I was going to say the left has now officially hit rock bottom. But it's still a long way to Election Day for the desperate Dems . . .
On this evening's Ed Show, trial-lawyer guest Mike Papantonio accused Glenn Beck and the Koch brothers of consciously plotting, via Beck's DC rally, to provoke race riots.
In Papantonio's fevered imagination, the Beck-Koch axis is attempting to recreate the race riots of 1968 . .
MIKE PAPANTONIO: There's no difference. If you even look at the money that's behind the tea-bagger movement, it's the same money that was behind the Richard Nixon movement, the fear movement, that took place back then.
ED SCHULTZ: So you would say, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, is this about self-promotion for the guy who's organizing this, or is it really about restoring honor?
PAPANTONIO: Well it has nothing about restoring honor. It's a bunch of inheritance--here, if you follow the money, Ed, it's about inheritance babies, the Koch brothers, inheritance babies, who don't want to pay taxes, they want conservatives in power. The way you get conservatives in power is to scare the hell out of Americans. I'll tell you what Glenn Beck is hoping. He's hoping that two blocks away from the Lincoln Memorial, that African-Americans are going to be so angry about what he's done on that important day, when Martin--Martin Luther King stood up and gave the most important speech of his career. And here you have this buffoon, this demagogue, that's going to be preaching hate. What does that do to the African-Americans that are two blocks away, listening to this hate speech?
Any way you dress it up, Sarah Palin can't help herself. Glenn Beck can't help himself. But you know what? They're not the money behind all this. The money behind this are the Koch brothers who put $100 million into spreading hate in this country. And they want the same divisiveness, they the same ugliness that we saw in the Watts riots to emerge, so the next conservative movement can come into power. It's the same blueprint, Ed. I promise you: it's the same blueprint.
Mike seems awfully interested in "money," mentioning it four times in his rant. Not surprising from a trial-lawyer promoting big class action lawsuits stemming from the BP spill. As for the "self-promotion" that Schultz decries, Papantonio's incessant Ed Show appearances are little less than infomercials for his legal services. All of that didn't stop Papantonio from slurring Beck, the Koch brothers, and by extension the Tea Party movement [that he twice called "tea-baggers"] as attempting to provoke race riots.
This is what the Dems, and their backers in the trial bar, have been reduced to, facing electoral disaster down the line.
Note: the Koch brothers, libertarian-oriented conservatives, have become a favorite whipping boy of the left. Have a look at P.J. Gladnick's piece for a description of the way The New Yorker slimed them.
