In the Arena

Bull Rush

David Frum has been a voice of Republican sanity–calling Palin for the extreme liability she was during the general election–and here describing Rush Limbaugh’s dire impact on the GOP. I swear, I haven’t seen anything as diabolically funny in politics as Rahm Emanuel’s anointment of Limbaugh as uncrowned leader of the Republican Party…since Fox News chose Alan Colmes to represent liberalism against the visigoth Hannity.

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  • tantef

    JK….since Fox News chose Alan Colmes to represent liberalism against the visigoth Hannity.
    I know visigoths, some of my best friends are visigoths, stop giving visigoths a bad name!

  • http://nicewhitelady.blogspot.com/ joyomama

    QOTD in Frum’s post: “Rush is to the Republicanism of the 2000s what Jesse Jackson was to the Democratic party in the 1980s.”

  • dfh

    David Frum is the voice of sanity! ROTFL

  • gysgt213

    Joe-The only problem with the Rahm’s anointment of Rush is the fact that the anointment had already occurred long before Rahm utter a word. It wasn’t Rahm who sent the republicans seeking forgiveness from Rush weeks ago. It was the republicans who allowed Rush to seize control.

  • http://www.inworldstudios.com jayackroyd

    Joe, if you spend some time in freeper land, or check out comment threads at Patrick Ruffini’s thenextright.com (It seems to be down right now), you’d see that Rush is right down the party’s mainstream. Only the crazy people remain.

  • 53_3

    “The only problem with the Rahm’s anointment of Rush is the fact that the anointment had already occurred long before Rahm utter a word.”
    .
    Being a pretty internet-savvy group, I think Rahms commentary might contain more than a bit of snark.

  • gysgt213

    Joe-
    Gingrey Begs Limbaugh For Forgiveness On-Air, Expresses ‘Very Sincere Regret’ For ‘Foot-In-Mouth Disease’
    .
    Yesterday, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, complained to Politico about how Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talkers are able to “stand back and throw bricks” instead of offering “real leadership” in the middle of high-profile public policy battles. Gingrey’s brave remarks got him in hot water.
    .
    This morning — because of what he called “high volume of phone calls and correspondence” in response to his comments — Gingrey issued a retraction, declaring his loyalty to hate radio. “I see eye-to-eye with Rush Limbaugh,” he said, later adding that he, Sean Hannity, and Newt Gingrich were “the voices of the conservative movement’s conscience.”
    .
    http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/28/gingrey-limbaugh-forgiveness/

  • 53_3

    Of course, I see that the words “fomenting racial hatred” never or similar, never appear in any discourse between any two or more Republicans debating about what to do to change their party.
    .
    Just an observation…

  • Jim, Foolish Literalist

    David Frum is the voice of sanity! ROTFL
    *
    always astounds me how easy it is for ‘wingers to get an Official Clean Slate from the Village Elders. Frum still wrote teh “Axis of Evil” line, still wrote a book called “The Right Man”. The fact that he recognizes that Rush Limbaugh is an even bigger lunatic than he is doesn’t really impress me. Kinda like I can’t forget, and the Village can’t remember, Andy Sullivan’s hysterical screeching about “decadent enclaves of Fifth Columnists.”
    *
    Joe, if you spend some time in freeper land, or check out comment threads at Patrick Ruffini’s thenextright.com (It seems to be down right now), you’d see that Rush is right down the party’s mainstream. Only the crazy people remain.
    *
    Or just watch any of their elected Congressional leaders wheezing about “socialism” and “Stalinism” because we’re going back to tax rates of the ‘nineties. Oh noez!!

  • Jim, Foolish Literalist

    “The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics may be dead,” said Huckabee, “but a Union of American Socialist Republics is being born.” Democrats, according to Huckabee, were packing 40 years of pet projects like “health care rationing” into spending bills. “Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff.”
    *
    h/t Yglesias
    *
    http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/02/huckabee_making_strong_bid_to_lose_likeable_conservative_credentials.php

  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    Not to paint with too broad a brush but the Republicans have always been an uncomfortable alliance between those who want to avoid taxes and regulation and those who just hate foreigners and gays. What Obama is accomplishing is decoupling the two by promising to give large chunks of money back to the haters.
    .
    The business people have made their bed and now their disdain for their own supporters is coming back to bite them in the A$$.

