Pat Buchanan

Pat Buchanan's Anti-Sotomayor Jihad--A Montage

Brian Beutler | June 3, 2009, 12:38PM

We've spent a lot of time on this site examining the handful of conservative activists leading the fight against Sonia Sotomayor. It's almost a full time job. Intentionally or otherwise, though, that group of folks has recruited MSNBC analyst Pat Buchanan to do much of their bidding. Herewith, a montage of Buchanan's tireless campaign in defense of downtrodden white male Supreme Court hopefuls:

That video comes courtesy of Media Matters.

As I noted earlier today, Buchanan often saves his most controversial polemics for readers of the conservative magazine Human Events, which runs his column twice a week. Yesterday, in that column, he accused Sotomayor of practicing "tribal justice."

Pat Buchanan

Buchanan: Sotomayor Practices "Tribal Justice"

Brian Beutler | June 3, 2009, 11:21AM

In April, my colleague Zack Roth described Pat Buchanan as Washington's "crazy political uncle"--the guy who the establishment indulges, and even enjoys, despite a oeuvre that runs the gamut from aspersions on "New York Jewish money" to a rousing defense of the South Carolinian wise men who raised a confederate flag over the state capitol.

In order to get away with it though, his enablers have to overlook much of the work he does in the extremely right wing magazine Human Events. That's where "crazy Uncle Pat" often turns nasty.

"In her world," Buchanan wrote yesterday of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, "equal justice takes a back seat to tribal justice."

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Sonia Sotomayor

Levey: I Had No Idea Sotomayor Smear Campaign Would Blow Up

Brian Beutler | June 2, 2009, 9:26AM

Yesterday we reported that prominent Sonia Sotomayor critics including Tom Tancredo ("Latina KKK") and Pat Buchanan ("That woman... is for race-based justice") were employing, with full knowledge of the events, a young man named Marcus Epstein, who plead guilty to karate chopping a black female pedestrian and calling her a "nigger."

Dave Weigel of The Washington Independent asked a number of conservative Sotomayor critics what this apparent hypocrisy says about the larger campaign to block her confirmation, and one response, in particular was telling.

Curt Levey, the executive director of the Committee of Justice, has been optimistic about the right's fight against Sotomayor, but he admitted to TWI that he "underestimated the degree to which a few conservatives would say a few extreme things, and that would be characterized as what all conservatives think."

As we've noted before, the campaign against Sotomayor has exposed and widened a rift between a sensible faction within the conservative movement and die-hard activists. By basing the attacks on charges of racism, while simultaneously lobbing ethnically loaded insults at her, people like Levey have, inadvertently or not, poured gasoline on the embers of this conflict.

Pat Buchanan

Epstein: 'Diversity Can Be Good In Moderation' As Long As 'Trends Do Not Overwhelm The Dominant Culture'

Brian Beutler | June 1, 2009, 2:27PM

Earlier this year, a New York Times editorial blasted Marcus Epstein for a report he authored as executive director of The American Cause, arguing that Republicans ought to embrace anti-immigration extremism if they still dream of an eventual renaissance.

In the course of their digging, the Times editors came across an online archive of Epstein's writings which contain gems like:

"Diversity can be good in moderation -- if what is being brought in is desirable. Most Americans don't mind a little ethnic food, some Asian math whizzes, or a few Mariachi dancers -- as long as these trends do not overwhelm the dominant culture."

There's much, much more, if you care to browse.

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Pat Buchanan

Tancredo's Karate Chopping Racist Aide Also Works For Pat Buchanan

Brian Beutler | June 1, 2009, 1:34PM

In addition to crusading for Tom Tancredo and karate chopping innocent black women on summer evenings in Georgetown, it turns out that Marcus Epstein also works for everyone's favorite MSNBC talking head Pat Buchanan.

According to its website, Epstein is the executive director of The American Cause--Buchanan's anti-immigration organization. I've placed a call to The American Cause and to MSNBC for comment, and to verify that Epstein remains on staff, and will let you know what they tell me.