OpEd Contributor
Obama critics should be wary of coming reprisals
By: Mark Hyman, OpEd Contributor
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March 10, 2009
Commercial fishing is the most dangerous job in America. The fatality rate is nearly 30% higher than the next most dangerous profession. Perhaps the most risky vocation – in a non-lethal way – is to be a critic of President Barack Obama.
Nearly 40 years ago, Vice President Spiro Agnew caused an outcry when he called the media “nattering nabobs of negativity.” Today, Obama and senior staff are attacking radio and TV hosts who criticize Obama. The precedent of a president singling-out media personalities has led to mischief by committed Obamunists.
The situation is hardly surprising. During the election, Obama campaign lawyer Robert Bauer demanded the Justice Department file criminal charges against those behind factual and legal TV ads embarrassing to Obama.
Operatives engaged in muckraking after Governor Sarah Palin became the Republican VP candidate. False reports claiming Palin imposed book bans, charged rape victims for emergency room treatment, cut funding for special needs children and faked her own pregnancy were promoted by news outlets sympathetic to Obama.
Obamulists responding to an “Obama Action Wire” harassed radio station WGN for interviewing Ethics and Public Policy Center watchdog Stanley Kurtz after he uncovered records documenting close ties between Obama and unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers.
Prosecutors and sheriffs in the swing state of Missouri who backed Obama threatened to prosecute anyone behind information they – as a self-appointed “truth squad” -- judged to be inaccurate.
Led by former ACLU attorney Mark Kappelhof, Obama supporters in the Justice Department urged prosecution of individuals who sent mailings of a non-violent nature addressing voting issues unfavorable to Obama.
Ohio state officials who backed Obama rifled through government files in search of confidential records pertaining to “Joe the Plumber” after Obama’s comment that he wanted to “spread the wealth” proved to be politically damaging.
In his first week as president, Obama warned Congressional Republicans against listening to Rush Limbaugh. It was later discovered the Obama Administration had launched a campaign targeting Limbaugh.
In recent days, there were attacks against CNBC hosts Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer, a prominent Obama supporter. The pair articulated on-air what millions of Americans are thinking: Obama’s economic policies are seriously damaging America.
Santelli said he understood the threat when White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs publicly stated, “I’m not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives or in what house he lives…” What Gibbs may have hoped to instigate is anybody’s guess.
Non-attorney Shauna Daly briefly served in the White House counsel’s office before returning to the Democratic National Committee where she worked for years as a “partisan dirt-digger.”
A DNC official admitted Daly’s return to the Democratic Party headquarters would allow her to use confidential Bush administration records she had access to during her month long stay.
Illegally using privacy information is not without precedent. Clinton White House officials improperly possessed more than 400 FBI files on prominent Republicans, providing access to confidential information on people viewed as political threats.
The Clinton Administration repeatedly used dirty tricks against “enemies.” Clinton critics audited by the IRS included Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, former paramours Gennifer Flowers and Elizabeth Ward Gracen, White House Travel Officer Director Billy Dale, and Kent Masterson Brown, the attorney who sued the secretive Clinton Health Care Task Force, just to name a few.
Non-profit watchdog and advocacy organizations immediately audited after opposing high profile Clinton initiatives included Judicial Watch, The Heritage Foundation, National Rifle Association, National Center for Public Policy Research, Concerned Women of America, and Citizens Against Government Waste.
Anyone care to take bets on how soon before Limbaugh, Santelli, Cramer and a whole host of Obama critics receive audit notifications from the Timothy Geithner-run IRS?
Obama has ample support in targeting his critics. In addition to the usual lunatic fringe Obamunists such as DailyKos, Media Matters and MSNBC drama queen Keith Olbermann, Obama has the liberal media establishment on his side.
The New York Times, which endlessly editorialized against the Bush Administration tracking terrorist cells operating in the U.S., has predictably been silent regarding the First Amendment freedoms of Obama critics.
Other Obama enablers include the klieg light-seeking and Limbaugh-bashing Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele who is confused regarding which side of the ideological divide the GOP belongs.
Mark Hyman is an award-winning news commentator for Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
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