The lovely folks at Westboro Baptist have decided that Tim Russert is in hell for supporting the “fag agenda” with his journalism. I believe Fred Phelps actually invokes the phrase “bully pulpit” at some point, a term that seemed quaint back when Teddy Roosevelt threw it around. I don’t remember Russert ever being particularly pro-gay, and the WBC congregation are of course completely fucking insane, but I’m not sure I completely disagree with them. If there’s a good old fashioned fire and brimstone hell, I have to assume that Russert is there right now, forced to act as Raymond Burr’s understudy for all eternity and/or being jabbed with picthforks. My assumption isn’t based on any deep love I suspect that a conservative Irish Catholic like Russert had for gays, but rather for his role in helping sell this stupid, endless war to the American public. As an accomplice to almost a million deaths and counting, Russert is imaginable nowhere else but the depths of the 8th circle.
Of course, the scorn heaped on the WBC members by the American Public is sadly predictable. It’s not that they don’t deserve it, you understand, it’s that they’re such a ridiculously easy target and it’s so easy to go after them even as house resolutions are passed (unanimously) to honor a whore like Tim. Fred Phelps is an asshole, I mean, you have to consider that he was disbarred for repeated breaches of ethics; it takes a lot of work to be considered an albatross around the neck of the legal community. But realistically, the WBC is basically that guy and his family and have zero power or credibility even with the most far right protestant nutcases. The closest thing to a genuine fascist in mainstream American discourse, Sean Hannity, thinks they’re extremist crazies. McCain courted Hagee but he stays the hell away from these guys. They’re pretty much only infamous due to their love of extreme hyperbole and talent for self-promotion, not unlike Eminem. There are a lot of people in this country who have done a lot more harm, and just use more genteel language, and Tim Russert was completely willing to be buddy buddy with those people and even help them do their damage.
So I can’t really claim I’m too offended by the morons this time; I’m offended by the unwillingness of Americans to actually talk truth to people in power, or to recognize the crimes of the dead, turning every public figure who’s reached room temperature into some sort of hero. Rot in hell Tim Russert, and I can only hope that you and Phelps are sharing an apartment across the hall from Andy Dick and R Kelly in a few years.
