Canadian conservatives don't quite know what to make of the hate-crime conviction of Justin Rehberg--if the thundering silence at Blogging Tories is any indication. Even the Speech Warriors™ appear to have been struck dumb by the case, whether out of sympathy for Rehberg or embarrassment at where their ideology insists on taking them. Or perhaps they're just out of breath from cheering Keith Olbermann's ouster. Yes, let's be generous--perhaps that's it.
But all this may change shortly. An intrepid reporter for DawgNews was recently privy to a wide-ranging conversation among anxious peons at Conservative Talking-Points Central who were discussing the appropriate spin. Here is the transcript of their off-the-record (hah!) discussion:
First voice: I think we need to come out swinging on this one. Branded a hate criminal for exercising freedom of expression? Come on.
Second voice: We can't be that obvious--people will call us racists.
Third voice: So what? They're even using the n-word over at Free Dominion now.
F&SV: Shhh!
SV: Let's try a different approach. These were just young kids, having some fun that might have gotten a little out of hand. It's not like anyone was physically injured. Just some hurt feelings and a lot of "what-ifs" from a liberal prosecutor.
FV: Yup. No one rounded up those Legionnaires.
TV: Frankly I found that one funny as hell.
FV: Me too. But back to business. We can't call what those kids did "fun" or we'll open a real can of worms. Thing is, they burned a cross on the lawn of a mixed-race couple. It's bad optics all round.
SV: Hey, that's it! We can strike a blow against property crime, with this as a prime example. They were trespassing. They lit a fire that could have spread. On somebody else's front lawn. Just another reason we need to build more prisons. Crime is rising!
TV: And another reason why we don't need hate legislation.
FV: Fine, so we have our points in order. If the base starts going on about free expression, we can always say there'd be no problemo if they'd burned the cross on their own lawn.
TV: OK, I'll send a note up to Dimitri.
