KUHNER: Smearing The Tea Party

Liberals are portraying the Tea Party movement as fostering violence and sedition. During a recent appearance on NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show," Time columnist Joe Klein said that much of the heated political rhetoric, "especially the [statements] coming from people like Glenn Beck and to a certain extent Sarah Palin, rub right up close to being seditious."

Of course, sedition is a crime. It is the revolt or inciting of revolt against the authority of the government. Mr. Klein's message was clear: Conservative critics of President Obama are committing treason, especially the Tea Partiers who express their disapproval through rallies and protests.

Not to be outdone, former President Bill Clinton seized on the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing to compare Tea Party participants to potential Timothy McVeighs.

"Have at it, go fight, go do whatever you want," Mr. Clinton said in a speech. "You don't have to be nice; you can be harsh. But you've got to be very careful not to advocate violence or cross the line."

In an Op-Ed column in the New York Times, he wrote: "There is a big difference between criticizing a policy or a politician and demonizing the government."

The comments from Mr. Klein and Mr. Clinton are disconnected from reality. The men are either ignoramuses or cheap propagandists, deliberately smearing Tea Party activists. The Tea Party movement has been peaceful and law-abiding. It is a public manifestation of anger at Mr. Obama's unprecedented expansion of government power. This legal, nonviolent freedom of association is as American as mom and apple pie.

The charges against Tea Partiers are not only false, but brazenly hypocritical. During the presidency of George W. Bush, the left's mantra was "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." Apparently, that only applies when a Republican occupies the White House.

Moreover, the antiwar left engaged in hateful vitriol that makes Tea Party rallies seem like Sunday picnics. Mr. Bush routinely was compared to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. He was denounced as a war criminal. Code Pink protesters held up signs urging that Mr. Bush be shot. He was slandered regularly as a liar, imperialist and fascist. The left's narrative was that the Republican Party had erected a right-wing military junta: "Bush-Cheney-Hitler-Halliburton" was the antiwar movement's cry. "Bush lied, people died," was another slogan. It was not conservatives, but Bush-bashing progressives who espoused incendiary, violent rhetoric.

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