Conservative reaction to Cliven Bundy this morning:
All over the Wingnuttosphere conservative heads were exploding today. Turns out "Murricin HEE-ro" Cliven Bundy is a full-blown sheet-wearing racist. You haven't seen this much backpedaling since well, since the last time some Conservative/Republican darling said something stupid.
And so while the rank and file--and I do mean rank--are still standing by their man because of course they are, the pundits and propagandists who tell them what to do are furiously covering their asses by trying to sound like they are denouncing the racism of Bundy while not totally disavowing what he's doing. And looking like ridiculous fools while they're at it. I give you Sean Hannity:
"Every election year they want to say Republicans what? Conservatives what? That conservatives are racists. Conservatives hate women. Conservatives want old people to die. Granny over the cliff. They want young people to fend for themselves. They want to poison the air. Poison the water, so people that for right reasons saw this case as government overreach, now are like branded because of the ignorant, racist, repugnant, despicable comments of Cliven Bundy.”
Yep, that's the attitude most conservative pundit types are taking--the one they always take. Become the victim.
But in a masterful display of CYA today, Charles Krauthammer, who is constantly going on about the "lawlessness" of the Obama administration, basically decided he was going to be the Great Wise One and try to rebuke his fellow bloviators:
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I agree entirely with Chuck. First of all it isn't enough to say I don't agree with what he said. This is a despicable statement. It's not the statement, you have to disassociate yourself entirely from the man. It's not like the words exist here and the man exists here. And why conservatives, or some conservatives end up in bed with people who, you know, he makes an anti-government statement, he takes an anti-government stand, he wears a nice big hat and he rides a horse, and all of a sudden he is a champion of democracy. This is a man who said that he doesn't recognize the authority of the United States of America. That makes him a patriot? I love this country, I love the Constitution, and it is the Constitution that established a government that all of us have to recognize. And for him to reject it was the beginning of all of this. And now what he said today is just the end of this.
And I think it is truly appalling that, as Chuck says, there are times when somehow simply because somebody takes an oppositionist stand, he becomes a conservative hero. You got to wait, you got to watch, you got to think about it. And look, do I have the right to go in to graze sheep in Central Park? I think not. You have to have some respect for the federal government, some respect for our system. And to say you don't and you don't recognize it and that makes you a conservative hero, to me, is completely contradictory, and rather appalling. And he has now proved it.
Notice what I've bolded. And remember that for YEARS
he has been calling the President of the United States "lawless".
THAT, my friends, is how you cover your ass.
P.S. Please vote for me for a Netroots Nation Scholarship