My column takes on Monday’s Day of Demagoguery led by Hillary Clinton and Ray Nagin. Intro:

The freaks come out at night. The demagogues came out on Martin Luther King Day.

Democrat N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton perhaps looking to distract attention from those pesky Code Pink protesters who’ve been dogging her over the Iraq war, commemorated the holiday by pulling a reverse Sister Souljah at race hustler Al Sharpton’s pulpit in Harlem. The Canaan Baptist Church welcomed her pandering with what the Associated Press described as “thunderous applause.”

When a Democrat politician stumps at a church, you see, it’s “minority outreach.” When a Republican politician stumps at a church, it’s a theocratic outrage.

Asked to explain the difference between Democrats and Republicans, Hillary’s response oozed with righteous flava (did Bill “Our first black president” Clinton help her practice?):

“For the last five years, we’ve had no. Power. At All. And that makes a big difference, because when you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation. And you know what I’m talkin’ about. It has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary point of view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard. The Senate’s not that bad. But it’s been difficult. It’s been difficult.”

Yes, Hillary, we’re living in the antebellum South all over again. Forget the existence of the raucus Congressional Black Caucus. Pay no attention to the ubiquitous Rep. Charlie Rangel on cable television and radio airwaves. Look past the mainstream status bestowed on the fanatical black separatist Louis Farrakhan, most recently honored as Black Entertainment Television.com’s man of the year. And ignore the true ideological plantation mentality that punishes every prominent conservative minority dissenter who strays from leftist orthodoxy.

What racial demagogic stunt will Hillary sink to next? Cornrows and a cameo on Bush-bashing rapper Kanye West’s next album? Go on, girl. Go ahead. Get down.

And the conclusion:

These calculated moments of Democrat demagoguery illuminate liberalism’s three-decade-old moral bankruptcy on issues of race. From the party’s smearing of Clarence Thomas to the bigoted attacks on Condoleezza Rice and Maryland GOP Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, to its opposition to school choice for inner-city students and denigration of California businessman Ward Connerly’s campaign against government racial preferences, to its latest desperate attempts to blame racism for Hurricane Katrina and to portray Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito as a red-necked bigot, the Left has offered nothing but slime and obstructionism.

Yet, there isn’t a day that goes by without Democrats effectively using the race card against their opponents in every political debate ranging from education to border security to the courts. It’s time for conservatives, Republicans in Washington, and minorities with half a brain to call their bluff. Stand up. Defend your honor. Don’t let it pass.

You know what I’m talkin’ about?

Wacky NYC councilman Charles Barron actually gets one right and calls Hillary on the carpet.

La Shawn Barber weighs in.

Hillary’s unapologetic, natch. The White House strikes back. And Drudge reports that First Lady Laura Bush has responded to Hillary:

Laura Bush on Hillary’s plantation remark: ‘I think it’s ridiculous. It’s a ridiculous comment’… Developing…

Brava. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about.

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12noon. I’ll be on O’Reilly radio in a few minutes to talk plantation politics.

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Robert A. George says he’s had enough of plantation politics.