Over at The Fox Forum, Newsbusters' Noel Sheppard defends Rush Limbaugh's statement that he hopes Barack Obama fails.

Big deal, right? Conservatives have been defending such sentiments for weeks. Ah, but how many have done so by defending the patriotism of those who attempt to secede from their nation? Here's Sheppard's innovative argument:

Is it really wrong or even unpatriotic to want the president and/or his policies to fail? Hasn't this likely been the case in this country since its very birth?

It is an indisputable, historical fact that many Colonists did not support independence from England, and were hoping with all their heart and all their soul that President George Washington would fail.

Less than a century later, likely half the nation hoped President Abraham Lincoln didn't succeed in defeating the Confederacy.

One has to assume Tom DeLay was thinking of people like Noel Sheppard and his Media Research Center colleagues when he recently said the conservative movement lacks organizations that can “match Media Matters.”

(Thanks to S.M. for the tip.)