No enemies to the left. (Insider Report).

In early May, a left-wing radical assassinated Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, typically called a "right-wing populist" in most media coverage. This label was a poor fit for Fortuyn, an unabashed homosexual who supported drug use and Holland's euthanasia laws. However, he and his "Livable Netherlands" party -- which won 26 seats in Holland's 150-member parliament following his assassination -- sinned against political correctness by urging a clampdown on immigration, particularly from Muslim countries. His specific concern was to preserve conditions congenial to sexual emancipation, which could not exist if Holland imported an Islamic culture.

Fortuyn was murdered shortly after French right-wing politician Jean-Marie Le Pen surprisingly defeated French Socialist Premier Lionel Jospin in the first round of that nation's presidential elections. Le Pen's victory, coupled with Fortuyn's ascent, led to an outpouring of anguished commentary about the dangerous rise of a new "radical right" in Europe. Some pundits associated this political surge with outbreaks of anti-Semitic violence across the continent, nearly all of which was carried out by Islamic immigrants. The message behind the media spin was clear: Europe was menaced by "neo-Fascism," which must be stopped. Fortuyn's alleged assassin apparently took that message to heart.

Fortuyn's murder, opined London Times columnist Michael Grove, offered "a bleak snapshot of dark dramas to come" as various forms of "extremism" collide in Europe. But Grove didn't condemn Europe's opinion cartel for creating a climate in which political assassination could occur -- no, such accusations are reserved exclusively for "right-wing" talk radio hosts. The blame for all political violence, insisted Grove, resides with the "fundamentalist" right, whether populist/libertarian or Islamic.

New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof similarly warned about "both extremes, the far Right and Islamic terror," in his June 7th dispatch from Kalispell, Montana, entitled "All-American Osamas." "We Americans have conjured so specific a vision of terrorists -- swarthy, glowering Muslims mumbling fanatically about Allah -- that we're missing the threat from home-grown nuts, people like David Burgert' wrote Kristof. Burgert is accused of plotting to assassinate the local sheriff to trigger "a violent revolution and civil war to overthrow the entire United States government."

This was nothing less than "a terror plan that made Osama bin Laden's look rinky-dink," hyperventilates Kristof -- missing the point that local law enforcement foiled this grand scheme in timely fashion. The Times columnist casually asserts that "militia members and Al Qaeda members are remarkably similar. Both are galvanized by religious extremism ... both see the United States government as utterly evil, and both are empowered by the information revolution that enables them to create networks, recruit disciples and trade recipes for bio- and chemical weapons."

This is the "logic" of the liberal Establishment in action: A leftwing activist assassinates a maverick non-leftist politician, and this crime is an indictment of the violence of the right; a terrorist attack staged by radical Muslims kills thousands of Americans, and this atrocity illustrates the danger of the "right-wing" menace within our country. In any case, we are constantly told that the Right has a monopoly on violence and hatred, and that there are no enemies to the left.