TPM, Slime, Sarah and the Tea Parties

What's the difference between TPM Muckraker and Andy Sullivan when it comes to Sarah Palin? In terms of their obsession with sliming Palin - none. In terms of how they go about their attacks, about the only difference appears to be that TPM is not obsesessed with Palin's genitals.

TPM Muckraker is a left wing site that has long professed their love for Obama and hatred for the right. But they, like virtually all on the far left, hold a special place deep in their dark, dark souls for Sarah Palin - and the Tea Party movement, for that matter. Lacking any semblance of intellectual honesty, they are quite willing to go to great lengths to attack Gov. Palin and the Tea Party movement, while utterly ignoring the screaming cognitive dissonance that creates when one looks at their treatment of the home team.

First up from TPM yesterday was Man Charged With Stockpiling Weapons Was Tea Partier, Palin Fan. It is the story of an obviously mentally unbalanced man,Gregory Girard, who happened to support Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Movement - something upon which TPM focuses upon in this "guilt by association" hit piece.

But there was no indication that anyone in the Tea Party movement supported Girard, nor that Sarah Palin even knew of his existance. The same cannot be said of other murders and radicals who have associated with political figures that TPM seemed to have missed over the past two years.

There was of course the murderer and anti-America radical who quite literally launched Obama's political career in a fund raiser at his home:



Then let's not forget Obama's twenty year association with a virulent racist



And then there are the thugs Obama didn't associate with - but whom his administration did protect in their efforts to commit voter intimidation:



And what of his long association with - and his employment during the campaign of - an organization whose members have been found guilty of vote fraud in numerous states:



TPM Muckrakers hypocrisy and intellectual dishonesty hardley ends there. They also ran another story the other day - "'Warning: Tea Party In Danger': Leader Slams Palin As 'Wolf In Sheep's Clothing'." They report that "Dale Roberston," a person they characteris as a "Tea Party leader," is complaining that "the movement 'is becoming nothing more than a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party,' and slamming Sarah Palin as representing 'a growing insider's attack to the heart of the Tea Party.'" The problem with this report is that it has long been known that Robertson is a con artist, he holds no leadership position in any recognized Tea Party organization, and indeed, the local Tea Party organizations have explicitly disowned any association with him.

That said, if TPM wanted to report on real rifts between party leaders and a party's titular head, they certainly could have reported on the criticism of Obama coming from Senator Rockefeller the other day - essentially calling Obama's promises worthless in the video below:



But doing something like that would take a bit of intellectual honesty. TPM Muckraker is all about the spin. And the screaming cognitive dissonance.