... is a book about Limbaugh's unsuccessful bid to become a co-owner of the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League. It will hit book stores all over the country tomorrow, filled with hot air and inane explanations of why this good man was sabotaged from becoming an active participant in America's favorite pastime, professional football.
Vic Harville, Stephens Media Group (Little Rock, AR)
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Caller #1: Mega-dittos, Rush. Now that your brief foray into professional football has been sabotaged by liberals, what are you gonna do next?
El Rushbo: I'm going to Disney World! In Obama's America, an honest white man does not get equality of opportunity. I'm just going to go back and lead the Republican Party to victory in 2010, 2012, and beyond. The pinko, socialist, communist, racist owners and their toadies in the NFL will have hell to pay!
And so it went all day today in Rush's World.
A number of diaries have been written earlier today on the decision by the NFL to not consider Limbaugh as part of a group bidding to buy the Rams. The group was led by Dave Checketts, Chairman of the St. Louis Blues hockey team. So, I thought I'd read some comments in the Tulsa World in response to a terrific cartoon by its editorial cartoonist Bruce Plante. His cartoons typically get 50-75 reader comments. Today, he received 260 comments... and counting.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "Today wasn't either the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning for Rush Limbaugh's association with the NFL. It was the end."
Here is a sprinkling of reader comments from the Tulsa World, what Limbaugh actually said on his show earlier today, and other documented quotes on the issue of race.
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Bruce Plante, Tulsa World
Gary Markstein, Copley News Service
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QLC, (10/15/2009 7:00:22 AM)
"They aren't called ditto heads for nothing. The last abstract thought his followers had was... well never." (Tulsa World)
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Rob Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press
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On October 12, Rush Limbaugh responded to accusations that he is "insensitive" and has a "blind spot" about race by claiming that he is "colorblind," "treat[s] everybody equally" and that he "doesn't see [President Obama] as black," but rather as "president of the United States." In fact, Limbaugh has an extensive history of making racially charged remarks about minorities and routinely race-baits while criticizing Obama and his policies, such as saying that Obama is a "reverse racist" and that his economic policies amount to "reparations." (Media Matters report)
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Bruce Beattie, Daytona News-Journal
Bob Gorrell, Cagle.com
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"So Obama's America is quite possibly going to include the National Football League, and pressure from Obama, the Congressional Black Caucus and other places might be brought to bear on the owners. I can't imagine that that's anything they want." (The Rush Limbaugh Radio Show, October 15, 2009)
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Vic Harville, Stephens Media Group (Little Rock, AR)
Steve Benson, Arizona Republic
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Democrat, Tulsa County (10/15/2009 8:00:33 AM)
"Groove Monster: If Rush had 4.4 speed in the forty and can bench press a house, then he would have a place in the NFL, too. The problem for Rush is that he wants to be an owner of an NFL team, and although some owners have had some of his "issues," such as drug addiction, for the most part, they haven't had all of his problems (don't forget his racist and other divisive comments) and they were already owners before those problems were known." (Tulsa World)
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Drew Litton, Comics.com
Rush Limbaugh Deflated
R.J. Matson, St. Louis Post Dispatch
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"The end result of this, folks... Let me run through it very, very quickly. I have lost nothing. I have lost very little. On the other hand, our country has lost a great deal -- a lot more than most people realize at the moment." (The Rush Limbaugh Radio Show, October 15, 2009)
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Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com
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Limbaugh continued to refer to Obama as the "Magic Negro" throughout the broadcast -- 27 times, to be exact -- and at one point sang "Barack, the Magic Negro" to the tune of "Puff, the Magic Dragon." Limbaugh defended his use of the song, stating, "Well, that's what we always do here. We do parodies and satires on the idiocy and phoniness of the left." (Media Matters report)
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Bruce Plante, Tulsa World
Rob Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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"I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team." (Limbaugh comment from 2003, ESPN)
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Is there another egotistical, racist, and politically corrosive figure in public life today in this country like Rush Limbaugh?
If there is one, I haven't heard of him.
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Correction: As has been pointed out by skeptiq and others in the comments section, some of the racist quotes attributable to Rush Limbaugh I used in this diary cannot indeed be confirmed. While Limbaugh has long been making incendiary remarks, the quotes from Media Matters and ESPN that I include above better reflect his racially insensitive nature.
For more discussion, please read this diary that was posted earlier today on Daily Kos.
Crossposted at Docudharma