For perhaps the first time in his professional career, Rush Limbaugh has been humbled.
Utterly.
The events that unfolded last week led him to actually apologize for something he said.
Incredible.
Oh sure his “apology” was of the “You know, you liberals --especially the broads -- really need to get a sense of humor” variety, but still, that’s more than he’s ever offered for the thousands of insults, epithets, defamations, lies, and near-treasonous statements he’s doled out over almost 25-years.
I mean, this is a guy who has lists of His Most Racist Statements collected
And yet, all of a sudden, it’s “ slut” that has caused a revolt among his advertisers. Go figure.
I just hope this doesn’t change Limbaugh's methods. I'd hate to see him modify his behavior in any way.
Yes, you read right. I want Limbaugh to, eventually, go back to doing what he does best.
I want Rush TO BE RUSH.
In the last five years or so, there have been three great things the Democrats have had going for them: Number three is Sarah Palin, although she’s becoming more and more irrelevant by the hour. Still, we got a good run out of her, and who knows? She may not be done yet. Bad enough (good enough?) that she was vacuous and ignorant, but she then developed into a outstanding, narcissistic, cash-grubbing, exploitative gloryhound. She is the bridge between the hapless George Worst Bush and the bumper crop of idiots (Cain, Bachmann, Perry) who ran for the GOP nomination this year. She was priceless.
Number Two (and I mean that) is The GOP Debate Audiences. You’re a gay soldier? BOOOOO. You’re one of Rick Perry’s 234 death row victims? YAAAAAY! These people have been priceless. They are like children. You know how little kids will say anything, and often at the most inopportune times? That’s our GOP audiences. They don’t feel any need to hide their emotions. They just let it all hang out and in doing so, they demonstrate just how monstrous they really are. I was very annoyed in that one debate when Brian Williams said there would be no "audience participation or outbursts" allowed. F*&%* him!
Not only should outbursts be allowed they should be encouraged. Interns at these debates should be posted by the front door with boxes of noisemakers, tambourines and those mini-foghorn things. Oh, and booze. Lots and lots of free drinks should be distributed. (and yes, I realize that there are probably a significant number of these audience members who carry firearms with them. Your point?)
For the first time, normal moderates could see what kind of people voted George W. Bush into office twice and who are also responsible for the current crop of losers in Congress. Quite frankly it was like a trip to the zoo. More please!
Aah, but no one holds a candle to Kaiser Limbaugh. He is the gold standard. He’s got children and imitators (Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, his own brother David, etc) but for pure sustained awfulness and a dedicated audience that hangs on his every word, he is unmatched. Even Fox News, terrible as they are, disappointed me with the firing of Glenn Beck last year. Apparently there is such a thing as too crazy for Roger Ailes.
At Fox, bald-faced lies are fine. Slander, defamation and hypocrisy are all OK too. Hell, you can even go ahead and say that women serving in the military should expect to be raped and it’s all good.
Just don’t go into the realm of ethnic slurs or name-calling. Insinuate all you want, using the good old codewords that conservatives are known for, but for heaven’s sake, don’t be so explicit.
Rush gives it to us pure and uncut. Michael J Fox looks funny! Take that bone out of your nose. I hope Obama fails. If there was a sitcom about a conservative talk radio host, it wouldn’t feature stuff half this good in it. No one would believe it. Rush is like a coal miner in that regard. Just when you think he’s gone as low as he can go, he finds another layer. A new vein of outrage to tap.
This is GOOD for Democrats and for liberals. We should look into that. Why doesn’t he write more books?? Why doesn’t Rush have his own cable show?
We want Rush on that wall. We need Rush on that wall!
Liberals do not get the mainstream coverage that these guys do. Eric Erickson, that detestable little inchworm has a CNN gig. Andrew Breitbart dies and every network and majro newspaper acted like it was equal to when Walter Cronkite died. We have great people like Rachel, Keith, and Lawrence O'Donnell, and they get ignored. They don't get invited to The View, or the Today show. Same for outspoken elected officials like Minority Leader Pelosi and Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. They just don't get the kind of air time the conservatives do.
So we need Rush out there flapping his gums and displaying his ignorance, small-mindedness and most of all, his substantial lack of intelligence.
