Your Daily Preening

Howard Kurtz:

Is it racial?

Are the protesters, tea-partiers, birthers, deathers, doomsayers and hecklers motivated, at least in part, by a distinct discomfort with the country's first black president?

Or is that a smear against disgruntled Americans who have every right to express their dissent?

There is no definitive answer, of course, since we are talking about millions of people, from Joe Wilson, the disrespectful congressman who's now raised $700,000 for his "you lie" outburst, to the woman who told Arlen Specter that Obama is trying to transform the US of A "into Russia, into a socialist country."

But I began to suspect that race was a factor for at least some critics when I heard them shouting about "the Constitution" and "taking our country back." Maybe Obama's health-care plan is an awful idea and his budget is way too big, but how exactly is any of this unconstitutional? Clearly, for some folks, there's a deeper rage at the man occupying the White House.

You started wondering about racism when you heard people shouting about the Constitution? Sure wouldn't want those critics to shout about "the Constitution." That's dangerous talk, all right.

There is not one bit of racism in any of Kurtz's examples of disgruntled people. Nada. As for the "taking our country back" stuff, I assume two things: 1) people are going with the "Congress shall make no law" stuff and running with it, and 2) they might not understand the constitution any better than the people who said George W. Bush was shredding the thing on a daily basis.

The Left wanted to "take the country back" since 2000, when Dubya "stole" the election. Hey, buddy, is that a white trash smear?

Talking about racism when there's no evidence of it is lazy and boring.