Outside the Beltway and Off the Rails

Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 9:04:51 am PST

James Joyner is rushing to do damage control for Barack Obama: Obama Che Guevara Flag ‘Scandal’. He takes particular exception to an “insinuation” (his word) he says I made:

Johnson’s insinuation is simply beyond the pale: “Barack Obama won’t wear an American flag on his lapel, but on the wall of his Houston campaign office: a Cuban flag with a picture of Communist mass murderer Che Guevara.” As I noted when the ridiculous flap over Obama’s calling flag pins “a substitute for true patriotism” emerged,

I don’t mind people wearing pins or putting stickers on their cars as a show of support for their country or their cause. I am, however, irritated by the notion that so doing makes them somehow superior to those who don’t.

The suggestion that Americans need to start swearing loyalty oaths, though, is light years beyond irritating.

“Loyalty oath?” Where the hell does that come from?

Of course, I never wrote, hinted at, or even thought anything like that. I stated some facts, and Joyner apparently has a problem with those facts, to the point where he’s attributing opinions to me that I did not write, and do not believe.

Facts: Barack Obama did explicitly refuse to wear a flag pin, and there are not one, but two Cuban flags with Che Guevara on them at Obama’s Houston campaign office.

If I’m “insinuating” anything, it’s this: when you actively pander to and encourage the radical leftist elements of your party, as the Democrats have been determinedly doing for the past eight years, you’re going to end up with embarrassing scenes like this.

And attacking the messenger who points it out is standard political damage control. This has nothing to do with “loyalty oaths” (although Obama will, of course, be forced to take a loyalty oath if he’s sworn in as President), and everything to do with the fact that Obama campaign workers apparently idealize a terrorist mass murderer.