(Note: On February 16th, Rush got on Santorum's back for the whole birth control thing saying that "Liberals would capitalize on the votes from those who have mindless sex day in and day out who think the Republicans are going to take their birth control away" IOW, he was saying that this subject needed to be buried.
So what happens 2 weeks later? Rush blatantly disregards his own advice and turns the birth control thing into a bigger conflagaration than it already was! He's a fucking idiot. )
And oh, what better issue than contraception? I would not have believed this would be an issue in 2012, but, Gloriosky, it is!
I heartily applaud the Republican party taking up a fight that the Catholic Church was already losing 200 years ago.
Contraception?? Really? Ladies and Gentlemen, this could be the tipping point for the Republicans and Democrats.
I am certain everyone here knows the story of what Lyndon B. Johnson said when he signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act: “We have lost the South for a Generation.” And he was right.
Ever since then, Republicans have usually been able to depend on steady support from White Men. They have made sure to put issues of the highest concern to White Men on the front burner. Time to drop bombs on a foreign country? White Men love that. Cutting Taxes? Huge. Cut down forests? Where's the buzzsaw? Guns? Check. More cops on the street? Build more jails? Get Viagra covered on health insurance plans? Check, check and big old check.
Abortion? To be sure more than a few conservative women have had them – and in many cases a conservative boyfriend paid or helped pay for it. But they wouldn’t admit it in public of course. They would feel morally obliged to voice their approval for anti-choice policies. So that’s another item where the GOP wins.
But birth control?? Whoa nelly. LOTS of White Men (especially young ones) appreciate the pill. Why? Because they like sex. Premarital sex. Post-marital sex. Extra-marital sex. The relative ease with which their girlfriends/wives can get birth control greatly contributes to this. The better the availability to birth control, the more sex you can have without worrying about child support payments or having to wear an uncomfortable jimmy.
As much as White Men love them some Republican party, that is a subject where they would NOT feel morally obliged to go along with the Republicans. That would be a huge deal-breaker.
Imagine the electoral carnage if Republicans LOSE WHITE MEN.
Therefore, I think it’s important to keep this as an issue.
It's important to keep backing 'pubs into a corner. Imagine this hypothetical exchange from a Presidential debate in October, when each man gets to ask the other a direct question:
President Obama: Governer Romney, last March, you expressed support for the so-called Blunt-Rubio amendment that would have allowed employers to refrain from paying for health services that they find morally objectionable. That is a bold position to take and I applaud your conviction. But since the entire controversy originated from the subject of birth control, I'd like to find out your plans for contraception in general. Do you favor a ban on the availability of drugs that prevent pregnancy or on prophylatics? Do you favor any sort of limits or new government regulations on it? And would you try to pass your own version of the Blunt-Rubio amendment once in office?
Mitt Romney: I object to your ugly defamation of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, Mr President! Kitten drowning is not in the Book of Mormon and never has been!
President Obama: Er...what? I didn't say anything abooohhhhhi see you're doing that "answer the questions you want" thing...(under breath) This guy is such a tool...
Mitt Romney: What was that? Did...Did you just call my wife a hoe???
President Obama: Governor, please answer the question.
Mitt Romney: NO ONE PUTS WILLARD IN A CORNER!
Imagine every GOP Senate candidate, every House Rep candidate has to answer that question.
Some time ago I wrote a diary calling the GOP the Amy Winehouse Party. (Note: this was before Ms. Winehouse's untimely passing.) They need rehab. The moderates like David Brooks and Kathleen Parker know the party needs to pull back from the abyss of extremism, but they just can't do it.
They feel it is their God-given right to say whatever comes into their minds -- whether it be insulting 9/11-widows, or racist jokes about the Obamas.
Therefore, I would hate it if they no longer felt emboldened to spew their claptrap, which is all choir-preaching these days anyway.
Simply put, The More Conservatives Talk, The Better For Democrats.
We should be encouraging their right to make asses of themselves free speech as much as possible. I personally think Limbo needs his own cable channel. And not a "news" channel with pretensions of "fairness" or "balance"either --He could have a daily lineup of all the other C-list yakkers in the conservatard world. Imagine, Ann Coulter in the mornings, Pat Buchanan, afternoons, Glenn Beck back on TV in the early evening and on prime-time, Rush himself.
Conservatives getting the ratings, Democrats getting seats in the Senate and the House? I can live with that.