Rhonda Robinson did a nice job of detailing Dan Rather's strange outing on the Chris Matthewsshow last weekend. The lamestream media has ignored something that would have gotten any Republican run out of town on a rail when Dan said:
RATHER: [Barack Obama is] "…an ineffective leader who couldn't sell watermelons if you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic."
Let me say right now. I don't think Dan Rather is a racist, unless you want to talk about the "soft bigotry of lowered expectations" that afflicts most liberals. On the other hand, isn't this worse than "macaca?"
After the (actually rather funny) watermellon comment Dan wasn't done on easily the most entertaining Chris Matthews show in many moons. After predicting health care will pass because it is now "a Republican bill," Rather then said that Obama was finally committed, and…. well, can somebody tell me what the HECK this means?
RATHER: I think with the uh President finally has his whole… sack in on it, yes he wins…"
Let's not event think about this one too closely…
MSNBC's David Schuster spent several days last week ranting that the Republican National Committee was racist for identifying disgraced Congressman Charlie Rangel as a "Harlem Democrat." MSNBC ran approximately 1,098,794 stories about "macaca," and exactly 0 on Watermellongate.
Of course Dan Rather has a history of "Ratherisms" that seemed to always come out during those long nights of election coverage. My favorite in 2000 was:
"This race is tight like a too-small bathing suit on a too-long ride home from the beach."
About.com has compiled a very entertaining list, that is definitely worth a look.
Of course, it's hard to think of anything much nuttier than Dan Rather standing by his story and his documents in the fraudulent hit job he did on Geroge W. Bush and his National Guard service. And though he left CBS basically in disgrace, the fact that he made the attempt to scuttle the Bush presidency with his fake story means he will always have a place in the lamestream media's heart.
After that, what's a few watermellons—or sacks—between friends?