From John Wilkes Booth to Joe Wilson without a shred of evidence or even a link to show where the nuttiness came from.

Well done. As you were, Indeed.

I’ll bet Joe Wilson once rode a horse, just like John Wilkes Booth did on his escape route to Maryland. He probably stepped in mud one time too, and wouldn’t you know it, Booth had his leg fixed by Dr. Samuel Mudd.

Heavens to Betsey, Indeed. The coincidences are unbelievable. Southern Strategy written all over these coincidences. It’s all in the Southern Strategy list of Code words wrote and published just before he passed away.

Nutjob.

Looking into the background of Rep. Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, after his heckling of President Obama last night, I came across this:

Joe also has been a member of the Columbia World Affairs Council, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Sinclair Lodge 154, Jamil Temple, Woodmen of the World, Sons of Confederate Veterans, ….

This is an organization that, as the SPLC has detailed assiduously, has been taken over in the past decade by radical neo-Confederates who favor secession and defend slavery as a benign institution. Leading the takeover is a radical racist named Kirk Lyons, who’s been an important legal figure on the far right for some years.* [More below]

In more recent years, the takeover has led to an outright internal civil war. Andrew Meacham at the St. Petersburg Times detailed the internal rift last year:

Experts say the divisions within the Sons vary between two extremes. On one side are the traditionalists, members who focus on cleaning up Confederate grave sites and conducting Civil War re-enactments.

On the other side are the so-called Lunatics, up to 2,000 members who deride traditionalists as “grannies” and belong to camps named after notorious Southern figures such as John Wilkes Booth and Jesse James.

John Wilkes Booth members have been known to put pennies in urinals, making sure to leave the Lincoln side face-up. Other Lunatic groups have removed the U.S. flag from their halls and banned the Pledge of Allegiance, says Walter Hilderman, who several years ago created an anti-Lunatic group called Save the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

“The problem is it’s supposed to be a patriotic organization,” says Hilderman, 59. “You are either that or you let guys in who want to secede.”

Ahh the fruits of the Southern Strategy. Nicely played, Party of Robert Stacy McCain. Nice played, Dennis. Well done. As you were.

And this: Hinderaker 2003 [Bush has abandoned] “what used to be considered conservative principles.”

…is not a criticism, it’s a CYA moment. It lays the groundwork to pretend, as many do now, that Bush/Cheney’s many failings do not in any way indict conservative principles.

We can see the face of the modern conservative. The so-called Party of Lincoln today wouldn’t let that man rise higher than Senate page.

Hinderaker 2003 [Bush has abandoned] “what used to be considered conservative principles.”

Hinderaker 2008: “Vote No” against TARP.

Hinderaker 2004: “I just don’t think he’s doing the principled thing.”

It’s almost like they don’t understand how the Internet works, and that stuff they say will be on the record forever.

“..The tone of the post is obviously tongue in cheek, but liberals never seem to notice. They are, to put it charitably, not big on nuance.”