Br'er Mitt - Update

I posted an item the other day on the noise made by the usual race-baiting suspects over Governor Mitt Romney's use of the word "tarbaby". Best of the Web Today points out several recent examples where that word has been used by prominent people and publications with no outcry whatsoever:

The Boston Globe has used the term in at least two editorials, reports the Boston Herald's Victoria Buckingham: " In a 1994 editorial, the Globe described U.S. dealings with Iran as resembling a 'tar baby' and even articulated the term's assumed meaning in a 1998 editorial on China's censoring of the Internet: 'The Communist rulers of Beijing ended last year tangling with a tar baby. The tar baby--passive, sticky and invincible--was played by the Internet, which the leaders want to censor.' " (The Herald also referred to the Big Dig as a "tar baby" in a 2004 editorial.)

Ditzy left-wing columnist Molly Ivins wrote in October 2001, "It now looks, with 20-20 hindsight, as though he should have taken a few more deep breaths before smacking that tar-baby that is Afghanistan."

In a 2003 interview with the Boston Globe, John Kerry described 1992 hearings on missing soldiers in Vietnam as a political "tar baby."

This past May, White House press secretary Tony Snow said of a program to monitor terrorist communication, "I don't want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program--the alleged program--the existence of which I can neither confirm nor deny."

The athletic teams at California's Compton High School are called the Tarbabes. (The population of Compton is more than 40% black.)

The usual suspects did get upset with Tony Snow (because he's a conservative) and he apologized. That's what conservatives do even if no harm was meant by the comment.

On the other hand you have the angry left which can publish a blackface picture of Joe Lieberman, and then when it all hits the fan, remove the picture without comment or apology. If you're looking for the modern home of racism, don't look at conservatives.

The Corner also has this interesting item on the Lieberman blackface scandal:

Connecticut Senate candidate Ned Lamont, quoted in the Washington Post, when asked about blogger/supporter Jane Hamsher's use of a doctored image portraying Sen. Joe Lieberman in blackface:

"I don't know anything about the blogs. I'm not responsible for those. I have no comment on them."

The Hartford Courant, reporting on Lamont's recent appearance on "The Colbert Report":

Lamont arrived with an entourage: His wife, Annie; their campaign driver, Marc Bradley; a blogger, Jane Hamsher; and Bill Hillsman, the creator of his offbeat ads…

Jane Hamsher created the blog post that included the blackface photo.

Speaking of racists, given the latest polling in the Lieberman/Lamont race, doesn't it look like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton's trip yesterday to campaign for Lamont is little more than an attempt to sweep in at the last minute and claim credit for a victory that they really had nothing to do with?