When Facts Get in the Way of a Good Rant

Christine Flowers, a conservative Republican attorney, has provoked something of a storm over "I'm Immune to the Obama Swoon," a factually challenged rant on the Democratic presidential contender in the form of a Philadelphia Daily News op-ed column.

The column reveals why people smugly ensconsed in the status quo -- in Flowers' case a career measured in billable hours at a major law firm -- feel so threatened by Obama, who is a dramatic departure both literally and figuratively from white-bread presidential politics.

Money graf:

"Well, I never understood the attraction of those old-time revival meetings, either, where people with personalities even bigger than the churches they were preaching in, could sway the crowds by the sheer force of their passion. I need actual red meat, not the wispy promises of a sweet-talking neophyte."

Flowers believes that Obama just stands, as opposed to standing for anything.

She certainly has not read his extensive policy papers, and throws in what can only be described as a mean-spirited and borderline racist reference to the bloodshed in Kenya, the homeland of the candidate's father. Would she have brought up the protracted violence in Kosovo if Obama was a Serb? Of course not.

The Daily News is a flaming liberal newspaper if ever there was one (and my employer for many years). Flowers' hit piece on Obama and previous columns are the result of the papers' belief that it needs to have a counterbalance to all of its liberal-lefty voices a la Bill Kristol at The New York Times.

Not because Kristol and Flowers are any good. In fact, they don't even have the chops to think beyond the tired conservative talking points that have made the Republican presidential race such a dreary affair.

Flowers is entitled to her opinions, of course, but she is not entitled to make things up -- with a dollop of race baiting and petty shin kicking thrown in for good measure.

Then again, she knows full well that she won't be challenged by her Daily News editors.