  • g_crush

    .
    gysgt: Gingrey Begs Limbaugh…
    .
    Gingrey isn’t the only one

    On the same night he was offering the keynote address to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Rush Limbaugh drew criticism from an unlikely source: Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.
    .
    In a little-noticed interview Saturday night, Steele dismissed Limbaugh as an “entertainer” whose show is “incendiary” and “ugly.”
    .
    Steele’s criticism makes him the highest-ranking Republican to pick a fight with the popular and polarizing conservative talk show host.
    .
    But the new RNC chairman’s extraordinary comments won’t sit well with the millions of conservative listeners Limbaugh draws each week, and Steele aides scrambled to limit the damage Monday morning by trying to change the subject.

    So, yeah; the drug-addled gasbag named Rush Limbaugh is the de facto leader of the wingnuts, encompassing the GOP and all points further to the right. No wonder so many Repubs are afraid of offending him.
    .
    What I think is happening with the very occasional criticism of Limbaugh is that the more sane members of the Repub party realize that they are out of step with the current mood of the public, and are desperately trying to bring the GOP out of its downward spiral…too bad that there’s so many dittoheads in Limbaugh’s cult of personality to let these few sane people succeed.

  • gysgt213

    Ron Paul appeared on CNN’s American Morning this morning and talked about Rush Limbaugh and the question of who really leads the Republican Party at this point:
    .
    The Congressman’s response to the question about what it means that Limbaugh, a talk show host, is considered a leader of the party is worthy of being a quote of the day — “It’s sad.”
    .
    http://belowthebeltway.com/2009/03/02/ron-paul-speaks-about-rush-limbaugh-and-who-leads-the-gop/

  • http://smoothlikeremy.blogspot.com/ sgwhiteinfla

    gcrush
    .
    Don’t forget this part of the article
    .

    Limbaugh, asked to respond, said he’d save his counter-attack for his listeners.

    .
    “I’ll handle it on the radio,” he wrote in an e-mail.

    .
    Oh and this is comedy
    .
    http://townhall.com/blog/g/399d88a9-40f6-451a-bf05-c66ddfcc7bd0?comments=true#comments
    .
    I say Steele issues an apology or “clarification” by 5pm today

  • Andy from MA

    Nature abhors a vacuum and your can’t get any more vacuous than ‘the addict from Cape Girardeau.’

  • gysgt213

    gcrush
    .
    Freeperville is already going after Steele and Cantor with a vengence.

  • zsmorgan

    I must say I am hoping the Right continues to marginalize Limbaugh. It’s a win-win for me. Either the GOP erupts into civil war, or conservatives will be free from the most dividing force in American politics, and we will indeed move into a post-partisan era.

  • Matt

    Imagine the points to be scored by Obama if, after months of baiting the might Rush, he suddenly decides to personally make nice with Limbaugh and offers him a public White House visit.

    Talk about backing Rush into a corner…

    http://www.political-buzz.com/

  • g_crush

    .
    sgwhiteinfla: Oh and this is comedy..
    .
    Yes, and kinda pathetic too…They know something went wrong on the way to their Permanent Majority, but have little clue as to what it was and even less of an idea how to go about fixing it.

  • kristiia

    As a Democrat, I love this. I also remember the CW saying it was a mistake for Obama to say this in private:

    ‘“You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done,” he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.’

    I remember the wailing and/or cackling after the Republicans leaked his comments. Pat Buchanan and Scarborough saying what a big mistake this was by Obama.

    I think Obama knows what he is doing – and so does Rahm – even if Matthews and others don’t get it yet.

  • Art Pepper

    The funny denouement in Frum’s piece: “…of course he and his supporters have to be treated with respect.”

  • g_crush

    .
    kristiia: I think Obama knows what he is doing..
    .
    Shhh!…For God’s sake, don’t let Lukasiak hear you say that.

  • gysgt213

    Mean while Rush and his supporters have nothing but contempt for everyone else.

  • http://derekg.wordpress.com/ Derek

    It’s somewhat entertaining watching the right claim to be something other than what they are. It is analogous to the way they take on a posture of competence, even in the face of overwhelming evidence pointing to the opposite.
    .
    If there are any moderate Republicans left they ought to have learned by now they are no longer welcome in Rush’s party. Frum’s best bet is to move over to the dark side.

