In his New York Times column this morning, Frank Rich writes about the how the right wing crazies are calling for the head of Shepard Smith at Fox News. Smith, who dared to take seriously the Fox News motto of "we report, you decide", crossed the right wing nut jobs when he essentially called them that.
Watch.
In my view, Rich nails it when he writes of the paranoid chapter of the right wing nut jobs:
What is this fury about? In his scant 145 days in office, the new president has not remotely matched the Bush record in deficit creation. Nor has he repealed the right to bear arms or exacerbated the wars he inherited. He has tried more than his predecessor ever did to reach across the aisle. But none of that seems to matter. A sizable minority of Americans is irrationally fearful of the fast-moving generational, cultural and racial turnover Obama embodies — indeed, of the 21st century itself. That minority is now getting angrier in inverse relationship to his popularity with the vast majority of the country. Change can be frightening and traumatic, especially if it’s not change you can believe in.
What I want to know is when are the Republican elected officials of this country going to denounce this kind of scary demogogery from its right wing. From what I can tell, the Republicans I watch most closely -- those here in Virginia -- are silent. Or worse, they endorse it in their own party chairman, Pat Mullins. (Exhibit A: Bob McDonnell, GOP nominee for Governor of Virginia.)
In my view, that's a failure on their part. A failure to lead. Why am I not surprised?
Cross posted at Fake Virginia.