Rush Limbaugh is a fucking idiot (and he’s not the only one)

Rush Limbaugh’s insistence that Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama was “totally about race” has to be one of the most overtly racist arguments I’ve heard in a long time. Pat Buchanan gets thrown in the racist category, too, along with all the other conservative gasbags making that claim.

Yeah, General Powell probably makes all his decisions based on race. I’m sure it’s what made him spend decades working in the Republican Party in the first place.

And hey assholes, what about the scads of white Republicans who have endorsed Obama? Perhaps they’re all secretly black? Daily Kos has a nice photographic essay on this point.

*****
What I loved most about Colin Powell’s endorsement was what he said about the “Obama is a Muslim” rumors:

I’m also troubled by, not what Sen. McCain says, but what members of the party say, and it is permitted to be said. Such things as: “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is he is not a Muslim. He’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian.

But the really right answer is: What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is: No, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she can be President?

I hear this point surprisingly rarely. Kudos to Powell for making it so well.