NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER

In the comments to my earlier Juan Williams post, nepat points us to this:

... Former Arkansas governor and Fox talk show host Mike Huckabee's HuckPAC released a statement blasting NPR for violating Williams' First Amendment rights and called on Congress to defund the public radio organization. (The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides some money to NPR, receives approximately 15 percent of its funds from the federal government.) ...

Sarah Palin, also a Fox News contributor, weighed in on Twitter and also claimed Williams' First Amendment rights had been breached....

I'm going to predict that within the next few days, if not by the end of the day, a large number of Republicans, including many of the most prominent officeholders and candidates, will have made similar demands. I predict that Democrats in tight races are going to be put on the spot and asked whether they're willing to zero out funds for the CPB. I'm betting that established national figures in the Republican Party -- people at the level of DeMint and Boehner and Cantor -- are going to call for defunding CPB.

If I'm right, it will mean that Republicans aren't sitting around fretfully asking, "Um, should we raise this issue? It fires up our base, but don't swing voters like Sesame Street? So isn't the issue a loser for our party nationwide?" I think they're not going to say that. I think they're just going to go for it. Because that's how they roll. And that's why they win.

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UPDATE FRIDAY: Told ya.

Republican Senator Jim DeMint has confirmed that he will introduce legislation to cut federal funding from NPR after they fired analyst Juan Williams for making insensitive comments about Muslims on Fox....

This is far more likely to pass in the lame-duck session than an extension of the Bush tax cuts that eliminates the tax break for the rich.

AND: Cantor and Boehner too. I got the trifecta!