There’s a famous quotation often attributed to Gandhi that goes like this: “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” After “then they ridicule you” I would add:

“Then they smear you.”

As I warned last week, the smear campaign against the Tea Party movement has swung into full gear. Desperate always reaps stupid, as Dave Ramsey says. Desperate Tea Party bashers have stupidly lurched from “It’s a CNBC conspiracy” to “It’s a Fox News conspiracy” without batting an eye.

On Fox News, smear merchant Geraldo Rivera bashed the Tea Party movement because he’s “never seen any people of color” at the protests — a line of attack being plied on left-wing blogs (and even by a purported conservative blog). Tea Party organizer and Top Conservatives on Twitter Michael P. Leahy politely laid the smack down on Geraldo (watch here). But it’s not going to stop the reality-challenged Rivera from repeating the attack. (Psst, Geraldo: Meet Lloyd Marcus).

Of course, any people of color Geraldo and his bean-counters do admit to seeing they will dismiss as white.

And then there’s this typical e-mail I got this morning from “sammygeo1@yahoo.com:”

Michelle Malkin, you look like a damn fool. The only Jap at those tea parties. Go somewhere and sit your stupid ass down.

It’s telling how bitterly the self-proclaimed post-racialists keep fixating on the race of Tea Party protesters as some sort of Q.E.D. indictment of the protests.

Do they really want to play that game? Shall we start fixating on the lack of diversity at ACORN foreclosure mob protests?

Shamnesty demonstrations?

Lily-white-dominated Hollywood liberal fund-raisers or MSM boards of directors?

No, we shall not. The only demographic breakdown we shall mention is the one showing that the Left’s protests this year have drawn far more journalists and photographers than actual protesters.

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