Michelle Malkin

After calling for politicians and political commentators to tone down violent and hateful political rhetoric, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik is now experiencing himself the force of right-wing hostility and rancor. Dupnik never suggested that the deeply disturbed shooter was directly influenced by political debate, but called into question the use of vicious rhetoric and violent imagery that has become all too commonplace in political discourse today. “The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country,” Dupnik said, “is getting to be outrageous.” After facing a preliminary assault yesterday, now Dupnik is facing an all-out barrage from the Right.

Drudge Report is claiming that Dupnik blamed Rush Limbaugh for the attack:

'SHERIFF' BLAMES RUSH LIMBAUGH FOR MASSACRE?

Actually, Dupnik asserted that Limbaugh “attacks people, angers them against government, angers them against elected officials,” but never blamed Limbaugh. Now Limbaugh is responding, saying, “This sheriff out there, Sheriff Dupnik, you know, this guy, he's gotta be very careful. If I were him I wouldn't say another word about this….But the sheriff is out saying that everybody but the kid's responsible for this.” Limbaugh went on to say that “He has taken the occasion of this, a law enforcement officer, to politicize it, to advance his own political agenda, which he claims he doesn't even have.” Limbaugh then implied that the Sheriff may be botching the investigation of the case in order to cover his own failure to stop the shooting:

The shooter did what he did in your community! You're in charge of keeping that community safe, Sheriff. What did you do? Was this the first time you heard about the shooter or did you have knowledge of the shooter before this? I would wager that the sheriff knew of this shooter long before this event, but the sheriff has gone ahead now with these comments, and he's given... He has given the defense a case. My guess is the sheriff wouldn't mind president shooter's acquitted. After all, it's not the shooter's fault! If you carry the sheriff's logic all the way out.

David Limbaugh, Rush’s brother and a conservative commentator, slammed Dupnik for not having “a scintilla of proof to support his slander,” Allahpundit of the popular right-wing blog HotAir called Dupnik “a ludicrous political hack and a disgrace to his office,” and Michelle Malkin dismissed him as a “pro-illegal alien amnesty sheriff.” The Heritage Foundation accused the Sheriff of using “this tragedy for political gain” and the Media Research Center was riled that Tom Brokaw “praised Sheriff Dupnik of Pima County, Ariz. for condemning political vitriol.”

Of course, any time Rush Limbaugh is on the defensive a Republican congressman must get involved. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) told the Associated Press that Dupnik is an “irresponsible” sheriff: “I don’t see any link whatsoever at this point between vitriolic discourse and someone plowing down his fellow citizens. I think frankly it's irresponsible of the sheriff to say that.” Like Limbaugh, Rep. Kingston tried to put the onus on the sheriff: “If the local jurisdiction knew about this guy, there's a question to me of this sheriff who's so quick to condemn vitriolic political discourse ... how come he missed it?”

If you would like to show your support for Sheriff Dupnik, please take a moment to sign a letter of solidarity with him against the increasing smears he is facing from the Right.

Yesterday, People For the American Way released our latest Right Wing Watch In Focus entitled "(P)reviewing the Right-Wing Playbook on Immigration Reform" which lays out the attacks the Right used to fight efforts at immigration reform in the past and will undoubtedly deploy again the issue is taken up by Congress in the near future: 

The public debate over comprehensive immigration reform in 2006 and 2007 was marked by appalling anti-immigrant rhetoric and was accompanied by a rise in anti-Latino hate crimes tracked by the FBI. In a report last year, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights called "the legitimization and mainstreaming of virulently anti-immigrant rhetoric" one of the "most disturbing developments of the past few years." Among the pundits promoting "fear and loathing" on cable television was Glenn Beck, who said "our country is on fire, and the fuel is illegal immigration." Since then, the swine flu scare and the deep economic recession in the United States have given right-wing opponents of comprehensive immigration reform new fuel for inflaming anti-immigrant and anti-Latino sentiment. In September 2008, for instance, right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin even blamed "illegal immigrants" for the mortgage crisis.

