Via the Blog Prof. Nothing new here — remember, James Clyburn already compared town-hall protesters to goons who attacked civil-rights marchers — but between this and Howard Kurtz’s argument this morning that it’s racist to shout at Obama about the Constitution, I think the “post-racial presidency” can be safely pronounced dead and buried. It was always a fraud, of course, starting with the racial insinuations directed at the Clintons by Team Barry, on through the general election when accusations about McCain’s alleged racism would slip oh so innocently from The One’s lips (ask Mark Salter about that), and right up to the present day, when a guy who never seems to stop talking somehow can’t be bothered to speak up when his pals on the left pinch off poisonous loaves like this. Even so, the cynicism of it during the ObamaCare debate, as an Alinskyan tactic to demonize good-faith opponents of Obama’s agenda, is simply breathtaking. Take 10 minutes to read Jesse Walker’s critique at Reason of how the left demagogues “right-wing extremism” to serve its ends. It’s an essential gloss on this garbage.

Fun fact about Johnson: He’s the guy who upset Cynthia McKinney in the Democratic primary in 2006, with the full support of the blogosphere eager for a more credible, less radical congressman to represent that district. Here’s how much more credible he is.