E-mail this morning:

I read your column regarding healthcare for illeagles.

Do you believe that the democrats will deny care to illeagles?

Well, I know Donovan McNabb’s cracked ribs are going to be an issue, but I don’t think the team is going to ask the taxpayers…

Oh. Right.

First off, did I write a column about “illeagles?” I did not. But this is a recurring theme; since I’m a liberal I must be writing/thinking/talking about the things that Rush and Glenn Beck say I am. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten this: I read what you wrote about X, when I’ve never actually written anything about X.

Nonetheless.

Has it dawned on anyone that the actual proposal touted by the president would require everyone to carry health insurance - and that this would include illegals?

In other words, they would be paying into the system from which they might draw benefits. You know, maybe conservatives want to prevent them from being able to do this; but it’s the exact opposite of the “illegals as bloodsuckers” narrative that prevails on the right.

Why all the hate on “illeagles?” I understand nativism, but this is being made a major argument by the Fox News crowd - elsewhere in the same e-mail:

Since there is no provision in the bill to prove citizenship I am assuming they will not be denied care, and the democratic party will not risk alienating a whole me class of lemmings that they use.

“Illeagles” should be denied care. If they show up at the ER broken and bleeding?

Understand the society that these people want to create.

Consider also the racism of the above statement. Do illegal immigrants vote? No - but the “lemmings,” other Latinos, might, and that’s why Democrats are going to make sure “illeagles” are covered event though there’s nothing in the actual bills that covers them.

So bottom line: Why did I write that column that I didn’t write making an argument that I didn’t make about the brown people who are just lemmings stealing all the white people’s tax money?

Sums up the teabag arguments nicely. I just wish it summed them up coherently.