Tuesday night’s episode of The Good Wife on CBS gave prime time legitimacy to the presumption the Tea Party is racist as a lawyer in a courtroom tried to discredit an expert witness (Gary Cole as Sarah Palin supporter “Kurt McVeigh”) who testified against a since-exonerated black defendant, by demanding he admit he’s “a member of the Tea Party.” The lawyer asserts “it is our contention that my client’s prosecution was racist,” citing McVeigh’s “membership in a racist organization,” namely the Tea Party.
To illustrate, the program created a photo taken at “a Tea Party rally in Milwaukee last January” showing a man near “McVeigh” holding up a “Go Back to the Jungle” sign which the lawyer asks McVeigh to confirm “refers to our current President.” (large jpg image of the picture)
The February 22 episode marked the return of Cole’s ballistics expert “Kurt McVeigh” character as the love interest for Chicago law firm partner “Diane Lockhart,” played by Christine Baranski, a liberal who knows Hillary Clinton and has disdain for Palin. (Audio: MP3 clip)
As I recounted about a year ago in a March of 2010 post, “CBS Drama Showcases Blank Book that Mocks Palin as Empty-Headed Dunce,” with video:
On this past Tuesday’s episode of The Good Wife on CBS, viewers were treated to a scene in which a ballistics expert opens a gift, from a partner of a law firm, to find a book about Sarah Palin made up of, he discovers by thumbing through it, blank pages “satirically representing,” Amazon.com explains, “the mind and thinking of Sarah Palin.” The book, ‘Going Rouge: A Candid Look Inside the Mind of Political Conservative Sarah Palin.’
Back to this week’s episode of the drama starring “Julianna Margulies as a wife and mother who boldly assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband's very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail,” in a subsequent courtroom scene, the “McVeigh” character was allowed to defend the Tea Party: “It’s a political movement made up of conservatives and libertarians intended to apply pressure to the government to reduce spending.” The scene continued:
LOCKHART: Isn’t the Tea Party primarily anti-Obama?
McVEIGH: No.
LOCKHART: Then why wasn’t it formed under George W. Bush?
McVEIGH: There was hope President Bush would cut spending.
LOCKHART: Really?
McVEIGH: I would acknowledge that it was a slim hope and a thwarted hope, but the Tea Party is not about Obama. It’s about putting pressure on both parties to reduce.
Earlier in the episode, “Diane Lockhart” and “Kurt McVeigh” had this repartee about their political heroes:
LOCKHART: Yes. So’s your girl Palin. 2012 huh?
McVEIGH: That’s the hope.
LOCKHART: Dear God.
McVEIGH: Well it couldn’t be worse than your man Barack.
LOCKHART: Really? I’m always astounded when a man like you expresses such unadulterated drivel.
McVEIGH: Funny, I’m never astounded when you do.
— Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
