Chris Matthews leads the spittle flying liberals (at least among the MSM crowd) as they attack Republicans for being racists and conducting a racist campaign. But now Matthews is facing competition from Slate’s Ron Rosenbaum who is establishing himself as the “journalist” version of Matthews. No doubt the spittle still flies, but in Rosenbaum’s case, it sprays his computer screen rather than a television camera. In particular, Rosenbaum embarrasses himself in a Bizarro world type of article, in which he brands Romney and the Republican party as “neo-racists,” even associating them with Nazis.

Rosenbaum asserts that the Republican party is a viable entity only because of Southern racism, is “cravenly unashamed to base its existence on the backs of slaveholder states,” and is not a “morally legitimate” entity. Moreover, he demands that journalists start “telling the truth about the GOP,” because otherwise they will be complicit in the Republican charade. Rosenbaum insists that his conclusion about the Republican party is a “fact” and “really, just about everybody knows this.” Indeed, his certainty is disturbingly similar to the certainty exhibited by Taliban misogynists in Pakistan.

SIDEBAR:  Rosenbaum claims that Romney’s campaign ad that accused Obama of gutting welfare work requirements is false. But knowledgeable liberals, such as Mickey Kaus, understand that Obama’s action indeed has gutted the work requirement, so the ad is correct. Rosenbaum’s refusal to admit that the ad is accurate serves as a “canary in the coal mine,” giving us an early warning that Rosenbaum is perhaps not playing with a full deck.

According to Rosenbaum and other liberals, racism today is no longer openly practiced, but is secret. Republicans blow something that liberals call “dog whistles,” which only racists are able to hear and understand. Liking the sound of the dog whistles, racists then vote for Republicans. It’s hard to understand, however, why racists would vote for a party because of racism if the party in question does not follow racist policies in the first place. If the policies aren’t racist, then the party cannot be racist, no matter who votes for it, and liberals who insist otherwise are not thinking coherently.

Rosenbaum presents several specific pieces of evidence that the Republican party is racist. First, he seems to believe that accusing Obama of “gutting welfare” (which Obama in fact is doing) is racist because many welfare recipients are black. Second, he seems upset that Republicans who support displays of the Confederate flag tend to win elections more often than opponents who vacillate on the issue. In addition to these rather paltry examples, Rosenbaum also refers in his article to some “recent research.”

But anyone who scans the research and considers Rosenbaum’s “evidence” will begin to see what the liberals are all about:  If you believe that the condition of black people who live in poverty today is not the result of discrimination, but may have other causes, then liberals will label you a racist. In another example, if you agree that it may be time to end racial preferences in education and hiring, then liberals again will label you a racist. Yet whether or not such beliefs are racist is precisely the question, so liberals are simply assuming what they purport to prove.

But, congrats to Rosenbaum, he’s well on his way to becoming the liberals’ new spittle king.