  • Paul-no not that one

    Howie Kurtz sees Rush as the equivalent of BHO and really I guess any president.-
    .
    Honolulu, Hawaii: Fox and CNN gave Rush Limbaugh an uninterrupted hour plus to demonize President Obama and the new administration on Saturday. Can you name any other unelected person who has had such free access to two networks? I can see why he opposes the fairness doctrine.
    .
    Howard Kurtz: Do you know how many hours of Obama speeches the cable networks carry (as they did Bush speeches and Clinton speeches before that)?

  • Art Pepper

    If the GOP is purging the apostates, is it too early to suggest a revival of the Bull Moose party?

  • kristiia

    g_crush: Shhh!…For God’s sake, don’t let Lukasiak hear you say that.

    Sorry. I mean – We’re doomed.

  • http://policingwingnutwelfare.blogspot.com/ JJ

    Frum and his predecessors created the Frankenstein’s monster, now they’re trying to figure out how to unbuild it.

  • 53_3

    Well, the battle lines have been drawn:
    http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/02/gop-chairman-says-he-leads-party-not-rush-limbaugh
    .
    Now just how many of these White, conservative maverick(R) types are going to pick a Black man over Rush.
    .
    Ve shall zee…

  • http://policingwingnutwelfare.blogspot.com/ JJ

    We need a healthy Republican party at some point, but hopefully not too soon.

  • gysgt213

    “Now just how many of these White, conservative maverick(R) types are going to pick a Black man over Rush.”
    .
    My 3 guesses:
    .
    None
    .
    Nada
    .
    Zero

  • 53_3

    We might have to choose some of our own to head that Bull Moose party.
    .
    But first, we need to address the biggest health care problem we face:
    .
    Inoculating the rest of America against rabies…

  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    We need a healthy Republican party at some point, but hopefully not too soon
    .
    Stated another way, we needed a healthy Republican party all along. The disfunction were seeing now isn’t new. It’s just a natural consequense of the lack of any sane pushback. In 2003, it was the entire country that was insane, not just the Republicans.

  • sqr1

    When properly contained, Republicans are really amusing.

  • 53_3

    “When properly contained, Republicans are really amusing.”
    .
    I like to watch the hyenas at the zoo, too.
    .
    Especially when they are feeding ‘em…

  • g_crush

    .
    gysgt213: Freeperville is already going after Steele and Cantor with a vengence.
    .
    Favorite comment from the Free perv ille Cantor thread: “It didn’t take long for the Spineless Jelly Brained GOP suits to start countering RUSH. The CPAC speech, in my mind, is the new pivot point for the future of Conservatism. Get on board or get run over.”
    .
    It’s nice to see that the lemmings are enjoying the swim.

  • 53_3

    “It’s nice to see that the lemmings are enjoying the swim.”
    .
    Did anyone mention that lemmings can’t swim?

  • rmrd

    Nancy Pelosi’s daughter’s documentary “Right America Feeling Wronged” is a powerful visual representation of the current core of the GOP. Those in the GOP core believe that they represent the true America. The rest of the country Are Leftists and gays. One McCain/Palin supporter couldn’t define Socialism. Others equated Obama to Hitler or the anti-Christ. A well dressed man stated his belief that Obama was the anti-Christ. The man felt this was obvious because, based on his interpretation of the Bible, the Anti-Christ had connections to Europe (?).

    Rachel Maddow had an interesting interview on Friday with the authors of the “Left Behind” series. The Socialist term used for Obama is has meaning for a subgroup of Conservative voters. In the wingnut interpretation of Revelations, a Socialist being elected is important. One of the Left Behind authored said that based on scripture Obama was not the anti-Christ he was just the person who would usher in the anti-Christ because he (Obama) was a Socialist.

    The rest of the country is on a much different wavelength than the core of the GOP.

  • g_crush

    .
    Did anyone mention that lemmings can’t swim?
    .
    Au contraire:

    On occasion, and particularly in the case of the Norway lemmings in Scandinavia, large migrating groups will reach a cliff overlooking the ocean. They will stop until the urge to press on causes them to jump off the cliff and start swimming, sometimes to exhaustion and death.

