When you’re dealing with a powder-keg like the far-right activists who make up much of the GOP base, you’re never quite sure what kind of match will set off an explosion. This harmless NYT story, for example, which ran in the Travel section, seemed like an easily forgettable article.
Just an hour and a half from Washington, across the 4.3-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge, or less than 30 minutes in a government-issue Chinook helicopter, is the Eastern Shore of Maryland and the primly groomed waterside village of St. Michaels.
[tag]St. Michaels[/tag] has begun to lure V.I.P.’s who, some boosters would have it, could propel it into the gilded realm of the Hamptons and Nantucket. But that will take a while. There’s little for the young — just a few bars and no beaches or nightclubs — and these new householders are too circumspect and perhaps too old to be showcasing their excesses, baubles and abs.
One is Vice President Dick [tag]Cheney[/tag], 65, who paid $2.67 million last September for a house that resembles a wide, squat Mount Vernon. Another is his old friend Defense Secretary Donald H. [tag]Rumsfeld[/tag], 73, who in 2003 paid $1.5 million for a brick Georgian that was last a bed-and-breakfast.
It was routine [tag]Travel[/tag]-section fare about a quiet town with “old farm families and the wealthy weekenders.” From a political perspective, the article might have been a reminder that guys like Cheney and Rumsfeld are far too wealthy to be “regular Joes,” but it barely would have caused a blip on the political radar.
That is, except for the far-right’s reaction to the piece.
As [tag]Glenn Greenwald[/tag] discovered, several high-profile Bush supporters interpreted the article as a roadmap for terrorists who want to try and attack Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their families. There’s no indication that they were kidding.
Darkly lurking beneath the rustic, playful tone of the NYT Travel article is a homicidal plot on the part of the reporters and editors of the Times to provide a roadmap to their Al Qaeda allies so that they find Cheney and Rumsfeld (and maybe even Mrs. Rumsfeld) and murder them.
Reading over the far-right reactions gives new meaning to the word “unhinged.” One conservative posted the home address and telephone number of the Times photographers on his website. Another went even further.
So, in the school of what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, we are providing this link so YOU may help the blogosphere in locating the homes (perhaps with photos?) of the editors and reporters of the New York Times.
Let’s start with the following New York Times reporters and editors: Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger Jr. , Bill Keller, Eric Lichtblau, and James Risen. Do you have an idea where they live?
Go hunt them down and do America a favor. Get their photo, street address, where their kids go to school, anything you can dig up, and send it to the link above. This is your chance to be famous – grab for the golden ring.
Considering these threats of violence, the substance pales in comparison, but it’s worth remembering that the NYT article didn’t even report anything new. First, other news outlets have reported on Cheney and Rumsfeld living in St. Michaels before. Second, their home purchases are a matter of public record. And third, their weekday addresses are equally well-known.
The Travel-section piece wasn’t a road map for al Queda; it was a puff-piece about a sleepy hamlet in eastern Maryland.
Do you ever get the impression that some conservative activists made a right turn at “merely wrong” and are headed straight for “dangerous”?
