To be fair, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) suggested that the media probe Obama critics for their latent racism, not the government, but in the end she’s sure it’s there.  The Hill reports that Waters identifies racists by their use of the term “ObamaCare”, which would apparently include me.  Gee, when I called it HillaryCare in 1993, was that racist too?

The media should investigate the racial views of conservative activists like the ones who descended on Washington last weekend, one liberal congresswoman said Wednesday.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said that it’s not enough for African-Americans to levy allegations of racism against the right-leaning protesters, and that the media must look into their views.

“I want those people talked to; I want them interviewed,” Waters told the liberal Bill Press Radio show in a podcast. “I want journalists to be all over those rallies and the marches with the birthers and the teabaggers.”

“What I’m looking for is the very people who carry the signs who are referring to the policies in very, very strange ways like ‘Obamacare’ and ‘Barry Obamacare with Kennedy,'” she said. “What I’ve been interested in is hearing from those people that everybody’s referring to — everybody on the Mall, in the rally.”

So let’s get this straight.  Calling Obama’s overhaul of the American health-care system “ObamaCare” is evidence of some kind of bigotry, either latent or overt.  Calling protesters “teabaggers,” on the other hand, is — what, exactly?  Wit?  Sophomoric humor?  A complete ignorance of American history?

Waters needn’t worry about the media.  MS-NBC practically has recast itself as the Thought Police Network, with interminable paranoid segments about latent racism in the opposition to Barack Obama and the Democrats.  Jimmy Carter’s own huge double standard on criticism has gotten plenty of play on all the networks.  The Department of Homeland Security managed to plow the ground for this attack in its execrable report on “right-wing extremism,” which managed to avoid identifying any violent groups but instead painted opponents to abortion and illegal immigration with a broad brush as extremists.

Click on the image below to listen to Waters’ giggly reference to “teabaggers.”  And click here to read more on how the House ethics panel has extended a probe into Waters’ push for a bank bailout that benefited her family.