VULGAR – AT 7:50 A.M. ET:  As the nation absorbs the meaning of our depraved new world of health care, one thing has become certain:  Many liberal commentators are not inclined to show the slightest "in victory, magnanimity," posture recommended by Winston Churchill.

In fact, some of the comments by the usual suspects are downright vulgar.  Consider this, from Maureen Dowd, who had actually been showing some signs of reform in the last year:

Some base members of the Republican base showed themselves as the racist Neanderthals they are.

Protesters outside the Capitol on Saturday called two black congressmen, the civil rights hero John Lewis of Georgia and Andre Carson of Indiana, a racial epithet as they walked by. Another, Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, was called that epithet and got spit on. Barney Frank of Massachusetts was called an anti-gay slur. The anti-abortion Democrat Bart Stupak was called a “baby killer” by Texas Republican Representative Randy Neugebauer, who says he’s had a “tremendous outpouring” of support for his outburst.

It was disgusting. And for the Democrats who had battled each other through every twist and turn of health care, it was unifying.

Dowd accepts as fact a number of charges that seem dubious at best.  We have a number of videos of the famous walk of the black congressmen.  No microphone on any of the videos recorded any racial slurs.  Now, of course, it's possible that a few nutbags did mutter some unacceptable things, but we have no direct evidence of it, and to link them with the Republican base is outrageous. 

Bart Stupak was not called a "baby killer."  Representative Neugebauer, for better or worse, labeled the bill a baby killer.  There was nothing personal. 

The use of the term "racist Neanderthal" is itself a slur, but Dowd uses it freely, and will not be challenged by The New York Times, her newspaper.  She is one of a number of liberal writers who are using the passage of Obamacare to paint the opposition in the most vulgar ways.  That has become accepted practice.

At the Angel's Corner tonight we will give the coveted Pompous Fool Award to another one of these liberal writers.

March 24,  2010