A Simple Question For Republicans: Is Rush Limbaugh Correct Or Delusional?
On Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh finally said it. He told Neil Cavuto on Fox News that he's the "de facto" leader of the Republican Party.
Here's his quote:
"Too many elected Republicans right now are just in fear, Neil, of being criticized, of opposing the Obama administration....We're not -- we're not really to go - to be too vocal about opposing this, which I don't subscribe to at all. I mean, liberalism is liberalism, and it is to be defeated and to be opposed every time it's -- it -- it pops up. And, so I -- I have -- I'm the de -- you know, if I am a leader, then it's de facto, because the elected Republican leadership hasn't yet decided to speak out."
A couple of months ago, when James Carville & company cooked up the idea that Limbaugh was the crowned head of the minority party, vocal repubs scoffed. RNC Chairman Michael Steele defiantly insisted that "I'm the de facto leader," and called the radio talker "incendiary" and "ugly." Of course, Steele soon bowed down and apologized for insubordination.
One has to think Carville, Rahm Emanuel et al felt intuitively that the idea of crowning himself Leader For Life (or "Boss Limbaugh" as MSNBC's Keith Olbermann calls him) would ultimately be too great for "El Rushbo" to resist. He's finally taken the bait.
Next step: Now that he's grabbed the mantle, it's time to ask key members of the movement if they agree with his self-anointment. Ask Chairman Steele, or John McCain and his colleagues in Congress. Ask cable TV conservatives like Sean Hannity.
Beyond them, try the man in the street. Ask the postman, ask the fireman, ask the milkman white with foam. Let's see what America thinks.
We're already clear about who leads the majority party. After all, it now controls the White House and both sides of Capitol Hill, working hard to pull the nation out of the ditch she's been driven into the past eight years.
Limbaugh claims to be, in actuality, head of the fired chauffeurs. Is he right, yes or no?
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KO's sophomoric references to neocon teabag parties is something I would expect from my 17 yr old nephew, not a professional commentator. Stop it Keith, you're embarrassing your sober adult audience..
That's a good question to ask every Republican guest on every show. No hemming and hawing, guys. Just a simple yes or no will suffice. This would make for very interesting viewing.
The heck with De Facto leader, make him the leader, we can use 10 more senate seats and 100 more House seats in 2010
Who cares who the head lemming is?
For all of you progressive, thoughtful readers who - like me - are "represented' in Congress by a member of the Republican party, I urge you to write to your representative and ask the simple question:
Is Rush Limbaugh's vision your vision for our country and our state/district?
The difference to me (observation) when it comes down to the two parties and racism is that the Republican Party seems to want to 'bathe" in racism and the Democratic Party at least have the sense to try and distance them selves from it! In other words the Republicans are always "shocked" at racism. use plausible deniability, and stubbornly cling to the "old demented ideas of racial superiorit
There is definitely a leadership vacuum in the Republican party.
And a morality vacuum. And an intellectual vacuum. And a tolerance vacuum. And a compassion vacuum. And a logic vacuum. And a reason vacuum. And a policy vacuum. And an ideas vacuum.
Yup, GOP "sucks."
"the fired chauffeurs
Arent they a punk band out of Paramus?
:D
MMH
What Rush is saying is that if he actually is the de facto leader, then it's only because he and a few other conservatives are the only ones speaking out against Obama and Pelosi. Steele and Boehner (did I spell that right?) are to to silent right now. Cantor is a joke. We need to get this country back on track with the principles that founded this country, and it seems that Rush is the only one speaking for these principles, along with a select few.
But hey, conservatives are the minority right now. I get it, liberals are in charge. So go ahead and do what you want, liberals. You have two or four years to prove conservatives wrong. So far they've controlled Congress since January 2007 (when did the recession begin again?). Just remember, Reagan was the by-product of four years of President Carter.
See Jackson Williams's Profile
Ted Kennedy and the Left pressed Carter very hard in the 1980 Democratic primaries, and the final year of his presidency was consumed by the Iranian hostage crisis in Tehran, which certainly wasn't his fault. Not only that, the Federal Reserve continuously jacked up interest rates in an effort to stop inflation. That's the history that led to Reagan.
Speaking of "by-product," there is nobody who disagrees that the recent rise of the dems and the fall of the repubs is very much a by-product of George W. Bush and the policies he and his Party pursued. It gave us eight years of incompetence. I guess that must mean Bush was twice as bad as Carter because Bush was, after all, in office twice as long.
