30. Bill O’Reilly
“Papa Bear” isn’t hated quite as much these days as he used to be. In all honesty he’s been mellowing out quite a bit, drifting toward the Center, hosting neo-communists as regular guests, and being eclipsed by others on the Rise. His glory days are over.
Stephen Colbert has also turned him into almost of an affectionate cartoon. He’s no longer quite the effective weapon against the Left that he once was. Never the less, over the past decade he has done significant damage to the Left’s psyche, evidenced by his prominence in Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, one of the most popular and influential books for “progressives.” Keith Olbermann’s ongoing obsession with “BillO” is also evidence that The Factor continues to get under the Left’s skin.
29. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer
One of my other gripes with Townhall’s list was that it was so now-centric. It has people on there who are just recently showing up on the Left’s hate radar. It takes time — and deeply significant actions — to embed oneself into the Left’s emotional core. Regardless, it seems entirely reasonable for Brewer to be on this list. The Left’s response to Arizona’s legitimate attempt to enforce federal immigration laws has been stunning. And Brewer has thus become the symbol for them to direct their wrath.
28. Sean Hannity
Hannity remains an irritant to the Left, but not at quite the level of many other talk radio hosts like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. He’s just not particularly threatening to the Left. He doesn’t have the intellectual edge, aggressiveness, or ability to break stories.
The Left’s hatred for him derives from his prominent perch and also from his sheer tenaciousness in going after Democrats. What he doesn’t bring in quality he contributes in quantity.
27. Grover Norquist
Norquist’s notorious statement that he longs to shrink government until it’s so small that it can be drowned in a bath tub strikes terror into the heart of the Left. And the fact that he’s an effective, tenacious activist in pursuit of that goal makes him even more intolerable.
However maybe if more leftists paid attention to Norquists’ braindead foreign policy (not that it’s as prominent as his anti-tax activism) then they’d hate him a bit less.
26. Newt Gingrich
The Left doesn’t forget — at least not when it comes to supposed crimes committed against them by the Right. (They do a great job of “forgetting” every piece of evidence that proves their policies don’t work and that their movement was responsible for 100 million deaths in the 20th century.) Thus Gingrich’s role as the principal antagonist of the Clinton Agenda in the ’90s will forever be buried in the Left’s heart.
However he remains a threat today. He is one of the most articulate, compelling, and intellectual of conservative strategists, continually charting strategic road maps to victory.
If Newt was still a viable political or presidential candidate then he’d elicit more rage from the Left.
