So I'm doing comment-battle with the local tea partiers on their new blog at the Albany Times Union, and one of them tries to diss me as a Kossack by referring to Markos' intemperate remark about the deaths of four Blackwater mercenaries in Iraq, with a link to Little Green Footballs, circa 2004.
The tea partier was evidently unaware that LGF honcho Charles Johnson has seen the light since then, and is now as acerbic a critic of the tea parties and the synonymous Republican right wing as any blogger on the left.
For example:
A classic Fox News moment, as SNL alumni Victoria Jackson puts the "nutjob" in right wing nutjob. Steve Doocy brings her on to demonstrate that tea partiers aren’t extremists, but it doesn’t quite work out as planned.
"I AM the tea party people," says Jackson, and "The President’s a Communist."
More goodness from a former DKos-hater, below.
I was aware of Johnson's conversion, which happened about a year ago in direct response to tea party extremism.
But I did not look at his blog more than once a month.
Going there today, to refudiate and ebmarrass an ignorant tea partier, was a revelation -- this guy, an Iraq War-loving center-right type, really hates the tea partiers.
And provides ample reasons why, with snark, like in this recent post:
Here’s a novel response to the NAACP’s resolution condemning racist elements in the Tea Party movement — set up a House GOP Tea Party Caucus! (emphasis in the original)
This moment of reverse political zen brought to you by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Mars).
Johnson also holds Ron Paul, the obvious godfather of the tea party movement, and Sarah Palin, its preposterous Virgin Mary, in low regard:
The crazy convergence of tea parties, Sarah Palin, and paleo-nutjob Ron Paul is picking up speed, as Palin endorses Ron Paul’s son Rand for the Kentucky Senate primary. If someone had told me a few years ago that the Republican Party would be this far off the rails in 2010, I probably wouldn’t have believed them.
Johnson also has a bunch of posts about tea party signs, under the ironic tag Teabonics.
My favorite, for its grammatical incoherence, is this one: "If Nobama was white I'd still dislike nut'n 2 do w/race."
There's a lot more wingnut wackiness at the Teabonics link above.
The local tea partier had dissed me for using "teabagger," which I have not done in a month or so, out of respect for a couple of the local tea party leaders who are good, albeit seriously misguided, people.
But Johnson gave a good reason to go back to "teabagger," headlining his link in May to Breitbart's "I'm proud to be a teabagger" post this way, "Now can we call them teabaggers?"
Johnson has come a long way in six years, as the top three headlines at LGF right now make clear -- "AZ Sheriff Babeu, Frequent Fox Contributor, Appears on White Supremacist Radio Show," "Breitbart Utterly Destroys Something," and "Refudiation Round-Up."
I ended my comment at the TU tea party blog with this:
Johnson came to recognize the extremism of many in the tea party movement.
I hope you all can join him in that.
Most tea partiers won't give up now, obviously, but hopefully some will, and some more will be less certain that a Bircher/Republican Party will represent their essential interests.