I have heard the uproar over my eye-opening interview with freshman Congressman Keith Ellison, and I have to make this as clearly as I can. I will not let the naysayers keep me from sayin' what everybody is thinkin'. And just because I received a little flack over some incisive questioning, if you do think I'm going to pack up my truth as I see it suitcase, you'd have to think that America was attacked by some country other than Iraq.
First of all, let me say, "thank you." Finally, it proves that someone is watching, albeit on YouTube or through the links at the Huffington Post. It shows CNN that I can whip up all the second-hand looksee that they first imagined when they made the programming decision that made most TV critics say, "Wha-a-a?"
If you weren't able to download the video, what I said to the Muslimic Congressman was "You are a Democrat. You are saying, 'Let's cut and run.' And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.'"
Tell me I wasn't askin' what everyone was thinkin'.
A lot of supposed left-wing nuts screamed bloody murder. The kind of bloody murder that friends of Congressman Ellison might have perpetrated on 9-11. Did you forget already? I haven't.
Tell me you weren't suspicious by the Congressman hiding the fact that he is a Muslim. Keith? What kind of Muslim name is "Keith?" And not even Keith X. If that doesn't make every American skeptical of Ellison's credibility as representative of the American people, then perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about. And if that's so, then everyone else doesn't know what they're talking about because I just talk about what they're talking about.
My job, my mission, if you will, is to enlighten, even if at the expense of the good common sense and ratings. When I likened Hillary Clinton's call for proper and affordable healthcare for every American to the Holocaust, it was something that needed to be said. I've met Jews. Tell me most of them aren't frightened to death of being hauled off in cattle cars only to be treated by affordable hospitals and doctors.
I'm was just sayin' what every Jew was thinkin'.
When I followed up by saying that the United States had the greatest healthcare system in the world, a lot of so-called healthcare experts pointed to the report stating that the overall United States health care performance was ranked 37th by theWorld Health Organization and the DALE index indicated the United States was ranked 72nd in the world. The only DALE I know is Dale Evans. That expert rode a horse, and unless you haven't read the papers, she's dead.
Perhaps those who have chosen to demean our terrific American doctors, nurses and medical insurance corporations, forgot that Einstein received a "D" in math. Einstein was, I remind these anti-Semites, a Jew.
The first thing I learned as a talk show news reporter was never to assume. That applies to the intelligence of my listeners. How responsible would I be to assume that my fans knew that the first ever-elected Muslim to the U.S. Congress was, in fact, a Muslim?
You want to trash my style or my content as being inane, fine. But you can never take away my American right to be inane. That is unless you're on the side of the terrorist...or Congressman Keith X.
Hoping that's what you were thinkin',
Glenn
Steve Young is author of "Great Failure of the Extremely Successful"and waxes satirically on the L.A. Daily News Sunday Opinion page