Giuliani's World: A Noun, A Verb and A Crazy GOP Talking Point

Rudy Giuliani is a mean-spirited hack who long ago gave up any right to appear in polite society, much less be the driver of a news cycle.  But there he was, speaking at a fundraiser for a fellow traveler, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, accusing the President of the United States of not loving America:

I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the President loves America.  He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.

Our man Rudy later defended himself against charges of racism by doubling down:  "Some people thought it was racist — I thought that was a joke, since he was brought up by a white mother, a white grandfather, went to white schools, and most of this he learned from white people.”  Thanks, Rudy, for clearing that up.  As Laura Clawson at Daily Kos put it, "turning to completely racially based logic is about the least convincing possible way to rebut charges of racism."

Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen appropriately tweeted:  "Rudy Giuliani questioned how much, or even if, President Obama loves America. Maybe he thinks he loves it 3/5 as much as Giuliani & his pals."

The best take down was from Wayne Barrett who, having written a biography of the man, came well equipped, with a Daily News editorial, "What Rudy Giuliani Knows About Love."  After a few unsavory details about Rudy's love life which call into question what Rudy even means by the word "love," Barrett notes that "Rudy may have forgotten the half-dozen deferments he won ducking the Vietnam War, even getting the federal judge he was clerking for to write a letter creating a special exemption for him." 

But before Rudy slithers back under his rock, there are a couple of points worth thinking about.  First, how is it that these odious right wing lunatics get such a disproportionate amount of air time?  Rudy spews and all of a sudden every cable news channel convenes a panel to discuss whether Obama really is a patriot, and the White House as well as the current cast of clowns who hope to replace Obama is asked to comment.   If the media has such a leftward bias, how is it that the right controls the narrative? 

Of perhaps greater concern is that as long as Giuliani and his fire-breathing compatriots on the far right continue to say outrageous things about the President and his policies, they provide what appears on the surface to be a stark contrast with the more civil GOP candidates.  We can already see this dynamic with the way Jeb  ("I am my own man") Bush is being portrayed as a moderate.

So, while it is easy to rebut the unhinged idiocy of Giuliani and Jindal and Carson and Huckabee and Cruz and Paul, it is important to realize that when you pare away the polish and sound bites of the likes of Bush and Christie and Walker, they are fundamentally indistinguishable.