Thursday, March 05, 2009

Rush is the "intellectual head" of the GOP? Oh dear.

Where are the moderate Republicans? Why are they letting these crazy people take over their party? My Republicans friends have no idea what happened to their party and most of my Independent friends are not interested in anything the GOP has to say.

I guess some would think as a registered Democrat I should be happy. Well I'm happy if the far-right element of the GOP is exposed but in a democracy we need to have a strong two party system. We need choices. It's not good if one party controls everything. Look what happened during the last eight years in the States and what's happening now in Italy (the PDL is a mess).

Rush only cares about Rush. It's sad that Steele who really is supposed to be the head of the party had to apologize for speaking the truth. I think Steele doesn't have any real power and this little episode proved it. Poor Steele doesn't realize he is nothing but window dressing. Good luck with that gig brother man. Don't even get me started on Jindal.

Rush keeps saying he wants Obama to fail. Of course we should hold the president, regardless of party, accountable. But for Rush to sit there and say he rather see the new president fail instead of I don't know, help the country get out of this mess which went down on the GOP's watch speaks volumes. All these GOPers talking smack, what are their solutions? Are we better off today than eight years ago. Uhm no. Clinton may have had some personal issues but let's not forget when he left office we had a surplus. He entered office facing a deficit left by who, Bush and Reagan.

I think the Timothy Egan article from the New York Time sums up neatly the dire situation the GOP finds itself in.


March 4, 2009, 10:00 PM
Fears of a Clown
Once upon a time, you could drive to the most remote reaches of the United States and escape Rush Limbaugh. But from the Mogollon Mountains of New Mexico to the Badlands of South Dakota, where only the delicious twang of a country tune or the high-pitched pleadings of a lone lunatic came over the AM dial, there is now the Mighty El Rushbo.

As someone who spends a lot of time on the road, I used to find Limbaugh to be an obnoxious but entertaining companion, his eruptions more reliable than Old Faithful. But now that Limbaugh has become something else — the face of the Republican Party, by a White House that has played him brilliantly — he has been transformed into car-wreck-quality spectacle, at once scary and sad.

Behold:

The sweaty, swollen man in the black, half-buttoned shirt who ranted for nearly 90 minutes Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. He reiterated his desire to see the president of his country fail. He misstated the Constitution’s intent while accusing President Obama of “bastardizing” the document. He made fun of one man’s service in Vietnam, to laughter.

David Letterman compared him to an Eastern European gangster. But he looked more like a bouncer at a strip club who spent all his tips on one bad outfit. And for the Republican Party, Limbaugh has become very much a vice.

Smarter Republicans know he is not good for them. As the conservative writer David Frum said recently, “If you’re a talk radio host and you have five million who listen and there are 50 million who hate you, you make a nice living. If you’re a Republican party, you’re marginalized.”

Polling has found Limbaugh, a self-described prescription-drug addict who sees America from a private jet, to be nearly as unpopular as Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who damned America in the way that Limbaugh has now damned the nation’s newly elected leader. But Republicans just can’t quit him. So even poor Michael Steele, the nominal head of the Republican Party who dared to criticize him, had to grovel and crawl back to the feet of Limbaugh.

Some expected more mettle from Steele. After all, this rare African-American Republican won his post after defeating a candidate who submitted the parody song from Limbaugh’s show: “Barack the Magic Negro.”

Race is an obsession with Limbaugh, one of the threads I noticed on those long drives on country roads.

When Colin Powell endorsed Obama during the campaign, Limbaugh said it was entirely because of race. After the election, Powell said the way for the party, which has been his home, to regain its footing was to say the Republican Party must stop “shouting at the world.”

In 2003, Limbaugh said quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted a black to succeed. Over the next six years, McNabb threw for nearly 150 touchdowns and went to a Super Bowl.

And Limbaugh launched the current battle when he said of Obama: “We are being told that … we have to bend over, grab the ankles, bend over forward, backward, whichever, because his father was black, because this is the first black president.”

Translation: submit sexually to a black man because “someone” is telling us all to. Who? Which leaders of the Democratic Party have made such a claim? Which opinion-makers? But therein lies the main tactic of Limbaugh, an old demagogue technique: create a straw man, then tear it down. The latest example was Saturday, when Limbaugh presented himself as the defender of capitalism, liberty and unfettered free markets. Obama, he has said since, is waging a “war on capitalism.”

