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You don’t have to be a pedophile to be a Republican … but it sure helps!
The Poor Man Institute — ... Very nice: In the course of considering Peak Wingnut Theory, John Cole discovers Erick Erickson of Red State staying classy by booming a National Enquirer story about the possibility that, as Erickson puts it, “Barack Obama had an underage, gay affair with a pedophile.” That’s a pretty interesting way to describe what may have happened between the two. Obama met Frank Marshall Davis when Obama was ten years old. When people discuss (possible) sexual contact between ten-year-old boys who are not their ...

One of Us
Whiskey Fire — ... Obama's list of known mentors now includes child rapists ("Uncle Frank" Marshall), racists (Rev. Jeremiah Wright) and terrorists (Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn). Joining Bob are these assholes. That would be Red State's Erick Ericksen, Jules Crittenden, and Dan Riehl. All of these are popular right wing bloggers. Here is Dan Riehl being "funny": No wonder he says "Pakit-stan" in that funny way of his! heh! Here is Jim Henley explaining as calmly as possible the moral hideousness of the wingnut response: ...

Ain’t No Valley Low Enough
pandagon.net - we are the public option — ... As Jim Henley says, the disturbing part isn’t even that they’re gleeful about Frank Davis’ alleged perversion - they’re super gleeful that said perversion might have been visited on an underage Obama.  The right tends to cheer for a lot of things when push comes to shove during an election cycle - allegations of treason, assaults on veterans’ service, so on and so forth.  But I think this is the first time the explicit approval of child abuse has ever become part and parcel of a conservative smear campaign against a Democratic candidate. ...

Dirty Little Minds. Very Little.
The Mahablog — ... of Wingnut Hysteria on this issue. My personal favorite is from Riehl World View: No wonder he says “Pakit-stan” in that funny way of his! heh! You mean, like Pakistan is supposed to be pronounced? Wow, Obama must be, you know, a little queer. Real men mispronounce foreign words. Heh. See also Thers at Whiskey Fire, the Poor Man, John Cole at Balloon Juice, Jim Henley at Unqualified Offerings, and The Peking Duck.

Stay Classy, Dan Riehl
The Agitator — The National Enquirer is pushing a story that Barack Obama was mentored in his youth by a man who may have turned out to be a pedophile. There are now suggestions that the man may have molested Obama. I don’t have much to say on the story itself. If true, it’s awful. But I’m not sure how it affects Obama as a candidate, except to say it shows that he’s overcome quite a lot to get where he is. Here’s Jim Henley, getting the tone exactly right: Obama met Frank Marshall Davis when Obama was ten years ...

Peak Wingnut Theory
Lawyers, Guns and Money — Henley on the NAMBLA wing of the Republican Party. Cf. also here and here. IIRC it was a calumny done to Erick Erickson that caused the development of the farcical Online Integritude project. I'm sure somehow thinking that a 10 year-old could have an "affair" with an adult could also be redefined as representing serious integrity by the relevant wingers. Erickson has written plenty of howlingly dumb things before, but this might be a low that can never be surpassed.

Pedophilia: Too Authentic for Effete Coastal Elites
The Poor Man Institute — ...  a possible incidence of child molestation as a mere “sexual affair” might shock the consciences of some well-meaning, if misguided, Americans.  But what the easily rattled don’t understand is that reclaiming the virtues of man-on-child sex is essential to the defense of The Homeland.  Loyal readers know that we here at The Institute have been sounding the alarm about the terrible toll that so-called “child protection” laws are taking on the Republican Party ( ...

Peak Wingnut
Eschaton — That I still retain the capacity to be surprised regularly surprises me. ...Treason in Defense of Slavery Yankee thinks that a rumor that Obama as a young child may have been (as in, in his fapping imagination) molested disqualifies him from being president. I can still be surprised. I'm sure his loving Washington Post profile will be out soon, if he hasn't had one already.

Great Moments in Election-Year Blogging
Jon Swift — ... proceeded to shoot the messengers. “When people discuss (possible) sexual contact between ten-year-old boys who are not their political enemies and grown men, they usually refer to the 'underage gay affairs' as sexual abuse,” wrote Jim Henley of Unqualified Offerings. “They also recognize that adults who have been abused may or may not wish to tell the whole world the details, and they respect it. Admittedly, most people are not members of the NAMBLA wing of the Republican Party, or, failing that, curdled into pure meanness. Maybe Erickson just holds with the more sweeping ...