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I'm sure New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and former President Jimmy Carter derive a great deal of self-satisfaction slandering other people with false charges of racism, but the damage they're doing to race relations is worse than any bona fide racist could dream of doing.

I ask you: Who is more likely racist, the person who sees race every time she turns around or the person who aspires toward colorblindness? Could those always pointing the accusatory finger be projecting their own discomfort with race?

Listen to how Maureen begins her snarky Sept. 12 column, in which she posited that Rep. Joe Wilson's "you lie" outburst was driven by racism. She writes: "Surrounded by middle-aged white guys -- a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men's club -- Joe Wilson yelled 'You lie!' at a president who didn't. But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!"

I don't know whether "middle-aged white guys" and "their own men's club" flow more from some bitter feminist strain Dowd seems to possess or her liberal obsession with the superficial aspects of people's differences in pigment, but it is nonetheless bizarre.

Why is it that Dowd sees race in the politicians sitting beside Joe Wilson? And why is she compelled to make "white guys" a pejorative? In her world, to be white and male is to be guilty. Well, I reject the charge, thank you, and would appreciate a little due process before condemnation by such self-proclaimed open-minded liberals as Dowd.

One of the main sins of racism is its devaluation of the individual worth of a member of a racial group based on membership in that group. How ironic that in her thinking and writings Dowd commits the very sin she decries: condemning "middle-aged white guys" by virtue of their skin color and age.

Moving on from Dowd's indictment of Wilson's hapless, pasty colleagues flanking him in the House chamber, Dowd explains that she has "been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer ... had much to do with race. ... But Wilson's shocking disrespect for the office of the president ... convinced me: Some people just can't believe a black man is president and will never accept it."

Oh? I wasn't aware that former President George W. Bush is black. For Dowd didn't have the same sensitivities toward the Democrats' "shocking disrespect for the office of the president" in their choral booing of President Bush in the House chamber. Perhaps that's because the left had already so demeaned President Bush through their daily slandering that there was no way to further disrespect him, House chamber or not. What would have been noteworthy is if they'd showed him or the office a modicum of respect.

As for Dowd's divination that "some people ... will never accept" a black president, we'll just have to assume she's projecting or engaging in wishful thinking -- the kind of thinking that leftists engage in about conservatives.

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