This interview Susie wrote about, in which Eric Cantor (R-VA) implies the House Republican caucus has an anti-Semitism problem, is indeed fascinating. But what Cantor actually says is just as interesting as what he didn't say.

“I think that all of us know that in this country, we’ve not always gotten it right in terms of racial matters, religious matters, whatever. We continue to strive to provide equal treatment to everybody. But to sit here and say in America that we've got it all right now, I think that pretty much all of us can say we've still got work to do."

Whoops. Not according to Herman Cain.

“I don't believe racism in this country today holds anybody back in a big way,” Cain said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Or Ann Coulter.

"We don't have racism in America anymore."

Or Dennis Prager.

Most Americans were hopeful that the election of a black president -- thereby making America the first white society in history to choose a black leader -- would finally put to rest the myth of a racist America.

Or John Hawkins.

“Conservatives don't think racism is a major problem in America, they don't consider themselves to be racist, and they believe most complaints of racism in politics are made for extremely cynical reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with bigotry.”

It is an article of faith among right-wingers that racism isn't a problem (unless, of course, it's against white people) in America, making Cantor's admission heresy.

Careful there, Eric. Keep this up and you'll get Teabagged in November.

Sensen no Sen: Dennis Prager, Mendacious Hack

Rumproast: The giant teeter-totter of racism.

What About Our Daughters: Action-oriented citizens put up billboards about missing Black women.

Facing South: The politics behind Lindsay Graham's vote for Sotomayor

Jonestown: But hey! If Obama wanted to wipe out seniors, he could find a more cost-effective way than this healthcare reform rigamarole!

As Paul Krugman pointed out, if you're a right winger --no matter what crazy, f*&ked up thought you utter, it's A-OK.

Case in point is wingnut extraordinare Dennis Prager. Here's a sample:

The subject is one of the most common problems that besets marriages: the wife who is not in the mood and the consequently frustrated and hurt husband.

It gets more preposterous from there. In right-wing culture, it's always the ladies that are at fault.

This is a major reason many husbands clam up. A man whose wife frequently denies him sex will first be hurt, then sad, then angry, then quiet. And most men will never tell their wives why they have become quiet and distant. They are afraid to tell their wives. They are often made to feel ashamed of their male sexual nature, and they are humiliated (indeed emasculated) by feeling that they are reduced to having to beg for sex.

I think James Dobson has it wrong. It's right-wing freaks like Prager who want to destroy the institution of marriage. Yet this nut is a frequent guest on CNN. Why does he get the megaphone that he does?

But, to repeat the key point, rejection of sex should happen infrequently. And it should almost never be dependent on mood -- see Part II next week.

5. I know this and that's why I rarely say no to my husband.

This is a wise woman. She knows a sexually fulfilled husband is a happy husband. (At the same time, men need to recognize that complete sexual fulfillment is unattainable in this world.) And because a happy husband loves his wife more, this cycle of love produces a happy home.

Nice wife, good wife, fulfill me when I want so I am happy. WTF does any of this drivel mean? He makes Dr. Phil almost bearable.

Pandagon lets loose.

(24 minute video--critical quote at 6:00)

Self-dubbed "The Three Tenors" of talk radio (a bad analogy, as the actual Three Tenors were talented and at the top of their field, and these jokers are...well, you know, hacks), Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt and Michael Medved went to Minnesota to stump for the trio of Michelle Bachmann, Norm Coleman and Erik Paulsen. Prager apparently has a rather different reading of the Constitution than most people:

Prager, who calls Bachmann a “wonderful, wonderful extraordinary human being,” addressed the brouhaha by telling how he would’ve dealt with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews — by asking Matthews if he believes there are “American values” in the first place; if Matthews agrees, then “logic 1.1″ dictates that some people must hold anti-American values.

He added that both parties once upheld the “American value system” — the Democrats in the era of Kennedy and Truman — but the “Sixties Generation, the radicals, have taken over one of our two parties. They must be stopped!” People who “vote blue,” he added, “don’t know they’re voting radical.”

No fan of the Enlightenment, Prager added, “Equality, which is the primary value of the left, is a European value, not an American value.”

Wow. So I guess that Congress was being oh so continental when they wrote this:

Amendment XIV

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Remind me again who hates American values?

