26 years ago Washington columnist Cal Thomas got a call from National Public Radio. "Cal, we're letting you go. You're just too predictable." This was code of course for "you're just too conservative." In fact, Thomas was the only conservative at NPR in 1984.

Last week in a series of Three Stooges missteps NPR ignobly terminated Juan Williams, a self-made African American opinion columnist generally celebrated by both the left and right as the guy impossible to dislike. Williams leans left of course, but even on Fox News appearances always presented his views in a rational and a non-confrontational abstraction. NPR's craven conduct followed by more craven conduct even suggested "Williams might talk with his psychiatrist."

Leaving the ultimate judgment to the public (which history always seems to do), the larger question lies with the embolden state of NPR which receives funding from you and me through donations and taxes funneled to the network via government support. To avoid flying under false colors, I hereby disclose while in college I proudly worked at the university's NPR affiliate and at that time regarded it a source for enlightenment for arts and information; an alternative to general market radio. But that was then...

As time passed and NPR became more aggressive at lobbying, the network and its affiliates began to sound curiously like commercial stations; "commercial" being the operative word. In time-present on a given day NPR may get a 1.8 million dollar grant from internationalist liberal George Soros, cash donation checks from the generous public, accept a grant from GE, and air a bunch of messages that certainly sound like commercials for local businesses. Last week, time stopped and the forward momentum of what has become a quasi-commercial medium backed by taxpayers and principally-purposed to advocate a political agenda, hit the wall. Its hierarchy publicly displayed their hubris and ham-handed misread of the American fingerprint. Someone at NPR will likely rue the day they capped Juan Williams.

Speaking of Williams, we'll probably never be invited to a benefit potluck since Williams was immediately claimed on waivers with a 2 million dollar kiss from Fox News. Call it poetic justice. Moving forward, NPR's goal line fumble has opened the gates for scrutiny and retribution. Always quick to avoid wasting a crisis, members of Congress from the right and left are calling for a review of NPR public funding, and scores of people are calling and emailing NPR and its affiliates.  Millions of Americans have informed NPR they'll see another dime's donation right after the Detroit Lions win the Super Bowl. It's unfortunate that NPR affiliates based on college campuses will be hurt in the process on a short term basis. Perhaps their hue and cry will reach the cotton-headed imposters in the temple; then again maybe not. There are some fine people entombed at the NPR affiliate level already feeling the first wave of back-draft from the furnace of public bellicosity, fair or not.