Just when it looked like the McCain/Palin campaign couldn’t get any more divisive after the “palling around with terrorists” and “I love speaking in pro-American parts of the country” statements, they’ve managed to outdo themselves.

In a recent episode of MSNBC’s Hardball, Minnesota GOP congresswoman and McCain surrogate Michele Bachmann conjured up memories of Joe McCarthy when she first accused Barack Obama of being anti-American, then said there were others in Congress that were just as anti-American, and THEN, stopped just short of calling for a witchhunt to root out those un-American legislators:

“What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out if they are pro-America or anti-America,” she said.

So, how does one determine whether one is pro-American or anti-American? Is there a test? Is it determined by the car we drive, or the books we read, or the food we eat? How about last name? Nelson? Yup that sounds American enough. Obama? That sounds a bit suspicious. Come to think of it, Bachmann sounds a little foreign too. Care to show me your papers Congresswoman?

The bottom line is that McCain and Palin have again and again campaigned not on a Country First platform, but on an Us against Them message. They don’t care about this country. They care about the parts of the country who aren’t smart enough to see through them and their hollow rhetoric. We’ve had eight years of that bullshit. We don’t need four more.

But the latest remarks by Michele Bachmann are simply obscene. Has she not read any history? Jesus, the McCarthy era wasn’t that long ago. She doesn’t need to read the WHOLE history book, just the part about the 1950’s when McCarthy thought he was above the law. Hint to Bachmann: skip to the section on the Army-McCarthy hearings to see how it ends, and you many want to change your tone. Because just about the most anti-American action any citizen can take is to call for an unsubstantiated probe into finding out who’s anti-American.

I’d ask you, Michele Bachmann, if you had any decency, but it’s apparent you do not (and you probably wouldn’t get the reference anyway).