This weekend at CPAC, a riled-up Andrew Breitbart told Mediaite's Tommy Christopher: “The worst thing you can do right now in the United States, in politically correct America, is to accuse somebody of being a racism [sic] through slurs and innuendo without evidence.”
Breitbart likes to use this refrain, as he did last year on Real Time with Bill Maher, when he defended Rush Limbaugh from such charges:
MAHER: “Oklahoma is out of ammo because they're afraid that Obama and his Negro army are going to come and get you.”
BREITBART: “Who's afraid? Where is this racism coming from?”
MAHER: “The racism is coming from Rush Limbaugh. But it's taking root in Oklahoma.”
BREITBART: “Whoa, whoa. I find that offensive because there's nothing in this country that's a worse accusation. It's where, in America, if you accuse somebody of racism, that person has to disprove that. It's completely un-American to call him racism [sic]. You tell me what he has done that is racist. The man has been on the air for 21 years, 15 hours a week. And if you had...”
Of course, Limbaugh's history of racially-charged comments has been well documented by Media Matters. From his numerous comments about Donovan McNabb to his repeated use of the “Barack the Magic Negro” song to his most recent comments -- arguably his most disturbing yet -- in which he said he said, “Yes, I spoke a little Negro dialect there. I can do that when I want to.”
Limbaugh often claims he's allowed to say these things in order to “tweak” the media or in the name of satire - and that's a whole 'nother debate.
But where was Breitbart when Limbaugh actually called Salon editor-in-chief “the real racist” with a “race-based materialistic -- or maternalistic attitude toward black people”?
How about when Sean Hannity asked: “Do the Obamas have a race problem of their own?”
And where was Breitbart when CPAC keynote speaker Glenn Beck repeatedly called Sonia Sotomayor a “racist”? Or when he called the president a “racist” with a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture”?
Oh yeah, he was promoting Beck's defense of them.
And, like Limbaugh, Beck has his own history of making racially-charged statements.
Breitbart -- like Beck and Jonah Goldberg -- loves to portray the conservatives as victims of baseless charges of “racism,” but when conservatives levy such charges, Breitbart is uncharacteristically quiet.