Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Something Poisonous Has Taken Root
The Assassins numbers will continue until this bullshit stops.
First it was a half-hearted joke from Mike Huckabee about Barack Obama's fear of assassins. Then it was Hillary Clinton evoking the RFK assassination to say she wasn't out of the race. And now it's this crap.
In case you missed the pertinent part, that was FOX News talking head and former Washington Times bureau chief Liz Trotta saying that it would be nice if someone took out Obama. Of course, it's said with a laugh, which is pretty much a defense mechanism in and of itself ("What, can't you liberals take a joke?").
Mind you, Liz Trotta is supposedly apologetic about all this, but look at that, it's our old friend, the non-apology apology:
“I am so sorry about what happened yesterday with that lame attempt at humor…I just really fell over myself in making it appear that I wished Barack Obama harm or any other candidate for that matter. I sincerely regret it and apologize to anybody I’ve offended. It’s a very colorful political season, and many of us are making mistakes in saying things we wish we hadn’t said.”
"Making it appear"? You didn't make anything appear to be anything else, you idiot, you cracked a clear joke that it would be nice if someone took out Osama bin Laden and Barack Obama in some sort of two-for-one package. At least she says she said something stupid, but she couples it with an apology to "anybody I've offended," which shifts the dialogue away from "I said something stupid" to "I'm sorry you were so offended by my comments."
This is not a joke. There is an honest-to-God fear, thanks to the level of discourse and the rise in the number of hate groups over the past year, that someone will honestly try to assassinate Obama. These comments that play on this fear are not shining pearls of political wisdom, nor are they great examples of wit. They are filthy, dirty tricks that poison the political discourse. On any sane network, Liz Trotta would have been drummed out the door and told never to return before the day was through. But then again, she had the good luck to speak on FOX News.
