CNN's Rick Sanchez speaks to his rather C-List panel of Pink Magazine's Cynthia Good, the Southern Political Report's Tom Baxter and White House Adviser on Asian Affairs Baoky N. Vu on whether Rep. Steve King's ignorant and hate-filled comments that al Qaeda would be dancing in the streets over an Barack Obama presidency. While none of the panel are particularly convinced that this will resonate with voters, neither are they horrified by this kind of remark being furthered by an elected official of the United States. Baxter feels that it's on Obama to disavow King's statements rather than the world to condemn King.

Really? That's what it's come to. Republican idiots who say things like this...

If he were strong on national defense and said ‘I’m going to go over there and we’re going to fight and we’re going to win, we’ll come home with a victory,’ that’s different. But that’s not what he said. They will be dancing in the streets if he’s elected president. That has a chilling aspect on how difficult it will be to ever win this Global War on Terror.”

...get a free pass from explaining what "victory" mean, both in Iraq (presumably, King is conflating things so much it's not completely clear) and in the "Global War on Terror" (much less explain exactly how you declare war on a tactic), and say something so inflammatory and so full of ignorance of absolutely anything Muslim, but Barack Obama has to declare for the 423rd time that he is a Christian to assuage all those who may be fearful of his Arabic middle name (which was his grandfather's)?

As Juan Cole points out, King's whole premise is an affront to the intelligence of all people. You are not less American simply by virtue of having a name that is Arabic in origin. Would King dare question the patriotism of Gen. Omar Bradley, Gen. John Abizaid, Rep. Darrell Issa, or Secretary Donna Shalala?

So how about it, Rick Sanchez? How about asking if there is any room for this kind of naked bigotry in America in the 21st century instead?