. I bet he didn't go home and cry after reading what MoveOn said about him in the paper.
It's about power. Republicans in Congress have no problem with hateful speech, with questioning patriots' characters, when somebody on the president's side is taking the shots.
They have no problem with it when they can't use it to distract the country from the fact that the Iraq war is getting worse, and there's no end in sight.
You wouldn't think this is something a girl with a Web site would have to tell them, but 22 Senate Democrats and 146 House Democrats voted to condemn MoveOn, voted to say that a newspaper ad was just terrible, voted to clutch their pearls and fan themselves and fuss themselves into a right state.
Hopefully, the next time a piece of legislation this absurd comes across their desks, they'll remember the last time they lay down for this kind of nonsense, Republicans walked right over them.
Always nice to see that we still get under the moonbats’ skin.
Daily Southtown columnist Allison Hantschel may be reached via her blog, www.First-Draft.com
Yes. What's the problem with that statement?
>>delegates to the Republican National Convention wore Band-Aids with Purple Hearts on them to belittle Democratic nominee John Kerry’s war wounds in Vietnam
John Kerry was in Vietnam? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before.
How do you "oppose testimony"? And how do you "oppose testimony" before you even hear it?
Actually,John never served in Vietnam,he was guarding our flank in Cambodia !!!
No problem seeing which side of the fence she’s on.
Just like a typical lib. The facts mean nothing to them.
Yep—love it. We must be touching a nerve or two. Kristinn is squeeling like a stuck pig.
I didn’t know I was part of such a radical group and I like it.
I looked at the pictures and I saw well dressed, clean, happy people. I can’t help compare them to the pictures of the public gatherings of the left.....
I think that blog is about to get some interesting comments.
Oh whaaah, liberals have the right to continue to display what it is that gives us our reason to be.
Hey Allison...uh Rant-schel...or whoever you are...the only good liberal is an ex liberal.
Heres a box of hankies for ya.
I wish you would put some sort of warning on stuff like this. It will take me way too much time this morning to clean my desk and keyboard. I should have just searched for Today’s Toons and passed this thing up.
What in heck is wrong with THAT statement?.......If that is the worst she could find, she must not be lurking long enough.................
Exactly - conservatives speak out against behavior/actions that we see as being inappropriate. Liberals OPPOSE conservatism merely because it exists.
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