This weekend liberal journalist Joe Conason and former GOPAC director Rich Galen were on television debating the current inflammatory political rhetoric. Conason claimed that Republicans were harsh in their discourse. He cited a Club for Growth advertisement that said Democrats were unpatriotic.

This is the same Conason who once called Republicans crackpots – which he apparently does not consider vitriolic. Why does not Conason mention how often Democrats and liberals call the president unpatriotic?

Possibly Conason does not equate lying to the American people about the reasons to invade Iraq as being unpatriotic. Most people would say that to accuse someone of lying to invade a foreign country – to have American troops killed for personal profit · would be the most heinous, unpatriotic act a person could commit. This is exactly what Democrats and liberals are saying about President Bush. I guess hate speech by Democrats is acceptable to Conason.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota addressed this issue in November 2002. At the time he was complaining about the shrill rhetoric of talk radio hosts. He specifically mentioned Rush Limbaugh and “ Rush Limbaugh wannabes.” Daschle felt that such rhetoric was counterproductive. He implied that talk radio was inimical to the public dialogue.

Both Conason and Daschle want this type of rhetoric abolished. In order to help Senator Daschle and Joe Conason in their quests to eliminate shrill rhetoric from the public discourse I have cited some quotes they might not have noticed. They are a sampling of liberal and Democrat comments about Republicans from 1995 to the present.

1995 was a particularly watershed year in American politics · for the first time in forty years Republicans were the majority political party of the House of Representatives. Democratic rhetoric was quite vitriolic. For example:

· Democratic Florida Congressman Sam Gibbons said to his Republican colleagues during a meeting that he served in the Airborne in WWII to eliminate people like them ( i.e. Nazis)

· After the Oklahoma City terrorist incident, the Democratic Campaign Committee implemented a mass mailing campaign · implying that Republicans are related to Timothy McVeigh.

· Bill Clinton said of House Republicans and the Contract with America proposals, "What they want to do is make war on our children."

· The criticism of the Contract With America was the subject of this gem from New York Democrat Representative Charles Rangel, "When I compare this to what happened in Germany, I hope you see the similarities to what is happening to us."

· Democratic Socialist of America member Representative Major Owens, ( D·N.Y.) said, "These are people (Republicans) who are practicing genocide with a smile…"

· Press Sec. Mike McCurry announced, "They'd ( Republicans) like to see the (Medicare) program just die and go away. You know, that's probably what they'd like to see happen to seniors too, if you think about it."

· John Powers, writing for the Washington Post about the movie Apollo 13, wrote, "Apollo 13...celebrates the paradisiacal America invoked by Ronald Reagan and Pat Buchanan·an America where men were men, women were subservient, and people of color kept out of the way."

The rhetoric was more vituperative during the impeachment hearings in 1998.

· Eleanor Clift said the House impeachment managers reminded her of “nightriders” and that all that was missing were the white sheets.

· Former MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann compared Ken Starr to Heinrich Himmler.

· Of course, who can forget Alec Baldwin, on national TV, calling for mobs to murder Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde and his family.

In 2001 the shrill rhetoric included:

· Chris Matthews who compared Republicans quoting John F. Kennedy on tax cuts to Nazis quoting JFK saying, “Ich bin ein Berliner.”

· a member of the Hawaii ACLU Board of Directors called Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, "the Antichrist."

· Michael Moore wrote about the terrorist tragedies of 911, asking why terrorists killed people who lived in places that did not vote for George Bush

In fact, for sterling examples of shrill rhetoric we need not examine statements other than those made by liberal Democrats the very same month Daschle as complaining.

· The November 22, 2002 edition of The American Prospect On Line, the magazine of Clinton Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich, wrote that Republican Senators Inhofe and Domenici are the Darth Vaders of environmental protection

· The November 21, 2002 edition of the OnLine Journal, editor and publisher Bev Conover, wrote George W. Bush has gotten his wish: “This is now a dictatorship and he is the dictator. “

Then there are the more recent criticisms like Ted Kennedy who said the President is part of some conspiracy that wanted to invade Iraq. There is Al Sharpton who said the president is a gangster. In fact, just about every Democratic presidential candidate essentially has accused the president of treason or genocide.

More examples could be provided, however, it would be pointless. The fact is Democrats, liberal journalists, communist and other organizations sympathetic to the Democrats during the past eight years have called Republicans:

· Nazis

· Ku Klux Klan

· Terrorists

· Murderers of kids, women, blacks, elderly

· Thieves

· Dictators

· Himmlers

· The AntiChrist

· Claimed that George Bush is part of various conspiracies to imperialize the world

· Claimed that George Bush and his administration have lied to the American people.

· Called Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, and Clarence Thomas Uncle Tom’s

Before Conason, Daschle and other liberals and Democrats complain about the lack of discourse by conservatives and Republicans they ought to look in the mirror – literally and ideologically.

Michael P. Tremoglie