Straight from the headlines, here’s exactly the kind of unhinged liberal hatred and bigotry against minority Republicans I talk about in my book– via the Washington Times today:

Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in his bid for the U.S. Senate are fair because he is a conservative Republican.

Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an “Uncle Tom” and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log.

Operatives for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) also obtained a copy of his credit report — the only Republican candidate so targeted.

But black Democrats say there is nothing wrong with “pointing out the obvious.”

This is how low the Left’s political discourse has sunk: I’m a banana and a coconut and a whore and worse. Michael Steele is an Uncle Tom and a Sambo. Here’s the despicable photo that left-wing bigot blogger Steve Gilliard (proving that blacks can be vicious racists, too) published and only removed after conservative bloggers blew the whistle:

So, defacing Steele’s photo and assaulting him with Oreo cookies are peaceful exercises of free speech. Demonizing Condi is a harmless prank. Calling her a “House Nigga” is acceptable humor.

No minority who embraces liberal ideas is ever attacked for being a “race traitor” or a “sellout.” These ad hominem attacks are leveled only by the Left, and only against minority conservatives. For the unhinged Left, race-baiting has become an expedient substitute for substantive argument.

Ain’t tolerance grand?

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Previous on Michael Steele:

Michael Steele and the Sambo smear

Whitewashing Chuckaquiddick

Chuckaquiddick: Look who’s paying the tab

NY Times “looks into” Chuckaquiddick

Chuckaquiddick: Where’s the MSM?

The NYTimes ombudsman is totally worthless

Democrat dumpster diving

A despicable Democrat dirty trick

Sen. Charles Schumer still owes Lt. Gov. Steele an apology.

Newbusters notes how the Washington Post buried the Sambo smear story.

Robert George, who blew the whistle on the smear, continues to follow the story.

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Previous minority conservative smears:

The buck-naked bigotry of Ted Rall

Jeff Danziger: Do you draw with your hood on or off?

Danziger’s lost cartoon

Liberal racism and Condi Rice

Maglalangadingdong this

Minority conservatives and the sellout smear

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Ed Morrissey:

One of the excuses used by these Democrats is that Steele refused to object when Governor Mike Ehrlich met with supporters at a club that has no black members in its history. The Elkridge Club held a fundraiser attended by Ehrlich and widely decried by the Democrats as an indication of GOP pandering to racist whites in the south. They failed to mention, however, that several Democrats have made their own use of the Elkridge Club, including the brother and chief political advisor to their gubernatorial candidate to replace Ehrlich.

That shows the leadership of the Democrats as they truly are — a hate-based faith system that takes any means necessary to win elections. Cheating, violence, smears, and now racism are all acceptable as long as Republicans are the targets. If the Republicans happen to be members of minority communities, so much the better.

After all, it’s not discrimination when you hate someone more because of the color of their skin or their ethnic background, is it?

Not if you’re a leftist Democrat, it isn’t.

Sensible Mom points to another example of liberal racism masquerading as respectable political debate from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which does a more cowardly Sambo smear on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas:

“Another minus is that the nomination lessens the court’s diversity. O’Connor herself had expressed the desire that her successor be a woman. O’Connor seems to have grown wiser about diversity as a result of her Supreme Court experience. She came to see the virtues of having a court that looks like America – doubtless a big reason she softened her opposition to affirmative action in recent years.

In losing a woman, the court with Alito would feature seven white men, one white woman and a black man, who deserves an asterisk because he arguably does not represent the views of mainstream black America.”

Paul J. Cella at RedState:

Observe the partisanship compounded by insularity. Note that there is no argument upon which to ground a defense of the attacks; there is only a tendentious assertion. The whole great bulk of American political debate — which usually resolves in the end to a confrontation between Liberalism and Conservatism — is brazenly subsumed into this assertion. It is not necessary to even argue that Liberalism is better for blacks. It is not necessary to even consider the claims of Conservatism when they are made by a black man.

There is not much more that can be said here. We should denounce this cruel vitriol in no uncertain terms. We should wish Mr. Steele well, admire his perseverance, and hope that his example might inspire more like him: that this dreary, depressing episode might one day be a thing of the past, like so many of the other episodes where race threatened to break America.

Jeff Goldstein, one of the blogosphere’s most trenchant commentators on poisonous identity politics, writes:

Lisa Gladden notes that racial jabs are to be expected in national politics, because “party trumps race” —in this case the argument being that (superficial) blackness being equal, the deciding factor in black identity politics is now political affiliation. Therefore, it follows that a move away from the Democratic party is tantamount to a move away from black authenticity, a willful act that opens to attack those “race traitors” who have surrendered the protections that proceed from adherence to the dictates of the group’s identity. Which is to say, racial jabs are okay when they are aimed at those who’ve surrendered the protections offered by the group, because those who’ve left the group no longer meet the requirements for protected blackness.

Perversely, then, we have progressives sanctioning the kind of racial attacks they would normally decry on the grounds that those who choose the wrong party affiliation have surrendered the protection of their race. And what makes this so troubling is that it redefines the idea of “offense” as something that is to be decided upon by identity groups—and so is yet another way in which identity politics robs the individual of autonomy.

Ace of Spades, another of my favorite go-to blogs, weighs in on “Authenticity, Extremism, and Racism.” Read the whole thing.

Dave at Garfield Ridge muses about racism and cookies.