Politico and Mediaite are aghast that I called Rush Limbaugh a “racist troll” on “Politics Nation” with Al Sharpton on MSNBC Monday night. The immediate cause of my diagnosis was Limbaugh terming President Obama’s pitch for military intervention in Syria“Operation Shuck and Jive.” Or as Limbaugh said: “Bush had ‘Shock and Awe.’ We’re looking at ‘Shuck and Jive’ here. That’s what I’m going to name this. The Obama operation in Syria — ‘Operation: Shuck and Jive’ — because that’s what this is.”

Politico’s Dylan Byers was quick to point out that during the 2008 campaign, Hillary Clinton supporter Andrew Cuomo said Obama “can’t shuck and jive at a press conference. All those moves you can make with the press don’t work when you’re in someone’s living room.” Cuomo, it should be noted, was widely hammered for his strange turn of phrase — “shuck and jive” is an old slur associated with lying or deceptive behavior by black people – but I would also note that I didn’t call Limbaugh racist simply because he used the term “shuck and jive:” it’s his long history of depicting African-Americans in crude stereotypes, most having to do with violence, savagery and stupidity. The point of both pieces seemed to be that I had gone beyond the pale in calling Limbaugh racist. I was a little shocked, because I didn’t think anyone would notice what I said, since I was just stating the truth.

Limbaugh is not just racist but proud of his racism. He’s made a career out of stereotyping African-Americans as violent savages and criminals. As early as the ’70s he told a black caller to his radio show: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.” In the ’90s, he mused: “Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?” In 2004 he suggested that the NBA be renamed “the TBA, the Thug Basketball Association, and stop calling them teams. Call ‘em gangs. “ Just three years later he complained that the NFL “all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons.”