There is a war, all right. We are witnessing the worst debacle of unfettered capitalism in our lifetime brought on by — you got it, capitalism at its worse. It cannibalized itself. Government, sad to say, had nothing to do with it — except for criminal neglect of oversight.

Now that government has been forced to the rescue, just who is insisting on taxpayer bailouts? Who is in line for handouts? Who is saying that only government can save capitalism? The very leaders of unregulated markets who injected this poison into the economy, the very plutocrats that Limbaugh celebrates.

And, of course, let us never forget that the bailouts of banks and insurance companies were initiated by the Republican president Limbaugh defended for eight years.

Of late, Limbaugh has wondered why he has trouble with women. His base is white, male, Republican — people the party has to stop pandering to if it hopes to govern soon.

It’s little wonder that the thrice-married Limbaugh, who uses “femi-Nazi,” “info-babe” and “PMSNBC” (Get it? The network is full of women suffering pre-menstrual cramps, ha-ha), among his monikers for women, can’t get a date with that demographic.

For Democrats, this is all going to plan. It was James Carville and associates who first cooked up associating Limbaugh with the opposition, as Politico reported. Then on Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Limbaugh was the “voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party.”

Limbaugh played his role, ever the fool. A brave Republican could have challenged him, could have had a “have you no shame” moment with him, giving the party some other identity, some spine. Instead, they caved — from Steele, to the leaders in the House, Eric Cantor and Mike Pence, to Gov. Bobby Jindal, who would be ridiculed by Limbaugh for his real first name, Piyush, were he a Democrat.

You could almost hear their teeth clattering in fear of the all-powerful talk radio wacko, the denier of global warming, the man who said Bill Clinton’s economic policies would fail just before an unprecedented run of prosperity.

But Limbaugh has a fear of his own. If people see him purely as an “entertainer,” as Steele suggested, he will be exposed for what he is: a clown with a very large audience.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, it's pretty revolting. I agree with you, we need some strong, smart conservatives in the Republican party (I'm a diehard Democrat) so we can have some EXCHANGE about what is best for the country. That Rush is the best they've got just shows how empty Republicanism is these days.

And seriously, what kind of person says they'd rather watch their own country go down the tubes than to have a political opponent succeed? Where are your priorities man??

Skywalker said...

Chicka,

I agree 100% with your post. I don't get the whole Rush crap and it does show that Michael Steele has no power at all.

I too am a Dem but I do respect the moderates Republicans out there - who I think are in hiding until Rush gets a coup de tat on his ass.

I'm not sure why the Reps are betting on Rush to win more hearts and minds. He's a hypocrite (the drugs the drugs the drugs) and an entertainer first. Not a politician.

Enjoyed the post. Will show the hubs today.

erin said...

uuuuggghh. i can't believe anyone can take him seriously.

he's completely ridiculous.

glamah16 said...

Argggghhhh! Clown is right. The scary part is the peole who buy into him. With fools like him, there is nothing to remotley respect in that party anymore.

Anonymous said...

I thought this was quite good, too:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/03/the-limbaugh-de.html

Anonymous said...

Oops, forgot to include the 'teaser.' Here's my favorite line from the link I sent:

"The GOP is out shopping for a new dining set, a new couch, a flat-screen--anything to make the crib look a little more inviting. Meanwhile the water bill is two months past due. The lights are off. And the eviction notice is in the mail."

Texas Espresso said...

yeah it is disgusting. seeing some of the people talk at the convention recently (CPAC?), listening to what they said. seriously, my Italian thought they sounded just like the Fascists during Mussollini. there is so much hate in their voices. well it is scary.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

kim b - yes we need to have strong debates especially given what is going on today. He is such a hypocrite. When people had the nerve to just question whether going into Iraq was a good idea Rush said they were unpatriotic. I guess hoping your country goes down the tubes for political gain or ratings is being a good American.

skywalker - thanks. I do not understand why the "leaders" of the GOP are kiss this entertainer's butt. Aren't they the same people who complain when "liberal" Hollywood stars state their opinions.

erin - The man is a multi-millionaire who flies in private jets yet Obama who just paid off his student loans a few years ago is elitist in his eyes. Please.

glamah16 - I'm waiting for Mitt or someone to publicly state the emperor has no clothes. God know Democrats to that to each other all the time. ha.

kimb - Thanks for the link. I'm so curious to see if Palin will really run in 2012.

texas - what are the conservatives so angry about? They were in power for the last 8 years!