Profiles in Right-Wing Lunacy: Michael Savage

Michael Savage (formerly Michael Weiner) is a conservative radio host, author, and former TV host. Don't ask about the name change. I can only assume Savage was considered to be more "hip" than Weiner, and we all know that when you're an apologist for the neo-conservative elite, you had better have hipness in spades.




Savage has made a career of making outlandish, often troubling assertions and accusations aimed at the American Left. Much of his rantings would make one question if he is mentally competent to be a radio host, or hold any job for that matter. Below are a few of my faves:

• Attributed the Columbine massacre to gender reassignment surgery.


• Claimed a Democratic win in the '06 midterms "could lead to the breakup of the United States"


• Defended the actions of disgraced congressman Mark Foley, claiming "the kid was leading him on."


• Advocated bombing the United Nations.
  

These examples alone are probably enough to diagnose Savage with having paranoid schizophrenia. But his latest hairbrained theory indicated that the man's fragile mind is finally at the point of rupturing.

On July 30, 2007, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts suffered a mild seizure while at home. Savage, ever the opportunist, used Robert's ailment to make conspiratorial, baseless -and downright insane- attacks on unspecified "Democrats." Savage asserted:

Am I to believe that there's no connection between Charles Schumer on Friday saying that he would never appoint, or never, excuse me, approve another Bush appointment to the court, to any court? And then the chief justice suffers so-called seizure two days later? You're telling me there's no possibility of a conspiracy by the Democrats to have caused this seizure in some manner?

As if baseless allegations weren't enough, Savage took the opportunity to cement his legacy as America's Most Delusional Radio Personality with the following:

And so, this is pretty amazing to me that he's had a seizure at age 52. That's a pretty amazing thing. They say that he had a similar episode in 1993 and that now they're telling us there's no cause for concern and you don't know what to believe.

So if I understand correctly, Justice Roberts had a history of seizures in his 30's, yet a seizure in his 50's is "amazing?" Does Savage actually listen to the words that come out of his mouth? In this example, he provides evidence that his whole previous diatribe was nonsense, and then just keeps on going with it.

The problem with guys like Michael Savage is that they typically reach wide audiences of loyal, uninformed, unquestioning, easily-manipulated conservatives. I actually feel sorry for his feeble-minded listeners. Apparently Savage has some Jim Jones-type effect on his listeners. If you are among the people who listened to Savage spew this garbage and didn't immediately grasp the utter lunacy of it, then God help you because you are a complete moron.