The hypersensitive righteous-wing of the Tea Bag brigade is up in arms over the casting of Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan in an upcoming movie about a butler. The true story of Eugene Allen, who worked in the White House from 1952 to 1986, is being brought to the screen by the Weinstein Company for release this fall. Fonda’s role is not much more than a cameo, and it is in no way political.

Nevertheless, cranky conservatives are whipping up a tempest over the casting because forty years ago Fonda visited North Vietnam, a trip for which she has apologized numerous times. This past week Fox News hosted a veteran with an anti-Fonda Facebook page at least twice (on Megyn Kelly’s America Live and on Fox & Friends), and bloggers from WorldNetDaily to Breitbart have piled on.

So F**king What?

The small-minded grudge-holders fanning these ancient embers are abnormally obsessed with a minor historical event that has no bearing on the present. What’s more, they are only helping the film’s producers to publicize the project and generate more interest and box office.

Fonda’s advice that they “Get a life,” couldn’t be more appropriate. Is their time so pitifully worthless that this is all they can think of to spend it on? Aren’t there some needy children or wounded warriors that they can attend to? They might want to consider that their irrational outrage far exceeds that of Mrs. Reagan, who has given Fonda her blessing:

Fonda: “I was very happy to hear that she was pleased that I was playing her. Which shows how smart she is. She’s smarter than all those extreme right-wingers who are angry that I’m playing a woman whose politics are different than mine. Come on, it’s a movie!”

The casting of Fonda in the Reagan role ought not to stir much controversy from a creative perspective. She is an accomplished actress and bears some resemblance to the former First Lady. Who would these wingnuts prefer for the part, Victoria Jackson? Susan Lucci? Do they believe that every role in cinema must be played by an actor who shares the same political ideology as the subject? Were that the case we would forever be deprived of seeing Tony Danza tackle the role of Jimmy Carter.

And lest you think that the veteran hosting the Facebook page calling for a boycott of “Hanoi Jane” is simply is a concerned citizen with a rational complaint, be aware that he has posted a picture of Fonda with a noose around her neck and described it as his “fantasy.” Apparently lynching women for things they did four decades ago is fair game for these cretins.