Look who's palling around with extremists now

Look who's palling around with extremists now

by digby

Following up my post below, I just have to point out how one-sided this "dangerous association" "palling around with extremists" meme is. Here we have the wingnuts hyperventilating over Barack Obama hugging a Harvard professor who wrote about race in a way they apparently find objectionable back in 1991.

But get a load of one of the GOP presidential candidates from just yesterday:

This afternoon [Rick Santorum] appeared on one of the most extreme Religious Right programs in the country – American Family Radio’s Focal Point with Bryan Fischer.

Fischer, the Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association, has been accused of crossing the line against “decency and civility” and of using “poisonous language” – by none other than Mitt Romney at the Values Voters Summit, who was trying to cautiously distance himself from Fischer’s repeated attacks on his Mormon faith while still courting the Religious Right. Later in January, Fischerclaimed that a electing a Mormon president would threaten the “spiritual health” of the country.

But Fischer isn’t only out to get Mormons. He has an extensive history of bigotry against groups like Muslims (who are stupid because of inbreeding), gays and lesbians (who are responsible for Holocaust), Native Americans (who are “morally disqualified” from controlling land) , low-income African Americans (who “rut like rabbits”), and basically anyone who isn’t a “real” Christian. Fischer has also likened President Obama to Adolf Hitler and called him a tyrant who has a “hatred for the United States” and a “hatred for the white man.”

That brings us to Rick Santorum, who is hoping today’s appearance on American Family Radio will help him reach right-wing voters in Alabama, Mississippi and Kansas – the next states to vote in the GOP primary. He even gave a shout-out to the Deep South at the top of the interview: “We spent yesterday in Mississippi and Kansas and today we’re in Alabama. I’ll tell ya, there’s just nothing friendlier than the Deep South. We’re just enjoying the heck out of it here.”

Santorum knew he would be warmly received, and the interview was nothing short of a lovefest. Fischer gushed that his wife was a Santorum supporter from back when “being a Rick Santorum fan wasn’t cool,” and Santorum responded in kind: “We appreciate all the help and support. We were in your home town there, Tupelo, yesterday, and had a great reception from folks.

National Republicans make pilgrimages to the most retrograde far right nuts in the land and it's perfectly acceptable to everyone --- including the mainstream media. CNN doesn't invite Right Wing Watch on to talk about it. Except for a few liberal cranks who follow these lunatics, nobody gives a damn.

These right wing extremists are out there spreading their lies and hate on a daily basis and Republican presidential candidates scramble to kiss their rings. But Breitbart's outrage machine drops a completely benign video from 20 years ago and everyone gets all excited. This is the power of the right wing noise machine.

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