Yeah, I'm evoking that Sarah Palin 2008 line, the one where she claimed then candidate Obama "pals around with terrorists." This is a very old Republican game, where they try to suggest guilt by association.
Sean Hannity has certainly done his share of that over the years. While Joe McCarthy is perhaps the all time master of it, Hannity himself is probably the leading proponent of this tactic today.
Who has done more Fox specials about Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright? I would suggest that no one person has talked more about these two phantom menaces and other assorted Birther obsessions than Sean Hannity.
In the last few days to distract from the question that Americans want answered-why Mitt Romney won't release his tax returns and why he is lying about his experience at Bain-Hannity and Rush, et al. have been taking the only refuge they have-reviving Birther fantasies that got no mileage the first time around in 2008.
We hear silly observations like that the President didn't have a long resume until he became President of the United States.
Yes, discussing composite girl friends, pot, and whether or not he pushed a girl in junior high is really going to help Mitt Romney against the questions we want answered.
If we apply Sean Hannity's own game to him, what we see is that those he "pals around with" don't do much for his reputation. Then again, how can anything make this hatchet man's reputation worse?
He was on yesterday with Donald Trump who's an expert-by the way Hannity was fawning over him-on how to beat the President. Yes, Trump sure did get the better of him on the battle over his birth certificate and that night at the roast.
Trump believes that if we only knew what Obama's school transcripts said, it's over.
Then, last night Hannity interviewed George Zimmerman. Which one of the two is sullied by this association? But playing the guilt by association card Hannity looks even worse if that's possible. Meanwhile, Zimmerman just gave the prosecution new ammo.
It was quite a revealing interview. Mr. Zimmerman claimed he wanted to apologize to Trayvon Martin's family, but then explained that he wouldn't have done anything different that night and it was "God's Will."
"Is there anything that you regret? Do you regret getting out of the car to follow Trayon that night?" Hannity asked. "Do you regret that you had a gun that night?"
"No, sir," Zimmerman, 28, replied. "I feel that it was all God's plan and not for me to second-guess it or judge it."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/zimmerman-apology-trayvon_n_1684878.html
Trayvon's parents put out his statement in answer which says it well:
"George Zimmerman said that he does not regret getting out of his vehicle, he does not regret following Trayvon, in fact he does not regret anything he did that night," the statement read. "He wouldn't do anything different and he concluded it was God's plan."
"We must worship a different God because there is no way that my God would have wanted George Zimmerman to kill my teenage son," Tracy Martin, Martin's father, said in the statement.
He tells us he's not a racist:
"George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman charged with murdering unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, said during his first televised interview: "I'm not a racist. I'm not a murderer."
He also tried to reiterate that he's not a racist by making this curious argument:
"It is ironic the one and only person that they could find that's saying anything remotely to me being a racist also claims that I'm a deviant," Zimmerman said.
What is so ironic about that? It's possible to be a racist and a deviant. Actually the "deviant" charge is about the fact that his own cousin testified in court that he molested her as a child:
"Zimmerman refuted claims by a cousin, now in her mid-20s, who told investigators that his immediate family were racist and that he sexually molested her from the time she was 6 years old until she was about 16."
The mind simply boggles why this young woman would make such stories up. In any case, this "association" of Hannity's does little credit to him-or to Zimmerman. It begs the question why he has been such an advocate for Zimmerman.
For Zimmerman the question is why Sean Hannity-a very disreputable source-is his number one advocate. It goes as far as that Hannity has been accused of trying to fund his defense:
"The interview comes after rumors that Hannity had offered to pay some of Zimmerman's legal fees. The rumor mill began churning this week after Zimmerman was heard in newly released recorded jailhouse phone calls telling a friend that a mystery benefactor he identified only as "SH" had agreed to support him."
"Globalgrind.com later reported that "a rock-solid source" confirmed that the personal email addres for 'SH' that George Zimmerman gave to a friend is Hannity's, "thus confirming that 'SH' is in fact the Fox News host," the website reported. Hannity during the interview denied offering Zimmerman anything."
Why is Sean Hannity such an advocate for George Zimmerman? I think you can't avoid the reality that it's all about race. If Trayvon had been white, Zimmerman's act would not have seemed so sympathetic to Sean and company.
True there is also the gun issue, the NRA support for the Stand Your Ground law that encourages such confrontational vigilante justice. The fact is, by Zimmerman's own account, Trayvon was trying to flee from him and Zimmerman pursued him which is what led to the fatal incident. Whatever happened afterwards Zimmerman was the instigator.
But Hannity's advocacy just makes the whole tragic episode stink even more.
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