Beltway Snark

I knew I would stumble upon a blog post like this eventually. I didn’t even go looking for it, it just plopped itself in my RSS reader. I had assumed that the whole Rev. Wright kerfuffle was about Wright’s words, but I was wrong. It’s all because we’re a bunch of no-good racists who are just looking for an excuse to tear down the black man.

Did even a phony like Randall Terry “wriggle” into the spotlight recently when he exploited the hapless Schiavo family? When was the last time anyone can recall the late, unlamented Jerry Falwell described this way by the New York Times? Or Pat Robertson? Or James Dobson? Was John Hagee, McCains bff who loathes Catholics so described?

Now, why do you think that is? It’s not because they’re conservative. The mainstream media is respectful to all religious leaders. Except when they’re black.

Um, I don’t remember anyone in the MSM giving Hagee a free pass, do you? I don’t remember them being kind to Robertson or Falwell either. There’s more:

Put another way, the mainstream press just proved one of Wright’s seemingly most preposterous and narcissistic points. These really aren’t attacks on him, but rather on the black church. What Wright calls the “corporate media” wouldn’t dare characterize a white preacher like this. Ever.

Somebody doesn’t read much, does he?

Assuming that Obama is the nominee, Republicans will make this a one issue campaign: the color of the next president’s skin. Oh, they’ll do it mostly with dog whistles, but they’ll do it. More overtly, McCain’s ad in NC (which, wink wink, he had nothing to do with and actually deplored) was just a trial balloon, a proof of concept. The issue is race, stupid, Wright or not.

…

In truth the rightwing doesn’t have a gouty leg to stand on when it comes to race, unless Democrats are prepared to provide them with the crutch of refusing to address the issue forthrightly. What the Republicans (and their media enablers) are really saying is that Jeremiah Wright is evidence that blacks aren’t “ready to govern.” Rest assured that if it wasn’t Wright, they would just find someone else’s words to distort, someone just as unsettling to “the American people” to hang around Obama’s neck.

And yes, that is exactly what is going on right now: Republicans are seeking to lynch Obama by using Wright as the rope. And with or without this particular rope, they’re still going to find a way to lynch Obama (if we continue to let them). The more that Democrats and liberals seek to “distance” themselves from the issue of race - which is what Wright is all about, not that some of his ideas or batty, or he’s a raging egomaniac - the tauter the noose.

The Obamamanics really will make excuses for anything that might hurt Obama. Even the crap that comes out of Rev. Wright’s mouth. I wonder what they’ll say when Obama finally disavows him?