Conservative David Frum in Newsweek "Why Rush is Wrong": President Obama and Rush Limbaugh do not agree on much, but they share at least one thing: Both wish to see Rush anointed as the leader of the Republican party. Here's the duel that Obama and Limbaugh are jointly arranging:On the one side, the president of the United States: soft-spoken and conciliatory, never angry, always invoking the recession and its victims. This president invokes the language of "responsibility," and in his own life seems to epitomize that ideal: He is physically honed and disciplined, his worst vice an occasional cigarette. He is at the same time an apparently devoted husband and father. Unsurprisingly, women voters trust and admire him. And for the leader of the Republicans? A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as "losers." With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence—exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we're cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers cheering Rush's every rancorous word—we'll be seeing them rebroadcast for a long time. Rush knows what he is doing. The worse conservatives do, the more important Rush becomes as leader of the ardent remnant. The better conservatives succeed, the more we become a broad national governing coalition, the more Rush will be sidelined.But do the rest of us understand what we are doing to ourselves by accepting this leadership? Rush is to the Republicanism of the 2000s what Jesse Jackson was to the Democratic party in the 1980s. He plays an important role in our coalition, and of course he and his supporters have to be treated with respect. But he cannot be allowed to be the public face of the enterprise—and we have to find ways of assuring the public that he is just one Republican voice among many, and very far from the most important.Well. Rush finally makes the cover of Newsweek. I happen to agree with Frum. TV talking heads are going to have a field day with this on today's Sunday spin shows and beyond...
Rush is the most brilliant radio talk show host. Period. Nonpareil. But in my humble opinion he is setting off political landmines in a field of shell-shocked Republicans.
Let the ripping of Rush's regal rectum begin! "Rush Limbaugh is rich, nasty and now de facto don of Republican Party" NYDN
I tend to feel that Rush needs to back off on rallying the base. I think it's the wrong move for them and would probably cause another loss in 2012. He - and the rest of the party - need to let Michael Steele do the job.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Amy. He's really hurting the party and you're right! Let Steele leap tall building with a single bound...
ReplyDeleteNah, Limbaugh is not now nor has he ever been a leader of the Republican Party. He may be one of the leaders of the conservative movement, though, just as he was after the '92 election.
ReplyDeleteThe republicans are in the midst of figuring out who they are and what their strategy for winning should be. The advice offered by many pundits is often along the lines of their need to come up with a plan for implementing nationalised health care, addressing global warming, or funding for education. Limbaugh is merely pointing out the silliness of those arguments and that republicans began losing elections precisely because they abandoned long-held conservative principles. It is also true that President Bush was under assault from the left throughout his entire time in office but his approval ratings didn't start heading to rick bottom until congressional republicans started getting chicken-shit about supporting him. Then they lost the House. Serves 'em right and they deserved to lose.
Michael Steele still has plenty of time to formulate and enact a winning strategy. He's a smart man and I think he will do just fine. Limbaugh wins regardless, so that spat was more about "message" than it was about "who".
NBC's John Yang did a report tonight about the economy and used the video of Limbaugh's CPAC "I want the him to fail" line. Then Yang when on to report that there are calls for "moderation" citing Newt Gingrich. The clip of Gingrich, however, was of him saying almost exactly what Limbaugh said.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe John Yang to be an idiot. Therefore, his report was intentionally misleading.
Well, I heard Newt also say that if Rush is the leader of the republican party, then is Chris Matthews the face of the democrats? Or the leg?
ReplyDeleteHe didn't say that comment about the leg, that was my interpretation.
ReplyDeleteHook, line, and sinker. Nothing has changed. Rush is doing what he has been doing for two decades. The Dems package it, the drive-bys put it on the shelves and morons buy into it. Much to do about nothing.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Newt read's ChickieBoo's blog and will say that about Matthew's leg next time. It's a good line. Of course, Newt would have to find a way to preface the comment with, "Frankly". Uhg!
ReplyDelete..and maybe I can learn to type in English without superfluous apostrophes.
ReplyDeleteRush isn't head of anything but his own personal empire. In a few months we'll start hearing more and more about Romney, Palin, Jindal, Huckabee, and more, and the campaign will be joined and public interest will be focused. And who will NOT be giving up 50 million a year for 0.8% of that (the president's $400,000 salary)? Why, Rush, that's who. He's not running.
ReplyDeleteYou know the more the media and Dems. beat on Rush and the dead horse former Bush Administration, the longer the Republicans have to figure out what the Hell they want to do about this mess. Rush can take it for publicity and Bush is gone. This is not a bad thing for the GOP.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find most distrubing is the fact that our government is attacking a private citizen. While Rush is in the public forum he is not an elected official. For our government to behave is such a manner is out of the box.
ReplyDeletedoes anyone think porn is the only business still thriving during the credit cruch? I think many folks seek refuge in buying and wanking porn during the crunch
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