Howie the putz

Good God, his love affair with the vile Michelle Malkin continues. Today, he expresses outrage that some dirty libral blog commenters at the Huffington Post dared to laugh about Cheney's close encounter with the Taliban earlier this week.

This is really sick.

I know we're living in a polarized time. I know there are people who absolutely detest George Bush and Dick Cheney. I know they like to vent their spleen online, sometimes in vulgar terms, and hey, that's life in a democracy.

But some of the comments posted after a suicide bomber blew himself up at Afghanistan's Bagram Air Force Base, while Cheney was there--killing as many as 23 people--are nothing short of vile.

The comments appeared on the Huffington Post, which, to its credit, took them down. But some were preserved by Michelle Malkin, and I reproduce them here:

"You can't kill pure evil. Like an exorcism you have to drive a stake through it."

"If at first you don't succeed . . . "

"Better luck next time!"

"Dr. Evil escapes again . . . damn."

Says Malkin: "Whatever your partisan leanings, an attack planned on the Vice President of the United States is an attack on America. Some of our fellow Americans, however, can't put their sneering hatred of the White House aside."

Says me: Don't people realize that openly rooting for the death of an American official says way more about them than their intended target?

Oh, geez, get the smelling salts. I would add, that it says a great deal about Malkin and the Putz that the former chose to preserve those comments and the latter chose to quote them on the Post's site.

Apparently, it's vital to our nation's civility that they draw attention to these anonymous (and obviously joking) commenters. After all, these vile, polarizing people aren't elected officials talking about a sitting president, are they?

Jesse Helms set off another furor Tuesday with a comment - later partially retracted - that President Clinton ``better have a bodyguard'' if he visits military bases in North Carolina, Helms' home state.

Returning to earlier remarks he had made about widespread disrespect for Clinton among the military, Helms said in a newspaper interview that ``Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here.''

Helms said Tuesday the remark was a ``mistake.'' But he did not apologize or back off his criticism of Clinton's handling of defense policy.

I think that it is fortunate, for Howie's sensitive sensibilities, that "Media Notes" doesn't allow comments itself.

For the record, I don't joke about suicide bombings nor encourage others to. Ever. But perhaps Kurtz should take a stroll over to Little Green Footballs, a site approvingly included on Malkin's blogroll, to see what "unhinged" and "vile" really look like.

UPDATE: Here's some civility from the reactionaries.