Jerome Corsi: How a Racist, Conspiratorial Crank Became a Top GOP Anti-Obama Point Man

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Jerome Corsi: How a Racist, Conspiratorial Crank Became a Top GOP Anti-Obama Point Man

By Max Blumenthal, The Nation. Posted August 23, 2008.

Corsi's success represents the apotheosis of a long, strange trip from the furthest shores of the right into the national spotlight.



These are good times for Jerome Corsi. Already notorious for his factually challenged book-length takedown of 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, Unfit For Command, the 61-year-old Corsi has another hit on his hands. His new book, Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality has made Corsi a hot commodity again on the right-wing radio circuit, the bane of the Obama campaign and catapulted to the top slot on the New York Times bestseller list. With his newfound notoriety, Corsi has brought his pathographic anti-Obama narrative to hundreds of thousands of readers -- and millions on radio and TV -- just as he did with Kerry. Corsi has become the court bard of the conservative movement. "The goal is to defeat Obama," Corsi told the New York Times. "I don't want Obama to be in office."

Corsi's success represents the apotheosis of a long, strange trip from the furthest shores of the right into the national spotlight. During George W. Bush's first term, Corsi was a little-known financial services marketing specialist. In 1995, according to the Boston Globe, he coaxed twenty people into a shadowy investment venture in Poland that ultimately lost them a total of $1.2 million. "It ruined my career in the brokerage business, and it was a sad story for a lot of people," said Bradley Amundson, one of those enlisted into Corsi's bungled scheme. The FBI opened an investigation but never filed any charges.

Corsi had dabbled off-and-on the fringes of conservative backlash politics for nearly three decades. In his spare time, which he appeared to have lots of, Corsi busied himself at his computer, firing off opinions on the far-right website Free Republic, marked by their sexual and racial obsessions.

In a comment typical of the dozens he posted under the handle "jrlc," Corsi wrote, "Anybody ask why HELLary couldn't keep BJ Bill satisfied? Not lesbo or anything, is she?" In another, he ranted, "Isn't the Democratic Party the official SODOMIZER PROTECTION ASSOCIATION of AMERICA -- oh, I forgot, it was just an accident that Clintoon's first act in office was to promote 'gays in the military.' RAGHEADS are Boy-Bumpers as clearly as they are Women-Haters -- it all goes together." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/election08/95820/jerome_corsi%3A_how_a_racist%2C_conspiratorial_crank_became_a_top_gop_anti-obama_point_man/

[struggle4progress]

1. Bestselling Anti-Obama Fabulist Appears On White Supremacist Radio Show (SPLC)

... Perhaps Corsi’s most telling appearance, however, has been on The Political Cesspool, an overtly racist, anti-Semitic radio show hosted by self-avowed white nationalist James Edwards. Corsi was interviewed on the Cesspool on July 20 and is scheduled to appear again this Sunday, August 17, joining a recent guest roster that has included Christian Identity pastor Pete Peters, Holocaust denier Mark Weber and former Klan boss David Duke ...
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2008/08/13/bestselling-anti-obama-fabulist-appears-on-white-supremacist-radio-show/

Frameshop: Corsi Frequent Guest on White Supremacist Radio
August 14, 2008
http://jeffrey-feldman.typepad.com/frameshop/2008/08/frameshop-obama.html

Corsi's reported cancellation of scheduled appearance on "pro-White" radio show leaves unanswered questions
Mon, Aug 18, 2008 12:26pm ET
Summary: Obama Nation author Jerome Corsi's reported cancellation of a scheduled appearance on the "pro-White" radio show Political Cesspool because of a change in "travel plans" raises questions, including why he has previously appeared on the "pro-White" radio show, why he was scheduled to appear again, whether he intends to reschedule, and whether he is willing to publicly condemn the show ...
http://mediamatters.org/items/200808180001

[BR_Parkway]

8. "..Free Republic, marked by their sexual and racial obsessions..."

It's so great to see that called out like it is in print!

[madrchsod]

2. he also has problems with under age boys...well....

that`s what i heard on the radio yesterday and read on the internets.

[The Wizard]

7. Wait until the pictures are released (NT)

[Tutonic]

10. The underage boy thing is true. I may have this part wrong but

seem to recall reading that he was politely asked to resign as Scout Master. FOX and CNN must be full of some emotionally twisted executives.

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. KICK AND RECOMMENDED!!!

I just finished reading the article and was going to post it myself.

[ladjf]

4. The man is simply a "writer for hire".

[benld74]

5. Lets get someone towrite a book about his exploits, at least it would be the truth

[CitizenPatriot]

6. Corsi is representing them

and I don't intend to let them forget it. The inability to formulate a credible argument is a telling sign of a substandard education and people who can’t formulate plausible arguments often resort to the bulling tactic of hurling insults and unsubstantiated baloney, like our fearless leader and his buddies (mc caint speak, et al).

he is what they breed -- it's undeniable.

good luck to them in living their intolerance and bigotry down. In the history books, they will look like the knuckle-dragging, illiterate, sub-human, egomaniacal hood-wearing cowards they are. There's simply no explaining it away. And it is due to these uncivilized and frankly pathetically unintellectual ideas that the party will lose more and more power.

a bit o history from Time, 2002:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,399921,00.html


The same could be said, of course, about such Republican heroes as, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon or George Bush the elder, all of whom used coded racial messages to lure disaffected blue collar and Southern white voters away from the Democrats. Yet it's with Reagan, who set a standard for exploiting white anger and resentment rarely seen since George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door, that the Republican's selective memory about its race-baiting habit really stands out...

Republican leaders and their apologists tend to go into a frenzy of denial when members of the liberal media cabal bring up these inconvenient facts. It's that lack of candor, of course, that presents the biggest obstacle to George W. Bush's commendable and long overdue campaign to persuade more African-Americans to defect from the Democrats to the Republicans. It's doomed to fail until the GOP fesses up its past addiction to race-baiting, and makes a sincere attempt to kick the..

CUT

gee, not much has changed over there in Air Sick Haven -- except that while they have not evolved, we have.

[blondie58]

9. did anyone catch his interview on Thom Hartmann last week?

it was really sweet. Thom basically turned the tables on him and Corsi ended by hanging up on him. Thom did his homework on Jerome and found a couple of "rumors" about him. I love Thom!

[snake in the grass]

11. Normally,

I don't get a chance to hear Thom Hartmann, but on Friday I was lucky enough to be stuck in traffic so I caught the whole interview and it was sweet. To his credit, Corsi didn't hang up immediately which gave Hartmannn the opportunity to continuously hit him with the hammer. It was nice to hear one of these worms getting a taste of their own medicine. My only wish would be for Corsi to be exposed in the same manner on national television.