Blame Leaders on the Right for This, Not Wingnuts

They're spouting evil, and this is the result
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 17, 2010 9:39 AM CDT
Blame Leaders on the Right for This, Not Wingnuts
The billboard ordered and paid for by the North Iowa Tea Party.   (AP Photo/Globe Gazette, Deb Nicklay)

The billboard in Iowa grouping President Obama with Hitler and Lenin probably won't be the last of its kind, writes Dana Milbank. And it's not enough to blame the local Tea Party "geniuses" in Mason City for spreading the "vile" message: This "was not a one-off by a fringe group," he writes at the Washington Post. "It was a logical expression of a message supported by conservative thought leaders and propagated by high-level Republican politicians."

Consider that just before the billboard went up, conservative Thomas Sowell wrote this "irresponsible" column with the same theme, writes Milbank. Sarah Palin then tweeted that people must read it. "Sowell to Palin to Mason City: They spread Nazi labels as smoothly as Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance turned double plays." Apparently, there's not a "grown-up" on the right who's willing to speak up when messages like this spin out of control.
(More Tea Party stories.)

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