Posted 11:36 AM by Scoobie Davis

Hannity’s Racial Outrage
Those of you familiar with my blog know that Dr. Laura and Bill O’Reilly creep me out. Sean Hannity doesn’t; he just irritates me. He’s similar to the character Bob Williams (see addendum) who is a twerpy know-it-all; the big difference is that Bob Williams is entertaining and Hannity isn’t.

Last week, Hannity was demagoguing Ted Kennedy’s “Neanderthal” comment—construing it as a racist attack directed specifically at minority judicial nominees. There, of course, was no basis for Hannity’s charge. This was just part of a long coordinated strategy by Republicans to portray Democratic opposition to Bush judicial nominees as racist (Blast from the past: remember Trent Lott’s comments regarding those who opposed Miguel Estrada's nomination?) This wouldn’t have been so bad had Hannity not been a fervent apologist for Trent Lott’s endorsement of Strom Thurmond’s 1948 Dixiecrat presidential run. In fact, during the flap, Hannity interviewed Lott and didn’t question Lott’s laughable explanation that he spoke of support for Thurmond’s run because of Thurmond’s support of limited government and a strong defense. I also reported on how Hannity allowed Lott to get away with lying about his ties to the racist Council of Conservative Citizens.

Well, this week, when Michael Jackson played the race card by portraying his arrest as racist, Hannity was right to criticize the singer. However, it would have been nice if Hannity practiced what he preaches.

Addendum: Bob Williams is a character who has appeared in recent Chick tracts. He is a nauseating (but amusing) fundy shill whose pat answers have the power of making people go on their hands and knees in prayer in public places (such as the reformed Mason who sees the error of his ways and prostrates himself in a Seinfeldesque diner in the Chick tract "Good Ol’ Boys"; the sinner shouts “God, forgive me! I renounce the ‘Brotherhood’ and I turn my whole heart to You, Lord Jesus! I don’t want to go to hell!”). In "The Nervous Witch", Williams tells an ex-witch (with a straight face: “Samantha, the [Harry] Potter books open a doorway that will put untold millions of kids into hell.”). In "Gladys", Williams greets the unrepentant witch from The Nervous Witch with “Hi, Holly. We’re still praying for you.” In "Sin City", Williams casts out the demon of a homosexual minister, Reverend Ray. To access all of these tracts, go to Chick Publications’ tract list. Final thought on Bob Williams, I wonder when Chick created this character whether he knew about Robert Williams, a prominent underground cartoonist.