The 2006-2007 push for comprehensive immigration reform was supported by the Bush administration, much of America's business and labor establishments, and congressional leaders from both parties. But in spite of that broad support, the passage of reform was derailed by right-wing pundits who inflamed anti-immigrant sentiment, some members of Congress who gleefully participated in the fearmongering, and others who were simply afraid to resist it.

In October 2008, the Anti-Defamation League criticized anti-immigrant groups for utilizing the strategies of hate groups and "resorting to hateful and dehumanizing stereotypes and outright bigotry to demonize immigrants." To the categories identified by the ADL we can now add demagoguery over the swine flu virus and exploitation of the nation's economic woes.

Here is a review of the rhetorical strategies used to inflame anti-immigrant sentiment and build political opposition to comprehensive immigration reform.

The report lays out nine specifc attacks the Right has used in the past to kill immigration reform legislation:

1: Appeal to Racial Fear and The 'Brown' Threat to 'White' America - "What is happening to us? An immigrant invasion of the United States from the Third World, as America's white majority is no longer even reproducing itself." - Pat Buchanan

2: Appeal to Racial Resentment by Portraying Immigrant Rights Advocates as Racists -- "[NCLR is] the Ku Klux Klan of the Hispanic people" - Michael Savage

3: Portray Immigrants and Their Supporters as Invaders, Conquerors, Enemies of the U.S. - "The homegrown multiculti-mau-mau-ers know exactly what they believe, and they know exactly what they are doing. They aim to mainstream the 'Stolen Land' mantra and pervert history. They aim to obliterate America's borders by sheer demographic and political force." - Michelle Malkin

4: Portray Immigrants as Criminals and Terrorists - "Illegal immigration" is a "slow-motion Holocaust," and a "slow-motion terrorist attack on the United States." - Congressman Steve King

5: Portray Immigrants as Carriers of Disease and Weapons of Bio-Terrorism - "The next time you eat in a restaurant or sleep in a hotel or motel....just remember to bring your own food, dishes, untensils [sic], glasses, towels, and maybe your own water. The person who cooked your meal or made your bed may very well be the one who picked your fruit and vegetables, yesterday....and we've heard the stories about what they do in the fields....haven't we?" - Mothers Against Illegal Aliens

6: Stop Reform by Shouting 'Amnesty' - "'Comprehensive' is the code word for amnesty." - Pat Buchanan

7: Denigrate Reform Efforts as Vote-Buying -- "The Democrats know it's to their advantage to bring in Third World hordes who will one day become Democratic voters." - Rick Scarborough

8: Portray Anti-Immigrant Stance as 'Pro-Worker' (While Voting Against Worker Interests) -- "If they were not in the country, we wouldn't have to worry about emergency room or health insurance costs at all. And Americans would have these jobs." - Congressman Virgil Goode

9: Push Divisive Black-Brown Wedge - "[Illegal immigration is] the greatest threat to black people since slavery." - Ted Hayes

For those who are committed to passing much-needed immigration reform, it is vital to know the various strategies used by anti-immigrant, right-wing activists in the past ... and that is exactly what our latest report seeks to chronicle and analyze.

Following up on the post from earlier today regarding Michelle Malkin's appearance on James Dobson's radio program, it turned out that most of the discussion revolved around Obama, taxes, healthcare, czars, and every other right-wing talking point.  But there was one interesting revelation regarding Malkin's recent move to Colorado Springs, CO from the "swamp" that is Washington, DC.

Malkin revealed that the move had been made for the benefit of her family and that, as a result, she had had to give up some of her more high-profile television opportunities, at which point Dobson chimed in to note that she is still doing a lot of television appearances and that, when she does, she utilizes the studios at Focus on the Family headquarters:

Dobson: You're still on television a lot, aren't you?

Malkin: Yes.

Dobson: And you do some of that right here from this ministry.

Malkin: Yes, it is such a blessing ...

