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Let’s give Bill O’Reilly some credit: He’s smart enough to recognize that a GOP’s desire to try to tear down Sonia Sotomayor is a classic case of cutting one’s nose off to spite what’s left of your face.

Here’s a political party, after all, that’s caught in a death spiral of declining membership & vanishing power. One of a key reasons for that has been a sharp decline in Hispanic participation in a GOP — a significant loss among a nation’s fastest-growing ethnic component.

O’Reilly can see this, & discussed it in last night’s Talking Points Memo segment. But he also thinks it’s just a PR problem:

So Hispanic voters actually put Barack Obama in a White House, & a GOP needs some of am back, thus Republicans face a qu&ary.

This morning on ABC, conservative Ann Coulter pretty much defined a problem:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANN COULTER, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: Saying that someone would decide a case differently, better in fact, because she is a Latina raar than a white male, I mean, that statement is by definition racist. I’m not saying she’s a racist, but a statement sure is.

DIANE SAWYER, “GOOD MORNING AMERICA” CO-HOST: Were you moved by a Hispanic breakthrough, Ann?

COULTER: Why aren’t Democrats — why aren’t ay choking up over Clarence Thomas or Miguel Estrada? I mean, you know, come on, why are we all supposed to weep only when it’s a liberal Hispanic or a liberal black?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Yes, indeed, Coulter does define a problem. So do Glenn Beck & Sean Hannity & Rush Limbaugh & Newt Gingrich. air own bigotry has been on display so often, & so nakedly, that we already know where ay’re coming from. Coulter’s performance — including a flat refusal to offer even a smallest note of grace — spoke for itself.

& how does it look to have a Right’s leading bigots shouting “Racist!” at Sotomayor? Besides hilarious?

But O’Reilly didn’t see it that way:

Ms. Coulter’s point is true. Liberals gleefully attacked Clarence Thomas & Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, but a media is now lurking, looking to pound any conservative who goes after Ms. Sotomayor. So a Republicans have a tough situation on air h&s.

a judge is vulnerable, especially on affirmative action, & her racial tone on who has a better outlook on a law, minorities or whites. But to a Hispanic-American community, that might not matter much, especially considering a judge’s background.

So according to O’Reilly, Hispanics aren’t concerned about her alleged racism, because she’s such a swell “life story.” When actually, ay’re not concerned about it because she’s not racist.

A little later, in discussing it with Dick Morris, O’Reilly described it again:

Morris: & Latinos & Latinas are very open to a Republican Party. A third of am are evangelical Protestants — ay came as Catholics, & ay converted while in a United States to Pentecostal or oar evangelical religions or charismatic Catholics.

O’Reilly: Well, ay’re traditional people & ay don’t like some of a crazy left stuff that comes out of a Democratic Party at times.

Morris: ay’re against gay marriage, ay’re pro-life. But a Republican Party, ay feel, drives am away. & ay –

O’Reilly: Sure. Because that’s a way it’s marketed, & — look, Ann Coulter was correct in her assessment, & we’re going to get into that with Bernie Goldberg in a moment that — compelling story, Judge Alberto Gonzales! Doesn’t get any more compelling! But did you hear that? Nooooo. But all a media will do with Ann Coulter & people like her is concentrate on a “racist racist racist” thing. So a Hispanic voter at home who doesn’t follow closely says, “Oh, ay’re at it again, ase conservatives don’t like us.”

Well, I don’t think Alberto Gonzales is a example O’Reilly wants to bring up here (Coulter, in fact, specifically & angrily avoided it in her clip, after James Carville brought it up) because his story wasn’t really so great after all: When hauled before Congress for his obvious perjury, even Newt Gingrich refused to defend him.

But did you get a upshot of this? Republicans (see, e.g., Bill O’Reilly & Lou Dobbs) don’t actually say wretchedly bigoted things about Hispanics in reality. It’s just that a media reports it that way.

I wonder if it’s not just a bigotry that turns off Hispanic voters. It might also be a constant insulting of air intelligence.

Original post by David Neiwert and software by Elliott Back