New York Times Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal, perhaps prodded by criticism from Bernard Goldberg on The O'Reilly Factor Thursday night [1], posted an update Friday afternoon [2] to his Tuesday blog post offensively accusing [3] House Speaker John Boehner of racism for asking Obama to delay for one night an address to Congress last September.
Unrepentant, Rosenthal berated some of his critics for being 'overtly racist themselves, including bigoted references to my last name.'
Rosenthal's only regret, apparently, was that he did not mention 'that racially tinged and outright racist attacks did not begin with the election of Mr. Obama,' and brought up an old favorite he had previously written about, the Willie Horton ad used in the 1988 presidential campaign against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. (Never mind that it was Al Gore who brought up the ad in the first place.)
Rosenthal updated his racism claims with fresh material from the campaign trail, evidence just as dubious as his first batch:
The racial theme continues in the 2012 presidential campaign. One day after coming in fourth in the Iowa caucuses, Newt Gingrich appeared at a town hall in Plymouth, N.H., where he offered to attend the NAACP convention and explain 'why the African-American community should demand paychecks instead of food stamps.'
The idea that black Americans don't want paychecks is condescending and outrageous.
Rosenthal then assumed Rick Santorum had gone after black people in a garbled campaign trail remark, an interpretation of the candidate's words that even some Santorum-loathing liberals dispute [4].
The NAACP did not comment on Mr. Gingrich's offer to speak, but the organization attacked Rick Santorum for a remark he made at a voter forum in Iowa. 'I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money,' Mr. Santorum said. 'I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families.'
(Mr. Santorum later said that he'd been misunderstood, that he was stumbling over his words and it just sounded like he said 'black.')
In a statement on Wednesday, the NAACP President, Benjamin Todd Jealous, said: 'Senator Santorum's targeting of African Americans is inaccurate and outrageous, and lifts up old race-based stereotypes about public assistance. He conflates welfare recipients with African Americans, though federal benefits are in fact determined by income level.'
That's very well put.