  • Cliff

    rmrd – I read an interview with Pelosi about that documentary:
    http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/int/2009/02/16/alexandra_pelosi/
    .
    She claims things like the Right is really not all that crazy (despite all of the crazy people seen in the documentary), that crazy-ass Palin rallies are equivalent to Obama rallies, that blogs are poisoning our national discourse, and so on.
    .
    It sounds like an interesting look inside the Right, but I’m not buying a lot of her conclusions.

  • gysgt213

    Breaking: Rush fires Michael Steele as head of the Republican party. Steele will keep is figure head job as head of the RNC.

  • Paul-no not that one

    The Pelosi doc was as subtle as a sledgehammer. I’m on her side but I found it tedious. An hour of Hulas was 59 more minutes than the topic needed.

  • 53_3

    g_crush:
    .
    I stand corrected! I had hoped they couldn’t.
    .
    In the meantime, Rush shoots back at that Black guy:
    http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/02/limbaugh-fires-back-at-steele/
    .
    Now I’m just waiting to see where this is headed…

  • rmrd

    gysgt213, that is hilarious.

    Cliff, the Right is trying to decide who are true Republicans. The threat by Steele to withhold RNC funds from Spector, Collins and Snowe is a case in point. Steele was confronted by Olympia Snowe about challenging her vote on the stimulus package:

    Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), a pro-stimulus Republican who will be up for re-election in 2012, told Roll Call that she approached Steele about his comments and asked him bluntly: “You didn’t really mean that, did you?” She said that Steele has agreed to set up a meeting with the three pro-stimulus GOPers to discuss this.

    http://www.mainepolitics.net/category/topics/olympia-snowe

    It will be interesting to see Limbaugh’s response to Steele.

  • http://policingwingnutwelfare.blogspot.com/ JJ

    If the GOP put up candidates in Maine that looked like the rest of the country’s GOP, they’d be dead meat.

  • 53_3

    See above, rmrd, just posted it.
    .
    “Palin rallies are equivalent to Obama rallies, that blogs are poisoning our national discourse, and so on.”
    .
    So does this mean we are to blame for the likes of Rusty and Hula?
    .
    Hot damn…

  • 53_3

    I’m wondering what Jindal’s chances are now that he’s said he’s going to turn down the stimulus money.
    .
    Unlike Maine, his state is one of the poorest in the country, and still has a good number of expatriate voters, to boot.

  • 53_3

    rmrd:
    .
    I have to retract my statement. By all appearances, those comments were made by Steele before the latest from Rush.
    .
    My apologies.

  • hellslittlestangel

    Does anyone hear remember in which of the Dialogues Socrates told Plato to take the bone out of his nose?

    http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=18003

  • billiecat

    From the link 53_3 posted above:
    .
    “Why do you claim to lead the Republican Party when you seem obsessed with seeing to it President Obama succeeds?” Limbaugh addressed Steele.
    .
    “I frankly am stunned that the chairman of the Republican National Committee endorses such an agenda. I have to conclude that he does because he attacks me for wanting it to fail,” said Limbaugh.

    .
    You go, Rush! Way to run off that cliff!

  • http://www.inworldstudios.com jayackroyd

    is it too early to suggest a revival of the Bull Moose party?
    .
    Personally, I think a third party is going to have to arise. As Dirks said, the haters have been cloven from the Haves. A centrist, socially moderate well-heeled party comes into being.
    .
    There are enormous institutional pressures in Washington to keep the Republican brand alive, so it will take quite a while. But all their lies have been exposed, and now openly rooting for a devestated country will finish their ability to appeal to the center.
    .
    And, of course, their demographic is dying off.

  • Suzie in MD

    I have to say that from my perspective, this is all a lot more fun than watching Democratic infighting. Ah, schadenfreude.

  • rmrd

    53_3

    Shorter Limbaugh: Steele is too stupid/gullible to be RNC chair.
    Thanks for the link.

    My reflex mode when Limbaugh interacts with African-Americans is to go back to Limbaugh’s short tenure as an ESPN analyst, and his comments about Donovan McNabb.

    Steele is getting boxed in. He can’t fully attack the few moderate Republicans because the GOP cannot put Senate seats at risk. A full out attack on Limbaugh alienates the wingnuts. If Steele goes after Obama Jindal-style, he will look equally ridiculous.

