The latest op-ed piece by liberal Los Angeles Times columnist
Rosa Brooks is called,
"When crass is called for" (Friday, February 10, 2006). It begins
with the eye-opening line, "It's time to take a stand against civility,
decency and appropriateness."
The rest of the column is essentially a defense of the tasteless
remarks by Rev. Joseph Lowery and former President Jimmy Carter at the
funeral of Coretta Scott King on Tuesday. At one point of her piece,
Brooks unbelievably declares, "I saw nothing uncivil about the
remarks made by Lowery and Carter."
And in her concluding paragraph, Brooks shrugs (emphasis mine), "And
if Bush was offended by Lowery's and Carter's remarks? Tough luck."
"Tough luck"? Brooks' article comes on the heels of a similar
February 9, 2006, op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
That piece begins (emphasis mine),
"The funeral of Coretta
Scott King was a wonderful thing, and not least among its
wonders was the controversy stirred by comments from the Rev. Joseph
Lowery, former President Jimmy Carter and others."
A "wonderful thing"? In his Talking Points Memo on
last night's episode of The O'Reilly Factor (Thursday,
February 9, 2006), Bill O'Reilly hit a bull's eye with
respect to this whole issue (audiotape on file) (emphasis mine):
"Let's turn it around. What if President Bush
had used the funeral to make political points himself? What if the
President had said this: 'It was a terrible thing that Mrs. King and
her husband Martin were wiretapped by the Democrat Kennedy
administration in the 60's. That was awful. But that illegal
operation has nothing to do with allowing the NSA to listen to
conversations that may involve terrorists who want to kill all
Americans. I'm sure Mrs. King would have understood the need for
security, because she saw first-hand what hate-filled violence can
do.'
"Ladies and gentlemen. Can you imagine how the
Atlanta newspaper, the rest of the left-wing media, Al Sharpton, and
Jimmy Carter would have reacted to those words. Can you imagine?
Do you think the AJC [Atlanta Journal-Constitution] would call
them 'wonderful'? ...
"Once again, the hypocrisy on the far left
is staggering. It's fine for them to throw bombs, even at
a funeral. But does anyone believe they would hold the same point of
view if conservatives used the same tactics? C'mon."
O'Reilly is right-on. And I'm sure Rosa Brooks
would not have written, "I saw nothing uncivil about the remarks by
President Bush," and then said "tough luck" to any offended parties.
H-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y. Hypocrisy.