Dobson: So when you're seen now on Fox News, you're probably broadcasting uplink from one of our studios.

Malkin: That's exactly right. And you have a wonderful staff here and, it's just, I feel at home.

Human Events may want to take an adult education class in headline writing. This morning, Michelle Malkin, a right-wing blogger and "journalist", was on the Today show with Matt Lauer to discuss her new book, "Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies."

The conservative website, Human Events, posted the video on their website with the headline "Lauer Loses Cool During Malkin Interview." It seemed rather odd that Lauer, a guy who usually seems pretty level-headed, would "lose his cool", on national television nonetheless. After reviewing the video, however, there isn't even a fleeting moment in which Lauer does anything that resembles a loss of temper.

Even when Malkin calls President Obama a "racial opportunist" and Michelle Obama "the first crony", Lauer simply restates what Malkin said and asks how she can justify such sweeping, broad based claims. Malkin goes even further by attacking Lindsey Graham's desire for more diversity in the Republican Party:

"I think Lindsay Graham has a history of pandering to this idea that somehow the party should broaden itself for the sake of pandering to diversity."

Here's the video, get ready for Lauer's "insane" outbursts:

Rather than misrepresenting the content of an article for the sake of your own columnist, maybe Human Events should work on writing some more accurate headlines.

Last week we noted how, right out of the gate, one of the Right’s primary talking points in justifying its immediate opposition top President Obama’s first judicial nominee, was that he was a fundraiser for ACORN and that his nomination was “payback” to the organization.

Of course, as it turned out, Hamilton’s “ties” to ACORN consisted entirely of a one-month stint as a canvasser for the organization thirty years ago.

But that hasn’t stopped Hamilton’s supposed ties to ACORN from becoming a central focus on the Right’s mounting opposition, as it is working its way into Fox News’ coverage of his nomination and continues to be cited, with Robert Stacy McCain predicting that it is only a matter of time before the ACORN-obsessed Michelle Malkin learns about it, saying we’re in “gasket-blowing countdown mode [before] Mt. Malkin erupts.”

To her credit, Malkin has yet to take that bait, as far as we can tell, but the same cannot be said for Ed Messe, Tony Perkins, David McIntosh, TK Cribb, and Alfred Regnery, who issued a joint statement opposing Hamilton’s nomination which placed his “ties” to ACORN at top of their list of objections:

Judge Hamilton is committed to an extreme political agenda.

• Hamilton is a former ACLU leader who lent his legal skills to the far-left special interest group.

• He was a fundraiser for the liberal activist group ACORN, the sponsor of the most comprehensive criminal voter fraud campaign in American history.

It seems pretty clear that Hamilton’s short-lived, age-old ties are going to remain a centerpiece of the Right’s opposition to his nomination – opposition that is becoming nearly universal among right-wing groups who work on the issue, judging by this article on Focus on the Family’s website:

Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice, called that a bad sign.

"If this was just one extreme liberal among a bunch of moderate picks that would be OK," he said. "The problem is that the administration is touting this as an example of how moderate their picks will be. If this is what the Obama administration considers 'moderate' then I think the nation is in trouble."

Wendy Long, counsel for the Judicial Confirmation Network, agreed Hamilton is no moderate.

"Hamilton appears, from our initial study, to have made rulings that show his willingness to bend the law to reach outcomes that would be favored by the ACLU, which are inconsistent with the proper role of a judge," she said. "If this is an example of what the White House thinks is a 'moderate judge,' I would shudder to think of what they think a 'liberal' judge looks like.

"If (Obama) continues in this vein, I think there will be a political price to pay in 2010."

Ed Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said that people need to understand Obama's agenda.

"It's a radical agenda that would dramatically restrict American citizens' power to self government," he said. "What people need to do is wake up … because if not the courts are going to be transformed in the direction of liberal judicial activism, and the courts will be governing everything in this country."

