In a Saturday afternoon tweet, former Bill Clinton campaign strategist and former CNN talking head Paul Begala showed that he's quite a confused guy concerning Los Angeles Clippers' owner Donald Sterling. Sterling, as noted previously (here and here), has been caught on tape chiding a person who is apparently his girlfriend for "taking pictures with minorities" and "associating with black people." Sterling sees her as a "delicate" "Latina or white girl" who shouldn't "associate with black people." He asks her not to bring black people, including NBA legend Magic Johnson, to games.
Given these developments, Begala gave a "friendly tip" to several conservatives and Republicans, specifically talk radio's Sean Hannity and GOP Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. In the process, he betrayed a likely need to broaden his media consumption habits beyond the liberal bubble. Begala's tweet follows the jump:
Not to worry, good buddy. Hannity, Paul, and Cruz won't be manning the ramparts for Donald Sterling any time soon.
At the time of Begala's tweet, it was already known for five hours or so (HT Ed Driscoll at PJ Media) that Sterling is a Democratic Party contributor who was until about 48 hours ago a bigtime pal of the archliberal Los Angeles branch of the NAAACP, which was scheduled to give him a lifetime achievement award (since withdrawn) at its 100th anniversary gala on May 15.
The blowback and ridicule directed at Begala from other tweeters was entertaining (partial HT to Twitchy):
"Sean the Producer" — "You may want to tell the NAACP to stop giving him Lifetime Achievement awards... considering he's a Democrat."
J. Robin Casey — "@PaulBegala demand NAACP take back award and give Democrat Sterling's money back...waiting...waiting. Do it. Just do it! Come on, man."
Empress Middle Shelf: "Bite me. Your kind reminds us of why we are not liberal dems."
This afternoon, Begala made a pathetic attempt at a recovery, tweeting: "I don't care if he's a Dem or Repub, I've denounced him. Where were you on Bundy?" The answer is that you can support somebody's right to keep his land and his previously granted grazing rights without endorsing him entirely. The same can't be said for a party whose candidates accept a man's political donations, or an organization supposedly dedicated to improved race relations which plans to give a lifetime achievement reward to a person who has a problem with his acquaintances associating with any member of an entire racial group.
Don't worry, Paul. The establishment press probably won't point out your pathetic ignorance, so your exposure will likely be limited to the center-right alternative media, as usual, doing their job for them.
But you really ought to broaden your horizons if you want to claim to be truly informed. Doing so will prevent blunders like your Sterling-Republican tweet from recurring.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
