I don't know whether I questioned his patriotism or not, but when I wrote a post yesterday criticizing Chris Satullo for saying that "America doesn't deserve to celebrate its birthday" and the Fourth of July should be canceled, I had not known that Rush Limbaugh had launched a national attack on Satullo. While this does not change my opinion of his inappropriately-timed scolding, it does change the dynamics a little. For starters, I don't like writing out of ignorance, and not knowing about the Limbaugh attack is definitely ignorance.

Standing alone, such ignorance might not be a big deal, but when I saw Satullo's defense of his column in a piece titled "Rush and backers have much to say about July 4th column," I worried that he might be of the belief that all of his critics are taking their marching orders from the likes of Rush. Satullo is no stranger to me; I have disagreed with him repeatedly but I still think he's generally a nice, even self-effacing sort of guy. In any case, I don't need Rush's help in analyzing Satullo, if anything, an attack by the former might incline me towards sympathy for the latter.

But maybe Satullo doesn't need my sympathy. After all, Rush's national radio assault brought him so much attention that he's devoted today's column to it:

Scanning my e-mail inbox Tuesday morning, I was pleased. Responses were running about 50-50. For every e-mail calling me commie scum, another endorsed the moral point, including a couple from Catholic priests.

Then Rush gave my piece a dramatic reading on his Tuesday show. His intent was not to praise my Swiftian panache. He urged his listeners to let me know what a rotten person I am.

Try as I might, I'm just not seeing satire in an emotion-wrought scolding like this:

We took the coward's way.

The world sees this, even if we are too dim to grasp it. We've lost respect. We've shamed the memory of Jefferson, Adams and Franklin.

And all for a scam. The waterboarding, the snarling dogs, the theft of sleep - all the diabolical tricks haven't made us safer. They may have averted this plot or that. But they've spawned new enemies by the thousands, made the jihadist rants ring true to so many ears.

So put out no flags.

Sing no patriotic hymns.

We deserve no Fourth this year.

Let us atone, in quiet and humility. Let us spend the day truly studying the example of our Founders. May we earn a new birth of courage before our nation's birthday next rolls around.

Must he be so obtuse?

Back to Satullo's Rush attack defense:

My computer screen soon filled with missives with angry exclamation points in the subject line.

I will say this: Rush's listeners have a zest for insult and invective. Correct spelling, not so much. Also, I'm unclear what my sexual orientation (hetero, by the way) has to do with this topic. Wishing death on someone you've never met is unkind, to a degree. And telling someone to move to another country stopped being a witty riposte somewhere around 1967.

Hmm...

Maybe he should give them the same benefit of the doubt that he have himself, and allow that some of these emailers were actually liberals engaged in Swiftian panache. (It wouldn't be the first time.)

Satullo also argues that if he'd scolded America for abortion instead of torture, the Dittoheads wouldn't be in a dither:

...If I'd written the same column but substituted the word abortion in all the places where I wrote torture, would all those same people be calling me a hate-filled traitor? Why are some moral objections to national policy laudable, others contemptible?

During the Clinton scandal, some wrote long screeds about how America had been shamed and humiliated. Were they unpatriotic?

For the record, I love the United States of America. Always have, always will. I thank God for letting me be born here. I am a misty-eyed idealist about the Declaration, the Constitution and the Founders.

That's why I wrote Tuesday's piece. I want us to defend with utmost bravery and purpose the legacy of liberty that has been vouchsafed to us. I want us to be all we should be, that shining city on the hill.

So, go ahead, knock my logic or prose style. They're fair game. Scorn the shape of my nose, my manliness, and all the other stuff my kind correspondents attacked.

But do not, do not, question my patriotism. Or that of any fellow citizen. Such words are unworthy of what we owe one another as Americans.

But let's suppose he had substituted the word "abortion" for "torture." Or, for that matter, homosexuality. Or guns. My disagreement would be the same. It's not the issue, it's the timing.

Telling Americans they shouldn't celebrate a holiday like the Fourth of July is outrageous, and I don't care what the reason is. Satullo is probably right that Rush would have avoided slamming, say, James Dobson or Richard Viguerie had they suggested America should not celebrate the Fourth because of the stain of abortions and homosexuality. While they wouldn't get a pass from me, Chris Satullo has caused me to ask some hard questions, so I'm wondering about something.

Would I question their patriotism? I don't honestly know. Is Fred Phelps engaging in "patriotic" acts when he pickets veterans' funerals? I'm sure he thinks he is, even if I think he's a cruel and vindictive loon. The thing is, common sense would suggest that people who bootstrap their agenda into attacks on patriotic themes and patriotic occasions should hardly be surprised when their patriotism is called into question. (A result I suspect some of them might even want.)

As far as questioning the patriotism of those who do this is concerned, I try to avoid it. In fact, not long ago I got hot under the collar when a conservative group launched a legislative push to prohibit the sale of Playboy at military bases.

I was furious, but did I question their patriotism? Hell no! I went out of my way not to question their patriotism, and I used a well-worn avoidance phrase in the title of the post:

"Just don't question their patriotism...."

Ha ha.

Yeah, I know. It's neither original nor funny.

But it was my lame attempt at Swiftian panache, dammit!

And it's simply no fair that Rush and his dittoheads have not attacked me for it.