Backlash Over Remarks About Shooting Liberals Ends Columnist's Radio Gig
March 15, 2014

It must be an election year, because there's no other reason for wingers who never do anything about their crazies to react to the backlash over Austin Ruse's statement that "liberal professors should just be taken out and shot."

After Mr. Ruse made those remarks, he went back on the radio Thursday and ranted about how meaaaan RightWingWatch was to him.

Ruse started today’s show by explaining that his remarks yesterday weren’t serious and that liberals should “turn to Wikipedia or the Internet, I don’t know if they know how to use the Internet.”

“The pajama boys over at Right Wing Watch have their panties all in a twist about what I said, and I sometimes think that the left is really dumb, these are the low-information voters that make all of these mistakes when they get into the ballot box and all of these mistakes as they go through their lives and one of the reasons is because they are so dumb,” he said.

Low information voters...oh, how they make me laugh. Ruse ranted on:

“These people, these dumb leftists, are really smear merchants, they’re out to hurt, to harm, to isolate,” Ruse said. “They don’t like me, they don’t like you, they don’t like your children, they don’t like anything about you and they want you to basically shut up and go away…. It’s quite astounding what these folks are able to get away with and it’s also astounding how dumb they are.”

And then he took to Twitter and ranted some more. He also spent some time on Facebook ranting, right after deactivated his Twitter account due to "leftist swarm." Mr. Ruse was not a happy camper.

In an abrupt about-face, Ruse issued an apology on Friday, but it was too late. Of course, one might ask why he apologized via a statement to Talking Points Memo instead of directly to the Right Wing Watch folks, but I think we all know the answer to that. And the apology wasn't really to liberal professors, as you'll see:

“I deeply regret and apologize for using the expression 'taken out and shot' on the Sandy Rios Show this week. It was not intended to be taken literally. I have dedicated my life and career to ending violence. I regret that these poorly chosen words are being used to attack my friends at American Family Radio and American Family Association.”

See, professors! He's not a bit sorry that he might have offended you, but he really does feel badly about the backlash directed at American Family Association, which is well known for its consistency when it comes to offensive, gay-bashing, hating statements.

AFA terminated his position as substitute radio host with a terse statement that “AFR condemns such comments, no matter who makes them.”

AFA also allowed that "his comments were “un-Christian.” Gosh, ya think? I spent the last two days looking for that passage in the Bible about how Jesus commanded Christians to hunt down liberals and shoot them. Alas, no luck. So yeah, I'd agree with that.

It's good that they acknowledged how odious his comments were. However, they're certainly not off the hook when they leave wingnuts like Brian Fischer out there with weak disclaimers about how he doesn't speak for them. Either they should clean the whole house, or not bother at all.

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