Wingnuts Using Hurricane to Smear Liberal Journo

Pundits from the far wrong are resorting to schoolyard-level smears in the wake of Hurrican Katrina. Blowhard Rush “Feelin No Pain” Limbaugh has taken to referring to the storm as “Hurricane Katrina vanden Heuvel,” after the editor of The Nation, which is solidly left of center, to say the least.

In her Editor’s Cut column vanden Huevel responds with wry humor:

When Fox started calling the storm Killer Katrina, I prayed some right-wing idiot wouldn’t stoop so low as to link me to this human suffering. But wouldn’t you know, the biggest dittohead on the block, Rush Limbaugh, is calling the storm Hurricane Katrina vanden Heuvel. National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, who has never seen a bad-joke bandwagon he could resist jumping on with both feet, blogged, “It would be pretty cool if Fox played to caricature and repeatedly referred to the hurricane as Katrina vanden Heuvel.” He went on to imagine the lines, “The destruction from Katrina vanden Heuvel is expected to be massive. The poor and disabled are particularly likely to suffer from the effects of Katrina vanden Heuvel.”

vanden Huevel’s point is well-made — such third-grade name calling merely belittles the people who are living through and dying in the United States’ worst natural disaster in history. She also nails both numbskulls:

At least Limbaugh has the excuse that drug abuse tends to stunt emotional development. What Goldberg’s problem is nobody has yet discovered. Natural disasters should be above infantile politics.

Connect:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.