Hamilton has the support of both of his home-state senators, including Republican Richard Lugar, as well as the support of the president of the local chapter of the Federalist Society, but that apparently doesn’t matter as right-wing judicial activists are committed to waging a battle over judicial nominations, beginning with the very first nominee.

The American Family Association’s One News Now is a “news” service in the same way that Fox is “fair and balanced.”  Remember, One News Now is the outfit that published stories about “Tyson Homosexual” because they were so opposed to using the word “gay.”  ONN’s “Daily News Briefs” have become a one-stop shop of wing-nuttery. Today it was also a victim of bad timing

In addition to getting to hear multiple jokes about Al Gore’s purported energy consumption, listen to Ben Shapiro allege that “the Left” will eventually claim that there is a right to child molestation or Rep. Jeb Hensarling repeatedly refer to the “Democrat” majority in Congress, and maybe spy Michelle Malkin blogging away at the “Bloggers Corner,” there is lots to see and experience at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

For instance, if you are lucky, you get to sit next to college-age women who applaud wildly when the speaker on stage vows to kill efforts to publicly finance elections before turning to their friends and asking “who is that?” (It’s Sen. Mitch McConnell.)  Or you get to watch White House spokesperson Tony Snow deliver a rousing, patriotic speech claiming that the GOP’s devastating election losses in November was due to conservatives ”reminding” corrupt elected officials that government service is a privilege and crowing to the right-wing crowd about all the great things President Bush has done, like passage of Medicare prescription drug coverage – something which CPAC’s host, the American Conservative Union, and pretty much everyone else on the Right hates.   And then you get to watch the capacity crowd jump to its feet to give Snow a standing ovation.  

When you are leaving, you might get to stand in line next to grown man sporting an “I Told Hillary Where to Stick It” sticker on his suit and if you happen to step outside, you might catch a glimpse of G. Gordon Liddy and his driver climbing into a truck displaying “XFBI” vanity license plates.  

Later, you get to watch Sen. Arlen Specter attempt to convince a sparse but hostile crowd that he shares a great many of their right-wing positions and has been good on the issue of judges, and then witness him receive his only real ovations when he mocks Sen. Ted Kennedy’s weight and mentions how much he misses Sen. Rick Santorum.   

But most importantly, you get to see GOP presidential hopefuls pulling out all the stops in hopes of winning the CPAC straw poll:  

The straw poll at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference beginning here Thursday has never played a pivotal role in a Republican presidential primary. But the Mitt Romney campaign nonetheless is paying for three vans, scores of registration fees and at least a half-dozen hotel rooms to pack collegiate supporters into the event.

The turnout drive — 10 months before the first primary — is the latest sign of both the early start and bulging budgets of the 2008 presidential campaign. But the conference may be especially important to Mr. Romney, who is trying to reassure social conservatives that his views have shifted to the right from some of the liberal positions he took as the governor of Massachusetts.

The Romney camp’s efforts were certainly noticeable at the event, with students in Romney t-shirts seemingly standing at every corner handing out invitations to a “Romney Reception With Special Guest Grover Norquist” and all around making their presence felt.  Supporters of Sen. Sam Brownback were also out in full force, along with a few Tom Tancredo supporters sporting cowboy hats and TheVanguard.org stickers, as well as a lone women with a hand written “Write in Condi Rice” sign.

But for all of Romney’s planning, he couldn’t prevent the appearance of someone dressed in a dolphin costume going by the name “Flip Romney”:

“Flip” was all over the place, generating lots of attention while he slammed Romney’s record and handed out flyers with the heading “Pro-Life Students Against Flip-Floppers from Massachusetts” that, in actuality, came from the Rightmarch.com PAC.

And that is just Day 1, before Sen. Jim Inhofe has even had a chance to presumably tell those in attendance that Global Warming is a crock, or Mychal Massie has had an opportunity explain his “Conservative Solutions for Urban America” and maybe call diversity “Hitlerian,” or Ann Coulter wows the capacity crowd with her witticisms such as “we need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals by making them realize that they could be killed.”