Liberal Values Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought

I recently discussed the conservative tactic of joking about Democrats until it becomes part of the mainstream viewpoint, including the recent jokes about Barack Hussein Obama’s middle name. For the most part, Obama’s name is thrown out in the hopes that people will demonstrate a reflex to avoid anyone named Hussein now that they have shown they have no qualms against someone whose name sounds like Osama. Debbie Schlussel actually tries to provide some justification for raising this issue:

And while Obama may not identify as a Muslim, that’s not how the Arab and Muslim Streets see it. In Arab culture and under Islamic law, if your father is a Muslim, so are you. And once a Muslim, always a Muslim. You cannot go back. In Islamic eyes, Obama is certainly a Muslim. He may think he’s a Christian, but they do not…

So, even if he identifies strongly as a Christian, and even if he despised the behavior of his father (as Obama said on Oprah); is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father’s heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?

Is that even the man we’d want to be a heartbeat away from the President, if Hillary Clinton offers him the Vice Presidential candidacy on her ticket (which he certainly wouldn’t turn down)?

NO WAY, JOSE . . . Or, is that, HUSSEIN?

Before taking this as yet another example of the insanity of the right wing blogosphere, it should be noted that some bloggers are objecting. Hot Air is “shall we say, skeptical in the extreme of both the reasoning and conclusion of this particular post.” The Poltical Pit Bull has a couple of objections, beginning with:

First of all, I have to say that it’s crap like this has helped the right side of the blogosphere gain a reputation as being anti-Muslim because implicit in Schlussel’s argument is the notion that no one with a Muslim name can ever be trusted to be against jihadism and loyal to the causes of the US. Of course, this is patently ridiculous since many of academic crusaders against jihad and Islamic extremism are Muslims.

Blue Crab Boulevard agrees with this objection, writing “Look, this is not constructive and not at all helpful to the political debate in the United States right now.”

Update: While for the most part I applauded the sanity of the conservative blogosphere in repudiating Schlussel’s post, Right Wing Nut House lived up to its name. They wrote:

With a predictability that would put a laxative to shame, the left holds up Schlussel’s severed head and proclaims her “Queen of the Conservative Blogosphere.”

I hate to bust up this self-congratulatory party fellas but if you bother to read any of the conservative blogs linking to Schussel’s piece, you would notice one curious thread that connects all of them:

Every single conservative or right of center blog that links to the piece strongly criticizes Schlussel for her bigotry and stupidity.

First of all, neither I or anybody else on the left I have seen post on this has proclaimed her to be anything like “Queen of the Conservative Blogosphere.” They also link to Oliver Willis who calls her not Queen but “trailer park version of Ann Coulter.” Secondly, one point of the post is that the conservative blogosphere is criticizing her over this. It appears that it is Right Wing Nut House which didn’t bother to read the posts they are attacking.

The conservative response to Schlussel does leave one question. Does this mean that conservative bloggers are going to cease trying to use nonsense such as Obama’s name against him? If they want to disagree with him on positions that is reasonable, but the use of his name is an absurd attack.

Update II: More at Media Matters.