On a report from the Pentagon that five American troops in Iraq are under investigation for raping an Iraqi woman and killing her family (I’ll get a transcript later):
“What I didn’t see in the report is how 155,000 soldiers weren’t killing or raping anyone.” — Melanie Morgan, SF conservative radio host on MSNBC’s Hardball
No, dude, seriously. I just heard it myself. Now she’s going after the other guys in the outfit that made the accusation because it happened in a counseling session.
Then there was Mark Levin (NYC radio host) who managed to make the startling assessment last night that the balance of powers between the three branches was grievously out of whack: saying that the president doesn’t have enough power. He then went on a tirade that I could only describe as neo-fascist. I don’t even remember it all … it was staggering. He made Sean Hannity sound like a calm, reasonable moderate. He came rather close to suggesting that we start rounding up liberals and throwing them in Guantanamo Bay before getting a hold of himself. As legions of fans called in to support him, I remembered thinking that this is what it must have been like to listen to Hitler and his ilk in the 1920s. Nazis clothed themselves in patriotism and didn’t sound that far out of the mainstream — until they were able to seize complete power.
A majority of Republicans are not like this. However, as the right wing seeks to grill their fellow partisans for not being extreme enough, there is a great danger of radicalization, especially if there is another terrorist attack on America or the economy were to suffer a severe downturn. Let’s call it … a V for Vendetta scenario. The non-fiction version, however, might be far less dramatic — and you might not even notice it until it’s too late.