  • ilikechips

    Really Joe, you continue to embarress yourself daily..You belong on Daily Kos or crazy Keith’s show. You are seen for nothing more than a liberal partisn hack who lost all credibility. How about the stock market today..everybody’s really encouraged by obama’s plans..lol…..People just laugh at you now.

  • rmrd

    This is better than any sitcom:

    Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele took umbrage Saturday night when CNN’s D.L. Hughley referred to radio host Rush Limbaugh as “the de facto leader of the Republican party.”

    “No he’s not. I’m the de facto leader of the Republican party,” Steele said. The RNC chief went on to call Limbaugh, who that very day delivered the keynote address to the Conservative Political Action Conference, a mere “entertainer” whose show is “incendiary” and “ugly.”

    On his radio show today, Limbaugh fired back, calling the RNC and Michael Steele “so-called Republicans” and saying that they “need a little leadership.”

    “So I am an entertainer and I have 20 million listeners because of my great song and dance routine,” Limbaugh said. “Michael Steele, you are head of the Republican National Committee. You are not head of the Republican party. Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans have nothing to do with the Republican National Committee…and when you call them asking for money, they hang up on you.”

    “I hope that changes,” Limbaugh continued. “It’s time, Mr. Steele, for you to go behind the scenes and start doing the work that you were elected to do instead of being some talking-head media star.”

    UPDATE: Rush continued firing shots at Steele later in the show.

    “I’m not in charge of the Republican Party, and I don’t want to be,” he said. “I would be embarrassed to say that I’m in charge of the Republican Party in a sad-sack state that it’s in. If I were chairman of the Republican Party, given the state that it’s in, I would quit.”

    Rush then mocked those who have criticized him for saying he wants Obama to fail, and directly challenged them to choose: You either want Obama to succeed or fail at his goal of dismantling conservatism.

    “So send those fundraising requests out,” Rush said in a sneering tone, in an apparent reference to Steele, adding: “Make sure you say, `We want Obama to succeed.’ So people understand your compassion.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/02/steele-takes-on-rush-limb_n_171135.html

  • http://smoothlikeremy.blogspot.com/ sgwhiteinfla

    Check out AMC interviewing Joe Scarborough. Keep in mind that Scar called Obama’s agenda socialist several times and Reagan ran up all kinds of deficits.
    .
    http://airamerica.com/anamarie/blog/2009/mar/02/Around-CPAC-in-Three-Days

  • Cliff

    rmrd – I wasn’t disagreeing that the GOP is tearing itself apart. I was just trying to throw out some incidental info on Pelosi’s documentary.

  • jcapan

    “A centrist, socially moderate well-heeled party comes into being.”
    ~
    Wouldn’t that lead to 2 democratic parties? Seriously, I agree–I don’t think that union (haves vs. haters) is sustainable, particularly if the ’10 & ’12 elections go as I hope. I think Rahm’s stroke was masterful (and accurate)–Joe might hope for a sane opposition but in the US it does not exist. And, of course, the MSM has a vested interest in maintaining the two-solution limit to complex problems, banning all other voices.
    ~
    The longer Rush remains at the helm, and it’s obvious his influence is greater than Steele’s at present, the better off the country is. He and the likes of Palin–they’re emblematic of the regional end-of-days crowd their party has become.

  • rmrd

    Cliff, no problem. I understood

  • sacredh

    I’m rooting for Rush to remain as the defacto head of the republicans. He does represent the biggest block of what’s left of the republican party. Watching them tear themselves to shreds shouldn’t cause anyone to shed any tears. There are some decent mainstream republicans left in their party, they just aren’t the ones that get elected. Low brow is high fashion to them now. The only thing that susrprises me about republican representatives in congress is that they’re not driving pickup trucks with gun racks across the back window and confederate flag bumperstickers. They’re just plain embarrassing now. I think Paris Hilton being on Jeporady would be a good analogy. Funny, sad and a trainwreck, but you couldn’t turn the channel.

  • Cliff

    sacredh – I think their trucks will have Trucknutz (TM), as well.

