Conservative Derangement Syndrome: What Are They Thinking?

By Sara Robinson

Created 09/04/2009 - 6:06pm

Over on the right wing, the conservatives are all a-Twitter because someone dug up a YouTube video from last February in which White House environmental staffer Van Jones calls Republicans "assholes." And then yesterday, Glenn Beck breathlessly revealed that back in 2004, Jones signed a petition calling for further inquiry into 9/11.

Let's not let ourselves get distracted by this, people. First off: the conservatives lost their right to get upset about public profanity the day Dick Cheney threw the F-bomb at Pat Leahy on the floor of the Senate. Even George W. Bush got caught on tape calling a New York Times reporter "a major league asshole." Thanks to their own legendary potty-mouths, there's not a shred of moral high ground left for the GOP to stand on here. Jones' apology is a hell of a lot more than Leahy got from Cheney -- so it should be more than enough here.

Same deal with the video. Any party that's got its top leaders running around selling the idea of non-existent health care "death panels" and telling us that Obama is the next Jim Jones (that's the new meme next week, by the way -- look for it) long ago since forfeited its right to call anybody out on conspiracy theories. Their credibility on the subject is even flimisier than their forgery of Obama's Kenyan birth certificate. So, y'no, STFU.