Another Meltdown / Lefty "Tolerance"

Wednesday night as my wife and I sat down to watch the latest episode of "Lost" which we'd recorded earlier (and yes, that was Mira Furlan) we caught a few brief moments of Hannity and Colmes on Fox News. The subject was the racist manner in which Condoleezza Rice is being depicted in lefty editorial cartoons. We watched the beginning of the segment with Ann Coulter and former Mondale campaign manager Bob Beckel, and then turned on "Lost."

We missed an exchange that rivals Lawrence O'Donnell's "Creepy liar!" tirade for the title of Liberal Meltdown of the Year. A full transcript is here, but you really need to watch the video (also at the same link) in order to get the full effect. I've always found Ann Coulter to be a bit annoying, but watching her deal with the constant interruptions from Beckel and Colmes--by continuing to carry on a monologue with herself about how they wouldn't let her finish her statements--was quite enjoyable.

In speaking about this cartoon specifically, Beckel says:

Ease up a little bit. The fact is that Condoleeza Rice is a yes woman, a parrot, for George Bush. That’s why he put her at the State Department. This woman oversaw a failed war, and she should be Secretary of State? (Ed. Failed war"? So far it's been a pretty successful war.) I mean, a few cartoons, what’s the big deal?"

Yeah, what's the big deal?

It was a bit odd how Beckel kept going off-topic, talking about the Swift Boat Vets, the treatment of Clinton by conservatives and his own activities in the civil rights movement. One might almost think he was trying to change the subject. In many ways I felt he wasn't really the right guest for this topic, but even so, it was a top-ten meltdown moment.

(Beckel and Coulter had a rematch on Hannity's radio show yesterday, and Beckel came off much better; much more collected than Coulter, who was loaded for bear and taking aim. But both the TV appearances and the radio appearances reminded me why I'd rather watch "Lost," which is really quite good.)

There's a good collection of links and discussion of the racist cartoons here. La Shawn Barber also has an excellent post that touches on how the Democrats treat blacks found here. The meat of the discussion is in the comments section.

What I've found quite fascinating in the aftermath of Kerry's defeat is how the left is dropping all pretense of being the party of tolerance. Republicans need to take advantage of this lefty "unveiling" before they cover it back up again.

If there ever was a time to build the big tent, the time is right now.


UPDATE: Sue Bob has more on the true face of lefty tolerance here.

UPDATE: So does Bigwig, here.

Can you believe this stuff?