The Nigh Seen Creeder

As you may remember, Rush Limbaugh lost his gig with ESPN in 2003 when he was criticized for saying that the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was spared criticism because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed. (He also said, as Jeff Garcia is proving, that McNabb is "overrated.")

Limbaugh's comment - directed at the media, not McNabb - may have been a tad wrongheaded, but it was not inherently racist. The comment in question had no sooner left Limbaugh's mouth, however, before Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the rest of the Racial Grievances Committee erupted in fits. Limbaugh was forced to resign a few days later.

I couldn't help think back to the Limbaugh/McNabb imbroglio when I heard about U.S. Representative Neil Abercrombie's (D-Hawaii) dig at Secretary of State Condi Rice. In an interview with the Honolulu Star Bulletin, Abercrombie had this to say about Secretary Rice:

"[She is] the most overrated, underperforming individual in executive authority that I have ever seen. She constantly gets a pass. Who knows if the whole question of race and gender come into it, but ... I can't account for it, except to say she isn't up to the mark."

I, for one, don't see a whole hell of a lot of difference between what Limbaugh said about McNabb and what Abercrombie said about Rice. Shouldn't we now expect the Jacksons and Sharptons of the world to come to the secretary of state's defense? We should, but we know they won't.

RedState.com's Streiff has a take on the matter that is spot-on:

"What will happen here? Nothing. Because standards of decorum just don’t apply to Democrat pols. ...

"So Abercrombie, who has accomplished nothing in his life other than hold elective office while doing little or nothing in that office, is able to claim that Secretary of State Rice, a person with an actual honest to gosh track record of accomplishment, gets a pass because of her race or gender."