In advance of the 2008 presidential election the Republican hate machine is up and running at full speed with the full cooperation of the mainstream media. The GOP spin miesters have issued their marching orders and pundits and talking heads like Tim Russert, Chris Matthews and the rest have all dutifully fallen in line. They have done their utmost to assassinate the character of the Democratic presidential candidates and spin lies about them that play on people’s prejudices and fears. Their mission is to weaken the Democratic candidates as much as possible in advance of the primaries.

Recent setbacks within the GOP ranks haven’t slowed their pace but they have served to discourage their hard-core supporters. The scandal induced resignation of Senator Larry E. Craig of Idaho preceded by revelations of consorting with prostitutes by Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, along with the drug trafficking arrest and subsequent guilty plea of SC State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel have some GOP strategists like Scott Reed (as reported by the NY Times) asking hard questions, “The real question for Republicans in Washington is how low can you go, because we are approaching a level of ridiculousness.” But scandal and hypocrisy within the ranks of the GOP haven’t served as much of a deterrent to their propensity for mud slinging.

Chris Matthews the host of MSNBC’s Hardball, has proven to be one of the GOP’s most reliable merchants of hate and lies. On the August 6^th edition of Hardball, in response to the results of a July 27-30^th NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that found that a higher percentage of respondents thought that the Democratic Party “would do a better job” than the Republican Party on the issues of “reducing the federal deficit,” “controlling government spending,” and “dealing with taxes,” Matthews said, “I don’t think it’s fair, but it is public opinion right now. The people now think the Democrats are better at balancing the budget, the Democrats are better at reducing government spending, and the democrats are better at lowering taxes. Give me a break.” Never let the facts stand in the way of your bias opinion-seems to be Mr. Matthews’s credo. Even Mr. Matthew’s guests and guest hosts march to the playbook as dictated by the GOP. Media Matters for America reports that on the July 31^st edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews, guest host Mike Barnicle asked right wing radio host Melanie Morgan, “What’s your match up for the biggest spouse in the race on either side, Bill Clinton?” to which Morgan replied, “Well I think that (Senator) Hillary’s (Clinton) wife Bill is going to be a detriment, unfortunately, to Mrs. Clinton, because it’s going to be a situation where, since he’s still dating, it’s obviously going to be a detraction, I think from the race. So that’s going to be problematic for Mrs. Clinton.” Morgan added, “Plus, you know, you are going to have to hire private detectives to keep an eye on him and so forth. And that’s going to be a difficulty.” Later on in the show Morgan asserted that Jeri Thompson, wife of possible Republican presidential candidate and former Senator Fred Thompson, “is aware of something the other women don’t seem to get on the liberal side of the equation, that we are fighting a battle against terrorism that really has our very culture and our lives at stake.” Morgan also claimed Jeri Thompson understands “that global warming is a hoax.” We’ll wait for her position statement on that.

The most glaring example of Chris Matthew’s GOP bias could be his long-term affiliation and admiration for the ‘Enchantress of Evil’ Ann Coulter. Matthews defended his decision to host Coulter on the June 26^th edition of his show in a June 27^th interview with Meredith Viera on The Today Show. Telling Viera, that Coulter was, “an agent provocateur. She sells huge numbers of books because I think a lot of relatively boring guys like to walk around carrying her books, to be honest with you. She’s a brilliant writer. She knows how to enrage and she did it.” One has to wonder how supportive the media would be of Coulter’s career if she were obese and unattractive? Would boring guys still want to carry around her books if her jacket photo weren’t so appealing? Coulter was forced to respond to Elizabeth Edwards on the June 26^th Hardball show for hate filled comments she made about Edward’s husband Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards. Specifically the ‘brilliant writer’ wrote in a November 19, 2003 column with regard to the accidental death of their teenage son, “If you want points for not using your son’s death politically, don’t you have to take down all those ‘Ask me about my son’s death in a horrific car accident’ bumper stickers?” In response to Edward’s request to elevate the level of political discourse and to stop making derogatory and hurtful statements about their deceased son, Coulter claimed that Edwards “is asking me to stop speaking.” She dismissed Mrs. Edwards criticism of her November 2003 column by saying, “This is now three years ago.” As if her slap at their family’s pain had an expiration date. ABC’s Good Morning America hosted a visit by Coulter to plug the paperback edition of her latest rant, on June 25^th. In the interview Coulter asserted “She wouldn’t insult gays by comparing them to John Edwards.” Coulter seems to delight in making sexual slurs against Democrats. During a July 27, 2006 Hardball interview she called former Vice President Al Gore “ a total fag.” The previous day in an interview on CNBC she attacked former President Bill Clinton as a “latent homosexual.” In response Matthews remarked that Coulter reminded him of “the young George Will” and said, “We’d love to have her back.” Coulter may be one of the GOP’s flashiest merchants of hate but an old reliable attack dog is syndicated columnist Robert Novak.

