The Freed Hostage, Limbaugh, And Race

One would think the man would be happy to be home, but in seeking his fifteen minutes, a former pirate hostage has taken aim at a liberal favorite: Rush Limbaugh.

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Shane Murphy, the second-in-command aboard the American merchant ship seized by pirates, lashed out at Rush Limbaugh for the talk show host's racial characterization in discussing the rescue of the ship's captain by the Navy. Murphy, who returned to his Seekonk, Mass., home Friday, called Limbaugh a purveyor of "hate speech." In commenting on the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips by the Navy Seals who shot and killed the three Somali pirates who were holding him captive, Limbaugh generated controversy when he called the pirates "black teenagers."

And they were…black teenagers.

"There you have it, three teenagers shot on the high seas at the order of President Obama," said Limbaugh according to a transcript of an April 14 broadcast on his Web site. "Just imagine the hue and cry had a Republican president ordered the shooting of black teenagers on the high seas," Limbaugh said. Murphy said Limbaugh's remarks were unacceptable.

With all due respect to Mr. Murphy, while positioning himself to be the latest MSNBC darling, he also shows an incredible case of amnesia. It was the liberal left that encouraged the rioting after the Rodney King verdict (see Congresswoman Maxine "No justice, no peace" Waters). Remember, it was the same liberal left that accused President Bush of essentially committing genocide with the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. Despite his appointments of the first two black Secretaries of State and first black female National Security Adviser, the left took any opportunity to call President Bush a racist. Had George W. Bush ordered the shooting of the black teen-aged pirates, it would be disingenuous to assert that Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the NAACP and others would not calling for race-based investigations. Mr. Murphy should be happy to be free and realize that the very comments Rush Limbaugh said that he finds unacceptable, would be the very thing President Bush would have to take into account, given the kneejerk tendencies the left has in interjecting race where it doesn't belong. Murphy, Captain Phillips, and the crew of the Mersk Alabama may still be floating off the coast of Africa today because of political correctness and liberal racebaiters, and unfortunately Shane Murphy has become a willing tool of both.