October 10, 2008
BY MARY MITCHELL Sun-Times Columnist
When you step on a pig's tail, it squeals. Rush Limbaugh is a squealer.
And why is he squealing?
Because John McCain and Sarah Palin are losing ground in a contest that they thought was theirs.
And they are losing it to a black man.
Of course, Limbaugh won't say that. Instead, on Thursday he spent his time berating me for saying Palin needs to apologize for inciting crowds that hurled racial epithets at black members of the press.
I'm a "wuss, wimp columnist," Limbaugh says.
So why would a multimillion-dollar squealer use his air time on a "wuss and a wimp?"
The reason Limbaugh is squealing like the pig he is, is because he's the epitome of white privilege.
He can't wrap his small mind around the fact that Barack Obama is kicking McCain's butt in the polls.
To make matters worse, how dare a black woman ask a white woman who is on the GOP ticket to apologize for the inappropriate behavior of her supporters?
But my position is really a no-brainer.
Whenever a crowd gets whipped up to the point that they turn ugly and start hurling racist insults, it is common sense that the candidate moves to rein it in.
But McCain is so desperate to win, he's feeding off of those angry crowds.
Come on.
The squealer was among the first to demand that Barack Obama (Barack, Rush, not Barry) denounce his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for comments deemed offensive to white people.
I repeat. Had Obama fans acted a fool the way McCain fans did, every pundit -- with the squealer leading the way -- would have demanded he offer some kind of apology.
I'm the "racist nutball," but the squealer is the one who has made a fortune ridiculing black people at every opportunity.
I confess.
I don't listen to Limbaugh. Another journalist called me and told me he was on the radio tearing me limb from limb.
One good turn deserves another, Mr. Limbaugh, so please have your people in Chicago tune in to V-103 on Sunday between 6 and 8 a.m., and I'll return the favor.
But just in case you don't recall who Limbaugh is, he's the fat guy who got hooked on painkillers and had to go to rehab -- sort of like my girl, Amy Winehouse.
As I noted in a column I wrote in 2003 (the real source of the squeals I'm now hearing, since Limbaugh didn't address a single issue I raised in the column he attacked), despite Limbaugh's drug addiction, he was still allowed to return to his popular radio show.
That, my friends, is white privilege.
Limbaugh likes to rant about the "liberal media." What does he call me, a "drive-by journalist?"
Well, maybe I should have driven by his studio in 2003 when he was using his hired help like a common drug mule, and broken that story.
Like most people who get drunk on white privilege, Limbaugh likes to project his bigotry on others.
So now I'm the racist, and he wants me to lose my job. Well, stand in line.
There are people ahead of you who can't stomach the idea that I can say Sarah Palin makes me sick.
She does.
The potential elevation of Palin into the second-highest position in the country shows that we have finally sunk as low as we can go.
While conservatives like the squealer can't get enough of ridiculing black youth for honoring bling bling over intellect, what did they think McCain was doing when he tapped Palin for VP?
It didn't matter that she is probably the most inarticulate politician ever to step up to the microphone. She had the right amount of quirkiness and naughtiness to draw in the "American Idol" and reality TV crowd.
I get it.
But I have a voice, too. And all of Limbaugh's bluster and all the calls of his rabid followers won't be enough to silence me when bigoted bullies are running amuck.
Besides, I'm not running for VP. Limbaugh's sorry-ass Palin is.
If Limbaugh wants to spend his time trying to bully me, as they say in my neighborhood, bring it.
**************************McCain, Palin turn to risky politics
Silence on abusive crowds more bigot than maverick
October 9, 2008
BY MARY MITCHELL Sun-Times Columnist
If John McCain loses the election, he'll have Sarah Palin to thank. His VP pick may be good for a few laughs on "Saturday Night Live." She may have sold a warehouse of eyeglasses.
But her recent acid-tongued attack on Barack Obama in which she accused him of "palling around with terrorists" is not only a turn-off, but dangerous.
Although conventional wisdom seems to suggest that negative campaigning works, I noticed during Tuesday night's debate between Obama and McCain that CNN's likability meter sank each time Obama and McCain got personal.
And despite Palin's steady stream of hateful speech, Obama's poll numbers have gone up, while McCain's supporters are growing antsy.
During the final stretch of this long campaign, Palin has been unleashed like the pit bull she likes to compare herself to.
Together, McCain and Palin have managed to bring out the worst behavior that I've witnessed in a presidential campaign.
For instance, at a Monday rally in Fort Myers, Fla., Palin told her fans that Obama "launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist."
She was referring to '60s radical Bill Ayers, a man who, like a lot of people who came of age in the tumultuous Vietnam era, is now part of the establishment.
He teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago, lives in the trendy Hyde Park neighborhood and sits on several civic boards.
Obama was a child when Ayers was heading up a radical group known as the Weather Underground.
But Palin has good instincts.
As preposterous as her accusation was, it played to the fears of white voters who believe that Obama is too different from them to win the White House, but don't want to admit that they are prejudiced against him because he is black.
After all, who in their right mind would blame them for rejecting a candidate who may have embraced terrorists?
A Washington Post reporter who was on the campaign trail also noted that Palin's attacks on the media have sparked some ugliness.
Dana Milbank reported that the press was taunted by the crowd after Palin blamed the mainstream media for her abysmal performances in interviews.
"At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African-American sound man . . . and told him, "Sit down, boy."
At another point during her rant, Palin cited a New York Times article that described Ayers as "part of a group that quote 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,' " she rattled off as if she was talking about 9/11.
That brought a loud "Kill him!" from an unidentified man in the audience.
Kill who?
Had Obama supporters behaved as badly, he would not have heard the end of it.
It should not be OK for a presidential or vice presidential candidate to incite people to engage in abusive behavior.
What I find ironic is it is often members of the Republican Party who accuse black people of whining and blaming their shortcomings on others.
Yet it is all right for Palin, who is clearly in over her head, to blame the media because she is not prepared to deal with the tough questions on just about every issue.
With her winks and her wisecracks, Palin has set the feminist movement back 100 years.
Don't take my word for it.
Even conservative pundits, like Kathleen Parker, have urged Palin to take a hike.
Down in the polls, Palin and McCain are now playing a game that could backfire.
After all, there aren't many people, black or white, who feel they have to take verbal abuse from riled-up supporters.
By now, McCain and Palin must have heard about the racial slurs and inappropriate comments.
Had this ugly incident occurred at an Obama rally, the McCain camp would be asking him to apologize to voters and to denounce the hateful behavior.
So why are these candidates being allowed to act like nothing out of the ordinary happened?
That doesn't make them look like a team of mavericks.
It makes them look like a team of bigots.
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