Tempest in a Teapot

A write-in entry for Quote of the Week:

"His only success in one year as president is taking America apart piece by piece. Could it be 20 years of 'subconscious programming' from Reverend Wright to damn America?"

That's method actor and raving lunatic Jon Voight addressing the latest Astroturf gathering of the loudest and craziest voices in what Redmond over at Cesca's site has humorously dubbed "The Party of WTF?" In case you haven't heard because, you know, there's real honest-to-God news going on today, hundreds of Tea Baggers stormed the Capitol this morning at the prodding of Republican leadership (an important point to keep in mind) to prove once again the staggering ease with which fear can be used to get America's ever-reliable dumb-ass contingent to angrily rally against its own best interests.

They came. They waved their arms wildly. They shouted about the evils of Barack Obama's socialist health care reform plan. They gnashed their teeth. A few of them got dragged off in zip-cuffs.

But what's worth pointing out and circulating far and wide is not simply the overall tone of some of the oh-so-classy messages on the signs these assholes were proudly brandishing, but the responses of a few GOP lawmakers -- ostensibly rational, intelligent people -- to all the reactionary hate-speech on display.

Among the best (worst), according to NBC News's experiment in posthumous nepotism, Luke Russert:

"Get the Red Out of the White House."

"Waterboard Congress"

"Traitor to the U.S. Constitution" (with an image of Barack Obama on the sign)

"Ken-Ya Trust Obama?" (a sign which was personally autographed by a smiling Rep. Steve King of Iowa)

"Un-American McCarthyite" (with a picture of Pelosi)

"I'm the King of the World: Remember the Titanic?" (with, get this, a drawing of Obama in the mold of the "Jovial Sambo" from the Jim Crow era doing the Leo-and-Kate-on-the-bow-of-the-Titanic pose)

Now do yourself a favor and compare and contrast this kind of willfully ignorant and eminently vicious political feeding frenzy with last month's protest against the meeting of the American Bankers Association in Chicago -- that would be the one where hundreds of equally outraged, but infinitely better informed, people carried signs with slogans like "Put People First," "Reclaim America," "Jail 'Em, Don't Bail 'Em," and "Hold Banks Accountable."

See the difference?