Shorter Fran Eaton: Barack Obama attends a historically black church. This church’s pastor has some daughters who run a magazine. That magazine published by the daughters of the pastor of the church that Sen. Obama attends gives out awards to those who have helped the downtrodden — historically black communities across the country and black peoples around the world. Last year, one of those awards was given to Louis Farrakhan because of his and his organizations’ dedication to rehabilitating and improving the plight of ex-convicts.

Therefore, Sen. Obama is evil. Oh, and don’t forget that he goes to a “black” church.

The logic is… impeccable (not).

(And did she ever mention Sen. Obama attends a “black” church? And Farrakhan has made anti-Semitic remarks? Might’ve skipped that last one. Remember: Obama, Farrakhan. See how easy that is to figure out? Obama… Farrakhan… … … Black…)

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In the recent past, Ms. Eaton has whined that she’s simply expressing her opinion that Sen. Obama is “hypocritical” when it comes to his church. That’s a far cry from her first few acid-tongued posts declaring that Sen. Obama’s Christian church was “racist” and “black supremacists” and “black separatists” simply because they devote much of their Christian charity and compassion to those in the black community who may be in need.

Recall that Ms. Eaton is editor of a conservative blog site which proudly promoted the notion that Chinese people eat babies; complete with sweet-n-sour sauce.

Regardless of whether she’s being soft or acidic in her myopia, myopia it is. The entirety of her premise that Sen. Obama’s Christian church is somehow “bad” and that he is somehow “hypocritical” is based on her own ignorance of the history African American Christianity in this country and her own misreadings of Trinity United Church of Christ’s tenets related to liberation, compassion, charity and community. (Oh, and her disdain for people who dislike her hero, George W. Bush, crossed with a deeply partisan loathing for Sen. Obama himself — to be expected from a former campaigner for Alan Keyes for Senate, Illinois edition.) The intertwined network of conservative partisan media has helped her efforts at promoting this ignorant misinterpretation of basic information. (This wouldn’t be the first time Ms. Eaton proved to be ignorant and apparently willfuly misinformed, nor the second, nor the third, nor the… you get the idea.)

Now that her original, anti-Christian premises have been thoroughly and repeatedly refuted … she’s taken to regurgitating the latest limp lament from conservative partisans that Sen. Obama is evil because he is someone who “associates with someone who associates with someone who associates with someone who likes Farrakhan…“

It’s Six Degrees of Louis Farrakhan, and the cons are running with it.

Burt Prelutsky of Pajamas Media tried to spin this tangential, guilt-by-association meme a few days ago and local anti-Obama con John Ruberry spit that same baloney back up shortly thereafter. In a much more widely read forum, Richard “Unity, Schmunity” Cohen decided a day later to follow suit by playing the Six Degrees game in the Washington Post. (Keep in mind that, although Republican, Sec. Cohen worked in Bill Clinton’s Administration and is now part of the hypothetical “Unity ‘08″ effort which may culminate in a presidential campaign by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg — more on that in a bit post is here. Either or both of those tidbits may explain his desire to suckerpunch Obama as he did.)

Are these people all really so arrogant as to think that if they simply say something often enough that people will buy it, even if it has no actual import because the connections are so weak?

Sen. Obama attends the church, but that’s the extent of the connection…

The magazine is published by the church’s pastor’s daughters, yes, but Sen. Obama does not work for the publication.

The magazine gives out the annual award, yes, but Sen. Obama does not decide who should be nominated for the award nor decide who it should ultimately be given to.

He didn’t even hand out the award and wasn’t even in the same room (maybe not even in the same city) when it was given out.

Heck, even darling of the right Sen. Joe Lieberman (who left the Democratic Party and has recently gone about endorsing Republican candidates) would somehow be “more” guilty then Sen. Obama in this hackneyed guilt-by-assocation game since Sen. Lieberman told us he had respect for Farrakhan and would like to meet and talk with him during the 2000 presidential race.

Maybe the con-partisans thought, by laying this groundwork now, they could peel Jewish support away from the Dems if Sen. Obama should earn the nomination. If so, that effort may have been abjectly futile as this week many Jewish national leaders came out strongly against the vicious, racist, bigoted smears being spread about Sen. Obama, his upbringing and his faith.

But, for whatever reason (narrow-minded partisanship, dislike for his values, disagreement with his record, or even, sadly, perhaps some latent sense of racism) it is clear that these partisan conservatives loathe the very idea of Senator Obama as President Obama. Based on these people’s pure, unadulterated hate for him they’re willing to play the fool, writing and publicizing utter nonsense, to try and tarnish him somehow.

Using their exact same logic, each of these people is guilty of the same sorts of “bad” associations.

Take Ms. Eaton for example…

Ms. Eaton worked for Alan Keyes’ Senate run as an out-of-state carpetbagger. Alan Keyes is a staunch conservative who hates gay people, even going so far as to very publicly tongue-lash and ostracize his own gay daughter.

Before her career as a partisan, Ms. Eaton also went to college at Missouri Baptist University.

Like Alan Keyes, there’s another conservative fellow out there named Rev. Fred Phelps who despises gay people. Plus, Mr. Phelps leads Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, the state next to Missouri (where Ms. Eaton went to a Baptist college). In fact, Mr. Phelps is so adamantly against gay people that he has led his congregation to protest military funerals because those soldiers defend America and there are gay people living in America.

Therefore, obviously, Ms. Eaton hates gay people and would protest at military funerals to prove it, no matter what she says. (Given the similarities between her and Mr. Phelps, one can easily ignore what she says since she’s clearly in the wrong anyway.)

Of course, the above is purely for demonstration purposes only. I take Ms. Eaton at her word when she says she rejects the Phelps-brand of rabid and vile hate. I also don’t think she’s racist — at least not outwardly so. But, from the pattern of her writing on this and other topics, she is clearly vacuous and ill-informed with little ambition to actually learn anything new, especially if it may counter her narrow, partisan view of the world. But, using Ms. Eaton’s own brand of cracker jack logic and guilt-by-association, it’s really very easy (and very silly) to prove just how “__insert_synonym_for_’bad’_here__” she really is.

….What’s next? TIME Magazine conservative columnists and CNN conservative guests discussing whether or not Sen. Obama picked his nose in kindergarten and how that clearly demonstrates he hates kittens and puppies?

Well, maybe that thought is too ridiculous, eh? Just remember: Obama, Farrakhan. All you need to do is say the two names. C’mon: Obama, Farrakhan.

Obama…

Farrakhan…

…

…

Black…

PS: Yes, Sen. Obama has repudiated Farrakhan’s past spiteful remarks.