Novak’s bigotry was on full display on the July 15^th edition of NBC’s Meet the Press. During an all white male panel discussion moderated by host Tim Russert, Novak said, “Republicans are very pessimistic about 2008. When you talk to them off the record they don’t see how they can win this thing. And then you think for a minute, and only the Democratic Party, with everything in their favor, would say that, ‘OK, this is the year either to have a woman or an African-American to break precedent, to do things the country has never done before.’ And it gives the Republicans hope.” Neither Russert nor any of the panelists took issue with Novak’s assertion. Call me idealistic but I was shocked by the blatant racism and sexism inherent in his assertion and the fact that host Tim Russert let this go on unchallenged. By his silence he granted his approval.

There are endless examples of bigotry and hate on Fox News and their adherence to the GOP talking points is obvious by the repetition of the verbiage in so many different shows. On the August 24^th edition of Hannity and Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity aired video footage of musician and right-wing activist Ted Nugent at an August 21^st concert calling Senator Barack Obama, a “piece of shit: and referring to Senator Hillary Clinton as a “worthless bitch.” In the video clip Nugent holds up what appear to be two assaults rifles and says he told Obama “to suck on my machine gun” and says he told Clinton “you might want to ride one of these into the sunset.” After airing the clip, Hannity referred to Nugent as “a friend and frequent guest on the program,” and then compared Nugent’s comments to recent statements by Obama, which Hannity again distorted by claiming Obama “accused our troops of killing civilians.” Hannity then asked Democratic strategist Bob Beckel: “What’s more offensive to you? Is it Barack Obama’s statements about our troops or Ted Nugent?” Beckel responded by asking Hannity if he was “prepared to disavow this lowlife,” to which Hannity responded: “No, I like Ted Nugent. He’s a friend of mine.”

It actually horrifies me that a segment of Americans get all their news and information from Fox News or conservative talk radio. These mediums cater to prejudice and hate the way fast food restaurants cater to fat people. The sheer amount of hate filled comments could fill the room in one week’s time but a sampling include…radio host Michael Savage on the July 2^nd edition of his nationally syndicated program, discussing the recent terror-related arrests in Britian, “When I see a woman walking around with a burqa, I see a Nazi,” adding, “That’s what I see-how do you like that? -A hate filled Nazi would like to cut your throat and kill your children.” Savage also said that when a Muslim woman wears a burqa, “She doing it to spit in your face. She’s saying ‘You white moron, you I’m going to kill you if I can.’ “ Well, at least he got the moron part right.

Media Matters for America reports that The Savage Nation reaches more than 8 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine; making it the third most listened to talk radio show in the nation, behind The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

When people wonder if America is ready for a female or black president I would say no, not when millions of Americas are kneeling at the altar of hate and prejudice as preached by conservative talk show hosts like Limbaugh, Savage, Hannity, Matthews, Coulter and the rest. It’s not just women, blacks and homosexuals that are the target of their remarks. Cox Radio Syndication’s The Neal Boortz Show frequently targets Hispanics. On the June 18^th edition of The Neal Boortz Show, Boortz commented, “I don’t care if Mexicans pile up against that fence like tumbleweeds in the Santa Ana winds in Southern California. Let ‘em. You know then just run a couple of taco trucks up and down the line, and somebody’s gonna be a millionaire out of that.” On the August 10^th broadcast, producer Belinda Skelton told Boortz about a bilingual Parent-Teacher Association meeting she had attended, remarking that she had been unable to tell how many of the families in attendance spoke English. Boortz responded: “You can look at the parents and tell, because the ones with sombreros can’t speak English…The ones with bandoliers full of bullets across their chest.”

Media Matters for America reports that the Georgia Association of Broadcasters named Boortz and his radio show “Best Radio On-Air Personality” and “Best Radio Program, Any Type” in 2007. Boortz is a nominee for the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame 2007 Career Achievement Award.

Hate speech is now award-winning speech. Now you know who’s fanning the flames of hatred and prejudice in America. It’s not just Fox News it’s mainstream media and it’s hurting our society.