Just in time for Memorial Day, the Fox News comedy flop "The 1/2 Hour News Hour" finds a way to avoid being funny AND insult America and the troops. Check out xenophobe Dennis Prager hawking a set of decorative plates commemorating the "Road To Surrender." Using people who are trying to save lives and bring peace and stability to Iraq as punchlines is not funny, it's disgusting.

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Right Wing Talk radio had been chock full of vile for a long time now...(Read the full post)....Digby:

The discourse that everyone is so shocked to see is now uncivil and "nasty" was polluted decades ago by a bunch of rich, white businessmen who saw that they could make a very nice profit at exploiting the lizard brain of the American rightwing and help their political cause at the same time. The media thought it was all in good fun (and good for their bosses) just as they do today.

read on

I almost forgot about the laughable Hugh Hewitt's claim with Blitzer:

HEWITT: "No, that's not right, because talk radio, when you look at Rush, at Sean, at myself, at Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, we all conduct ourselves appropriately on the air, or the FCC will smack -- smite -- smack us down.---So, I think what we have got is basically a monopoly on responsible new media on the center-right side, and talk radio is responsible new media, even though that fever swamp on the left, the Michael Moore-disease-ridden Democrats on the left, they don't want to admit that, so they won't. But, in fact, talk radio is quite responsible."

Cenk Uygur from The Young Turks was on Paula Zahn to talk about the the needless firestorm surrounding Rep. Keith Ellison taking his oath on the Quran.

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Cenk: "Our real enemy isn't Islam, because if it is we have a real problem. That is a billion people we have to fight. Our real enemy are the fundamentalists, the extremists."

If we could only get people like Dennis Prager and Virgil Goode to understand this very simple logic, then we would be doing a lot better in this country and in the opinion of the world.

Update: You can see the entire debate at The Young Turks.

Will Dennis Prager and Virgil Goode now call the Founding Father responsible for the Declaration of Independence a terrorist-lover?

WaPo:

Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, found himself under attack last month when he announced he'd take his oath of office on the Koran -- especially from Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, who called it a threat to American values.

Yet the holy book at tomorrow's ceremony has an unassailably all-American provenance. We've learned that the new congressman -- in a savvy bit of political symbolism -- will hold the personal copy once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

NPR interviewed Mark Dimunation of the Library of Congress about Jefferson's book.

earthfamilyalpha: Peace on Earth

TalkLeft: The emptiest media suit offers up more nonsense

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Modern Republicanism

Taylor Marsh: Russert picks two rightwing white guys to talk about faith on Christmas eve morning. No liberals, no minorities, and sure-as-hell, no women.

WINGNUTS GONE WILD: A National Review Christmas....Every bed-wetting blogger on the far fringes has fairly leapt to embrace the bellicose propaganda of terrorists and other Muslim extremists...

HOLY CRAP: Sun Myung Moon, Emperor of the Universe...The governing counsel of the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, of which Dennis Prager is a member, issued a statement saying Prager's recent comments about Bibles and Korans were "antithetical to the mission of the Museum as an institution promoting tolerance and respect for all peoples regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity"....Mikey Weinstein is the founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which has taken the lead on calling the Christianists out on their coercive evangelization, and their denial of the separation of church and state enshrined in our Constitition. And not only is this a Consitutional issue, it’s a national security issue.

The bigotry targeted against Ellison has been incredible. Dennis Prager kicked it off with a disgusting display and was followed up by Virgil Goode who hasn't backed down. The wingnuts have been eating heaping spoon fulls of Zombie brains. Ellison spoke out against it today.

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BLITZER: All right. Let me read for our viewers who may not be all that familiar with what Virgil Goode actually wrote to his constituents back on December 7th. Among other things, he said, "If American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration, there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran."

And you just heard our Brian Todd. He's on the scene. He says Virgil Goode is not backing away from that at all. What's your reaction?

ELLISON: My reaction?

BLITZER: Yes, what's your reaction, Congressman-elect?

ELLISON: Oh, yes, Wolf, I think that, you know, diversity of our country is a great strength. It's a good thing that we have people from all faiths and all cultures that come here. And we all support one Constitution, one Constitution that upholds our right to equal protection, one Constitution that guarantees us due process under the law, one Constitution which says that there is no religious test for elected office in America.

So the document that is the bedrock of our democracy expressly prohibits applying any religious test, and I think that diversity in our nation is a great thing and we should embrace it, not be afraid of it.

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