  • viciousmaniac

    Rush is not any sort of special demogogue seeking control. He’s merely interested in ratings. Unlike the pols, he has a media franchise to cultivate. How many new listeners, Republican or otherwise, will his show have now after this CPAC hype?
    .
    His allegiance has always been ratings over the Republican party. This is why he kept cheerleading while Bush urinated all over conservative ideals and even when he morphed into an outright junior Chinese commie at the end. It’s bad ratings for a Republican media hound to bash a Republican president, however un-Republican. If Steele et al. were smart, they’d simply point this out again and again that the “Leader Of The Opposition” clearly failed when they really needed him.
    .
    As for Frump, the only article of his worth reading is this one from NRO, where he mewlingly admits that his neocon/liberal beliefs and jargon where all hollow and destructive:
    .
    http://frum.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGQ5YjVlYmFhZTFiZTU2YjExYmJlZDA1NGI0ZWRjZGY
    .

    Over the past three years, I have been engaged in some intense rethinking of my own conservatism. My fundamental political principles remain the same as ever: free markets, American leadership in the world, and intense attachment to inherited moral and cultural traditions. Yet I cannot be blind to the evidence that we have seen free markets produce some damaging and dangerous results in recent years. Or that the foreign policy I supported has not yielded the success I would have wished to see. Or that traditions must evolve if they are to endure. There are new principes too that must be included in a majority conservatism: environmental protection as a core value and an unwavering insistence upon competence and integrity in government.

  • 53_3

    rmrd:
    .
    I think really, the snit fit between Rush (Fatty) Limbaugh and Joe (Sold His Soul to the Divil) Steele is that there is and will be a split.
    .
    Limbaugh will take the racist and “white interests” crowd with him and Joe, if he can hang on to his elected position, will represent the rest of the conservative movement – the part that doesn’t have a racial axe to grind.
    .
    Jayack is right. Watch for a split. It’s coming, and I guess, we’ll see whether, when the Titanic breaks up, which peices will sink first…

  • 53_3

    “Shorter Limbaugh: Steele is too stupid/gullible to be RNC chair.”
    .
    Shorter shorter Limbaugh: Steele is too dark to run the RNC chair.

  • mccainfluffer

    I love it! The Republicans and imploding and are in a civil war. Obviously, this is good news for the Republicans!

  • 53_3

    That Stevie Wonder song comes to mind.
    .
    Isn’t she lovely
    Isn’t she won-der-ful

  • sacredh

    53_3: I’m not sure about the split in the republican party. It’s shrinking now and any further splintering is going to result in what would have to be two minor parties. I think a more probable outcome would be the handful of moderate republicans either becoming independents or throwing in with the democrats. When you take into account the ages of the currently serving republicans and talk about dividing the party, we’re looking at them being out of power for possibly 20 years at least. Even the relatively younger ones would be in Byrd territory agewise. I don’t think their egos can handle being also rans for that length of time. Don’t be surprised if they try to keep the party together by just following the crazies like Limbaugh and Palin. They might realize they’re backing losers with little or no chance at success, but the alternative is packing their bags and going home. The hard core evangelicals and the outright nut cases are their base now.

  • 53_3

    sacredh:
    .
    I think it will depend on how successful Obama is. I’m pretty confident that he will be able to slow this trainwreck down, and eventually, to stop it, but if, for any reason, he can’t, I worry about something uglier coming out of the insane right.
    .
    This isn’t really idle speculation, either. GOP conduct prior to the ERM building bombing in 1995 was worse. It really was.
    .
    The day after the bombing, most of the GOP sponsored stuff disappeared, leaving only the fringies to carry on. This is why they always point to Limbaugh as not being the head of the GOP when confronted by the hatred he spews. Of course, only then is he just indulging in “lighthearted entertainment”.
    .
    This can all be looked up on the web, but a gander at http://www.splcenter.org and their ‘intelligence’ section will give you a clue that the heart of the beast was never pierced.
    .
    They only covered it up, and now they are starting to get really close to how bad they were in the ’80s and early ’90s.

  • Ivy_B

    Oh my, now Steele is walking back his comments about Rush.