There's a reason Bush left office with damn near the lowest approval rating of any president in history. There's a reason the 2006 mid-term election saw the Republican Party handed their hat. They lost five incumbent U.S. Senators and almost 30 House seats. Two years later, in 2008, it happened again. They lost 8 or 9 more senate seats and another 20 or so House seats....n
These are what we call consequences.
Thanks for reading.
exactly what principles involve lying,stealing elections, doing nothing to help the economy, accusing others of actions you yourself are exhibiting
I wish you would read John Deans' CONSERVATIVES WITHOUT CONSCIENCE. The current neo-cons are not, nor have they ever been conservatives. If they gave a darn about America, why did they not support Ron Paul, the ONLY real conservative who ran in 08. Now they whine like a bunch of ninnies. The war is the biggest reason that most of friends could not in good faith vote for McCain. Rush Limbaugh is one of the biggest frauds on the air. He has no idea what the average American is struggling with in today's economy. Two of my family members have or are still serving in these wars that were based on lies. Until the Republican Party decides to stand for something, it will no longer exist.
Like a huge pimple it's finally coming to a head. The shame is on all the republican voters who voted these politicians in....now knowing that the people they have voted in are taking direction from a talk show host! This sounds like something a republican would say a liberal would do....
But now it is fact.....t
Party of racism? Remind me please, what party does Sen. Robert Bird belong to?
Oh I have no doubt there are racists in both parties...
Senator Byrd is indeed at Democrat, but he apologized for and renounced his racist ways years ago.
David Duke, on the other hand, is a proud Republican, and unlike Senator Byrd, he has never apologized for being in the KKK. Nice try, though.
Back when Byrd was a bigot, other conservative Dems like him had two choices. Some like Byrd repented and stayed Dems, the rest became Republans! Strom, Jesse Helms etc
One news/video clip worth thousands of words???
http://www
Many years ago, Rush called himself "the fourth branch of government". No doubt this was because of the indirect (or maybe direct) role that he played in the government: his listeners brought the Newt Gingrich crowd to power in 1994.
He's big enough to constitute his own branch.
I think all of the mice have systematically been led into the trap. First they started eating the cheeze and then they started to eat each other. Now that the King rat has emerged for all to see and for all to
publicly annoint, the mouse trap will come crashing down. Leaving a bunch of totally embarassed
rats stuck with Rush Limbaugh on a ship to nowhere.
That's right!
The truth is George W is the defacto leader of the repubs , but he''s unloved right now
And working diligently in the background through Karl Rove and all the others that feel so comfortable disparaging the new Administration - including McCain. It's like a pyramid sceme. it just so happens that there are many willing participants that have no problems inciting fear, hate and lies.
where are the Republicans? I don't see any posting to this story....I guess they only like to come into our party and poop it.
Yeah really! Where are the trolls? This is the one post they should be on, defending their leader.
The trolls are in Trollville having a nap. They will be out like vampires when the sun goes down
They're mostly haunting the main thread these days, picking at each others' scabs like m3th heads. HuffPo oftens puts a non-story there to keep them occupied while the rest of us gravitate to the more important stuff. That seems to be the current system, bound to change any day now.
The most disturbing thing about this post is that there is an idea being posited among the listeners and followers of Limbaugh, Beck and the like, that they are somehow being watched and stifled in their protest of the current administration.
"Too many elected Republicans right now are just in fear, Neil, of being criticized, of opposing the Obama administra
What is the evidence of this? I've not seen or heard of anything like that. All I hear is more and more radical, seditious ranting. At some point, I think there IS going to be a serious problem with fomenting actual violence because of this sort of talk and the encouragement of "revolution" I hear from these folks. You aren't allowed to say ANYTHING in this country. Incitement to riot and sedition are a couple of examples.
It's like a game of poker - the fringe elements which have been in control of the right wing for the past several decades are masters at raising the stakes in dishing it out, but are pretty thin-skinned when it comes to taking it. Because they're bullies, they won't ever cop to actively playing the anti-patriotic card back when they were in power, even though they did it day in and day out.
These people won't go away and they won't stop raising, and in poker, the way to deal with those kind of aggressive, bullying players is to play smart, let them take the small and ultimately meaningless pots, keep your intentions as pure as the driven snow and let them dig their own hole because when you have the winning cards, no amount of bluster or mindgames will work.
The only way they win is if we fold.
I'm just worried somebody's going to get killed before people sort of wake up. I was worried about the same thing during the Clinton administration with all the totally over-the-top hate thrown towards the Clintons. This time around, it seems worse.
Don't forget... RushBots thrive on fear. If there isn't anything real to fear, they make something up...it's like a narcotic.
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