The American Spectator

Live From New York

MANHATTAN -- So perhaps Jon Elliott wasn't exactly cool as a cucumber when he took to the airwaves early Tuesday to announce fellow Air America host Randi Rhodes had lost several teeth in an cold-blooded assault while walking her dog on the streets of New York City. Maybe Elliott, who prides himself on being "The Most Dangerous Liberal in America," sounded a little bug-eyed crazy. Fair enough. But with the proverbial Reichstag in flames and the fascist takeover of the United States clearly under way, neither calm nor restraint were buzzwords of the day.

"Is this an attempt by the right wing hate machine to silence one of our own?" Elliott -- no doubt only "dangerous" in the most loving, progressive way possible -- breathlessly asked his audience. "Are we threatening them? Are they afraid that we're winning? Are they trying to silence intimidate us?"

The answer for many was a resounding, "Yes!" Over at Rhodes' official messageboard, more than a few suspected a "Nazi Brownshirt" attack. "If you've watched The Sopranos you know how easy (and cheap) it is to buy that kind of hit," one intoned darkly. "IF this was a political hit from Blackwater or whoever, there is going to be the wrath of G-d on the perpetrators," another added. The proprietor of TalkingRadio wailed, "These whack jobs appear determined to whatever it takes to silence the opposing point of view." And a visitor to Think Progress, the blog of the Center For American Progress -- a self-declared "nonpartisan organization" paradoxically fighting against the "Radical Right-Wing Agenda" -- posited Rhodes was "probably beaten up by some nutball in the Mallkin [sic] Mongoloid Mafia...that's the type of viscous [sic] rabid people they are."

When it was suggested that perhaps assigning blame before having all (any) of the facts might be a bit premature, an angry commenter at Watching the Watchers -- "Independent Media Criticism That Bites" (presumably they mean "With Bite") -- snarled that there was "no reason not to suspect conservatives."

"They're vicious, violent, and unprincipled, just like unaffiliated muggers," he wrote, adding, in retort to one conservative who protested, "We are not animals," "Well, you're sure not human...not if you can still call yourself a conservative after seeing what your people really have in mind for this country. I won't say 'our country' as I'm now ashamed to admit that I was born American, and technically still am one, although I've washed my hands of your nightmare psychologically, and soon, physically as well."

This prompted yet another commenter to relate a lesson from his father -- a "very smart man," we are assured -- who taught him long ago, "people like these right-wing pundits have souls that look like maggot-infested corpses, you know, like the ones you always see in horror movies."

p> PROGRESS! MAGGOT-INFESTED OR NOT, a liberal acknowledges the existence of a conservative soul! Nevertheless, the ex-pat-in-waiting and maggot hunter were hardly alone. Here are but two choice cuts from the exchange that followed: br> /p>

Adolph Hitler's right wing thugs regularly 'mugged' opponents and members of unpopular groups even before he came to power....Given Randi Rhodes courageous outspokenness about the sinister intentions of the right wing, it is not unreasonable to suspect that this non-robbery assault is an attempt by Neo-conservative thugs to silence her views.

And:

Have you ever noticed that when one of ours shoots one of theirs (Reagan, Ford, Wallace), it's always an amateurish lunatic like Squeaky Fromme or John Hinkley [sic] acting alone and without a plan or a mind, and that little or no blood spills, but that when they come after one of ours (Malcolm, JFK, MLK, RFK), it is a flawlessly executed surgical strike from triangulated professional snipers who leave no witnesses or other loose ends behind, just the corpse of a formerly great liberal leader and an unwitting patsy to take the fall (Oswald, Bremer, Sirhan)?

br> A Democratic Underground member went so far as to divine from the assault the opening salvos of "an ideology war between conservatives and liberals that will rip this country apart...a war that will be bloody, and claim lives....Hell, maybe this is what has to happen before we can start to take our country back."

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