  • sacredh

    53_3: Being a career federal employee myself, I closely followed the ERM bombing in 1995. We’ve upgraded our security but I’ve always been more concerned about our own crazies than the foreign ones. It’s hard enough to protect yourself against the lunatic fringe, but what can we expect when the lunatic fringe IS part of the government? Hannity, Limbaugh, Savage and Coulter might be dismissed by some people as just being entertainment, but public lynchings were also once considered “entertainment”. I think we’re witnessing a major political party having a nervous breakdown. We might be able to predict a rational response when we’re dealing with rational people, but when an irrational group of people is involved, the only thing we can do is guess at their next moves. They’re worse now than they were in the 80′s. I wish Reagan was alive now so that seeing the disintegration of his party could kill him again.

  • 53_3

    “I wish Reagan was alive now so that seeing the disintegration of his party could kill him again.”
    .
    I agree entirely! As for when vs. now, the fact that we may have some disagreement here is a symptom of the fact that they are getting increasingly rabid.

  • sacredh

    53_3: It is unnerving to see the RW stray so far off the path of reason. I keep expecting them to pull back and take a hard look at what they’re doing to themselves, but every time I think they’re gone too far, they just take another step off the path. When they have at least a reasonable chance of getting back in power they have incentive not to go entirely off the deep end. With the changing demographics and the younger voters rejecting their views, what happens when they start to think they have no chance of getting “their” America back. When Barack and Michelle got out of their limo and starting walking during the inaugural parade I was literally standing up and screaming for them to get back inside. I scared the sh!t out of my dogs.

  • 53_3

    “When Barack and Michelle got out of their limo and starting walking during the inaugural parade I was literally standing up and screaming for them to get back inside.”
    .
    They seem like really nice people. In all their conduct, I’ve felt that if they were next door, they would be pleasant neighbors and we’d probably exchange plates of food from the bbq on occasion, or the kid’s birthdays.
    .
    You just can’t do that with the likes of Dick Cheney and these others. You’d proably never see them come and go, and I’m sure they would never answer their doors.
    .
    On their demeaner, my sentiments exactly. They need to be incoculated and sedated before they hurt someone.

  • Friar Tuck

    sacredh,
    .
    I had similar thoughts when I saw that photo of Obama cheering at the Bulls/Wizards game. You don’t want to put the guy under house arrest, but, at the same time, you don’t want give some nut a chance to take a shot at him.

  • Friar Tuck

    53_3,
    .
    I was at a bar once in LoDo and a guy threatened to incoculate me. Are you sure that’s what you meant? Because I remember being really freaked out.

  • 53_3

    Oops. Inoculate.
    .
    Again, preview is my freind.

  • sacredh

    53_3 and Friar Tuck: I also wondered what that meant, but I try not to judge people by their choices since some of my own have been questionable. 53_3, I’m in my 50′s and have voted in every election since I became eligible. I have never been more exicted or hopeful than I am now with Obama in there. I’ve worked as a volunteer on several campaigns, driven the elderly to the polls and been a poll watcher in the projects (being almost 6’5″ in my work boots and looking like a cop with an attitude helps to discourage any idiots who might try some mischief). I’m also so white that I need SPF 40 when I cut the grass.

  • flagrantenigma

    It’s ironic that both sides now have what they wanted most: Limbaugh gets to be Reichsfuhrer der GOP, while Obama gets to tie the disintegrating Republican party to a polarizing, widely disliked and obviously crass clown figure. What a lovely piece of political chess that was by Obama to throw in an off-the-cuff remark about Limbaugh, aided by Rahm Machiavelli’s exquisitely timed provocations of Steele, and watch as the Wobbly One and his acolytes torched their own party. Bravo, Barack! And the best thing is that the corpse of the GOP will have Limbaugh’s fingerprints all over it. With friends like that, who needs the Fairness Doctrine?

  • textee

    Joe Klein thinks that fundamentalist homosexualist Andrew Sullivan is a “conservative”, and Klein was the only person on the planet unaware of Jay Carney’s politics until Carney went to work for the hair-plugged buffoon, serial plagiarist and Soviet useful idiot.

  • flagrantenigma

    “the hair-plugged buffoon, serial plagiarist and Soviet useful idiot”

    Textette, just what is your beef with Ronald Reagan?

  • http://www.dannydoom.com/2009/03/03/no-im-not-sure-what-visigoth-means/ Danny Doom’s Booze Cabinet » Blog Archive » No, I’m Not Sure What Visigoth Means

    [...] – Joe Klein [...]

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