Hard to believe but there's another radio host more woefully characteristic of left wingers in the media than liberal talker and MSNBC action hero Ed Schultz.
His name is Norman Goldman, an LA-based lawyer, Huffington Post blogger and frequent Schultz guest "legal analyst" who started his own radio show last year and still occasionally sits in for Schultz.
Such was the case this week with Goldman subbing for Schultz on Monday and Tuesday. And as Goldman never fails to remind Schultz's audience, he and Schultz disagreed on the health bill -- Schultz was willing to accept the Senate version without a public option, Goldman was not.
Despite that, Goldman told Schultz's listeners on Monday, "Ed keeps me on the airwaves even though I disagree with him. You think Republicans would do that?"
Admirable tolerance of dissent that, alas, doesn't extend anywhere near Goldman. Here is an exchange that took place between Goldman and a caller just before Goldman's aforementioned praise of Schultz, after the caller said passage of the health bill is the first step toward a Hugo Chavez-style, socialist takeover of the US (click here for audio) --
GOLDMAN: Now, you keep throwing around these loaded terms like socialism and Hugo Chavez. There is no government takeover here. I wanted a public option, I wanted Medicare for all, which would make your criticism actually have some factual validity to it. All this bill does is force people to do business with your vaunted, dream come true, the private sector! Oh my God, Don, we've got to buy insurance from, oh gosh, private health insurance companies! It's a government takeover!
Don, you need Prozac, man, 'cause you just don't have a, you're not in touch with reality, man. You're not.CALLER: Bad analogy, bad analogy.
GOLDMAN: Bad analogy, that's the best you can do?!
CALLER: No, in Illinois you can ride a motorcycle without a helmet. In California, you have to have a helmet. This is a free country and people should not be ruled, step by step process, like Obama said, this is just one step in the process of a Hugo Chavez-takeover of this government.GOLDMAN: Wait, lemme guess, you're anti-choice, right? You'd outlaw abortion for all women, right? Right?
CALLER: Nobody, nobody should be allowed to murder anybody.
GOLDMAN: Ah, there you go! You want a big-government takeover of women's bodies!
CALLER: No ...
GOLDMAN: It gets you guys every time, Don ...
GOLDMAN: You're such a hypocrite! You get to make the rules, Don (crosstalk) Oh stop, Don! I ain't giving you any more airtime! You're a moron! Get the hell out of my country! Your rights to be an American are hereby stripped! You don't know the first thing of what it means to be an American. You don't know what the words liberty and freedom mean. Don, get out of my country! Take Limbaugh and get the hell out of here! Go to Costa Rica, where they have universal health insurance.
CALLER: Bad analogy, bad analogy ...
Goldman then cut to a break. At the start of the next segment, he referred to the argument in a manner that unintentionally called attention to the much-touted, seldom-observed liberal tolerance for dissent, as demonstrated by Goldman only minutes earlier --
GOLDMAN: See, this is the difference between the Democrats and America-haters. Ed and I disagree on the health bill. Ed keeps me on the airwaves even though he knows I disagree with him. You think Republicans would do that? You think Americans tolerate that? Pardon me, do you think Republicans tolerate that? (awkward laughter). Look, we're Democrats. We're the real Americans.
Yes, I think most Republicans -- and Americans -- would tolerate that sort of thing, having seen evidence of it for years. As for Democrats and liberals, let's just say there's a radio host/legal analyst who clearly lacks the stomach for dissent, regardless of how much he claims to swoon in its presence.
