MSNBC’s Martin Bashir, a very liberal host who’s not known to be shy with his rhetoric, takes exception to Rep. Alan Grayson’s use of KKK imagery in his recent Tea-Party bashing fundraising e-mail. Bashir’s argument is something along the lines of, “Sure, they’re terrible racists, but they’re not murdering, terrible racists,” but credit for a member of the Rhetoric Police doing a tiny bit to enforce the standards for his own side in this ridiculous bit of blue-on-blue action between two ridiculous men of the left.

Grayson, as you might imagine, double/triple/quadruples down:

Bashir began by noting that he has “some sympathy” for Grayson’s analysis, citing how “over the last five years, we have witnessed plenty of instances of racial hatred toward the president — whether it’s the revoting Rush Limbaugh, the imbecile Sarah Palin, or tea party supporters spewing their hate at various rallies.” However, he asked, “How can you possibly compare racist epithets with racist actions of the KKK, which actually led to racist murders?”

Grayson defends his analogy and expresses relief that we haven’t gotten to Tea Party murders…yet:

Grayson responded that “the home of discrimination and bigotry in our country” is the tea party, similar to how, at one point, the KKK was the wellspring of racial hatred years ago. “I’m pleased that we haven’t gone so far as to see those murders,” he said, “but the analogy holds to that degree,” citing the protestor who waved a Confederate flag in front of the White House recently.

“But how many young black and white civil rights workers has the tea party lynched?” Bashir asked, prompting the congressman to respond: “Sometimes analogies are imperfect.”

“Do you accept that that may have been an inappropriate analogy?” the MSNBC host pressed.

“No,” the congressman replied.

Yes, what would it mean for the United States if, say, a gunman bent on killing his political adversaries for their beliefs walked through a political organization’s doors and started shooting? Or, say, a major political protest movement was also the scene of several deaths, widespread property damage, and sexual assaults? Who can even imagine a world like that, Rep. Grayson? Maybe you could come up with an analogy for that.

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