You have to wonder when people will begin to notice that Sean Hannity's incessant attempts to paint Barack Obama as a flaming radical by associating him with various supposed extremists is actually a classic case of projection.
After all, there's no one in the mainstream media who has quite the array of running associations with far-right nutcases that Sean Hannity has—going back to the days when he palled around with white supremacist Hal Turner, and continuing through his ongoing sponsorship of wackos like Birther extraordinaire Jerome Corsi. Most notably, Hannity continues to promote and support another WorldNetDaily nutcase, Jesse Lee Peterson.
Last night, however, even a Fox Democrat like Kirsten Powers found it too hard to contain herself when seated next to Peterson. As Ellen at NewsHounds points out, Powers completely derailed Hannity's planned Obama-bashing segment by turning to Peterson and demanding he explain himself for his recent declaration that most women are "little whores".
KIRSTEN POWERS: There is a little dispute over what you are saying whether or not the intelligence was necessary. But I do agree that what he is doing isn't right. However, I don't normally do this. I don't normally hijack you --
HANNITY: You are going to hijack me.
POWERS: But I didn't know I was going to be sitting here with Reverend Peterson tonight who I have been very serious issues with in terms -- some of the misogynist things have you said about how women in your sermon about how women have created a shameless society.
And most women are littler whores and that it was OK to call Sandra Fluke a slut and that should you put women in powerful businesses and then you leave women alone in the family, they destroy the family --
PETERSON: I don't know if you have noticed or not, but the liberal Democrat women are calling themselves whores. There is a so-called group of women within the Democratic Party and they are -- admitting -- they are admitting that they are whores --
HANNITY: Are you talking about that group --
POWERS: That's a completely different thing.
PETERSON: I am OK with that. I just don't want to pay for it. If the liberal women want to have sex out of wedlock --
POWERS: You say that women are creating a shameless society and they are destroying the family and they shouldn't be put in powerful positions - - address that. Women shouldn't be in powerful businesses.
PETERSON: Most Americans know that liberal women are destroying the family. They hate men. They hate society --
POWERS: That is absolutely false. Sean, do I hate men?
HANNITY: I hope not. You started this.
PETERSON: -- public school system --
POWERS: You are not addressing what you said. You are a pastor, distorting God's word for misogyny. What do you mean -- when you say women -- you leave a woman alone in charge of a family and she destroys the family?
PETERSON: We allowed the National Organization of Women who hate men -- the women in their group. We left them alone -- we left them alone -- there it is. We left them alone. Look at the condition we are in today, out of wedlock -- abortion.
HANNITY: All right, I have to step in --
PETERSON: I'm telling the truth.
HANNITY: I gave you -- this is not one of the topics that I planned on. You are hijacking the show.
POWERS: I didn't know I was going to be on with him.
HANNITY: Why did you come in --
(CROSSTALK)
PETERSON: If you believe what you believe --
POWERS: I saw him on --
HANNITY: We have another guest, to be fair. Let me ask you --
PETERSON: Why are you upset at me? I am not upset at you --
POWERS: You are a pastor using God's word to teach misogyny.
PETERSON: No. I have a responsibility to tell the truth. You are on the side of lies. Why should I not be on the side of truth? The truth is going to make us free. Somebody got to tell the truth. I tell the truth. There is an order to life -- liberal women policies are bad for family, bad for the country.
HANNITY: I have to take a break.
In case you're wondering, here's the video of the sermon that Rev. Peterson recently gave:
This version has been heavily edited, so that the most offensive remarks have been removed. Ellen at NewsHounds managed to transcribe most of them while they were still available:
Not all, not all, not all, but most (women) turned into little whores. (He cited Sandra Fluke as an example).
Who in the world is having that much sex? …What are these women doing having that much sex? …She had no shame.
Rush Limbaugh called her a slut and she didn’t realize that she looked like a slut sitting there making that type of confession…
How did we get to a point where women think we should pay for them to have sex?
They want to force us to buy them birth control.
No one’s saying, ‘Where’s your shame, woman?’
Rush Limbaugh called her… “a whore and a slut” and I agree with him.
And yes, Hannity not only brings Peterson onto his show as a regular guest. He also sits on the board of directors of Peterson's nonprofit organization.
Since Hannity obviously thinks it's a big deal to associate with radicals, perhaps he ought to explain his own associations.
