Looking for all the world like the sweating floor manager on the late afternoon shift at Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in an unbuttoned shiny black shirt and undersized sport coat, Rush Limbaugh leaned his meaty hands on the lectern at the CPAC conference and slipped a greasy dollar bill into the G-string of the writhing conservative dead-enders packed into the garishly lit Omni Shoreham in Washington DC.
Jowls rolling like thunder from the right via CNN's unfortunate high-definition feed, Limbaugh took control of the sad and tattered remnants of the mainstream conservative movement, and urged continued allegiance to the noble Lost Cause of Reagan, metaphorically carrying his rebel-yelling followers into the hills like modern-day Quantrill's Raiders standing firm against change.
If there's any doubt that the GOP's own Paulie Walnuts is now firmly in command of the Party of Lincoln, the "breaking news" style coverage of Limbaugh's bellow-cose rant dispelled the notion. CNN, for one, went wide - with the kind of uninterrupted live footage usually reserved for Presidents and Popes, followed by a panel of analysts to weigh and consider the import of the speech to this republic of ours. There were other dancers on the stage, to be sure - including Ward Connerly, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly and Karl Rove - but only Limbaugh's hour-long ramble (he went over by 30 minutes) garnered opposition leader status. "As the movement searches for a front-and-center spokesman to provide inspiration and direction, Limbaugh's refusal to tilt toward the center may place him out front in a Republican Party already suffering from a disappearing moderate wing," wrote Tom Schaller in Salon.
Limbaugh is a showbiz talent, and he is taking full advantage of this moment of rudderless, thoughtless spinning in circles by Republicans to seize the stage in full-throated opposition to the overwhelmingly popular new President - and virtually everything he stands for. In rooting publicly for Barack Obama's failure, Limbaugh may be leading the conservative movement to a smaller, fringe-like existence in the halls of power - but it will an existence that he can easily dominate.
Leading gullible Republicans into the hills of guerrilla ideological resistance during the nation's toughest economic crisis in 80 years constitutes a gift of incredible political proportions for the Obama Administration. Instead of principled point-by-point opposition by a chastened party of experienced professionals ready for tough dealings at the bargaining table, President Obama is blessed with clownish truculence and pure rejectionism - embodied in the Republican response to the President's forceful Congressional address by Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, a moment of excruciatingly tone-deaf ideology rescued only by the attention lavished on its shockingly poor delivery.
President Obama, of course, is aware of this lumbering and clumsy gift from the right - so much so that he sent chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to Bob Schieffer's CBS studio this morning to declare Limbaugh "the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party."
And it's that blustery intellectual force that convinces Republicans like Jindal and Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi that their political futures are enlarge and brightened by a nihilistic refusal of Federal funds to their own communities. "White kids on dope," jibed conservative Rod Dreher, one of a small cadre of right-wing commentators to take on the Limbaugh lemming movement, the willful ignorance of the current crisis and the nation's ultimate rejection of a failed a humiliated party leadership. "No need to return to first principles and recalibrate policies to account for new realities," wrote Dreher. "Just find a better messenger for the same old same old. You begin to see why nobody inside that bubble could grasp what a flop Bobby Jindal's reheated Republican mush of a speech was going to be ahead of time."
Rush Limbaugh is right about one thing: President Obama is indeed on a mission of reinvention. That much was clear from his speech on Capitol Hill last week - and even clearer in his budget proposal. And, as Limbaugh undoubtedly knows, the President holds the whip hand for the foreseeable future. So Limbaugh plays to that loss of power in his audience, and in a speech that referred bizarrely to "slave blood" and a defense of John Thain (who seems to literally be asking for a set of numbered orange duds from Andrew Coumo) and the spending habits of bail-out bankers, he laid on some false concern for Obama:
President Obama is one of the most gifted politicians, one of the most gifted men that I have ever witnessed. He has extraordinary talents. He has communication skills that hardly anyone can surpass. No, seriously. No, no, I'm being very serious about this. It just breaks my heart that he does not use these extraordinary talents and gifts to motivate and inspire the American people to be the best they can be. He's doing just the opposite. And it's a shame. [Applause] President Obama has the ability -- he has the ability to inspire excellence in people's pursuits. He has the ability to do all this, yet he pursues a path, seeks a path that punishes achievement, that punishes earners and punishes -- and he speaks negatively of the country. Ronald Reagan used to speak of a shining city on a hill. Barack Obama portrays America as a soup kitchen in some dark night in a corner of America that's very obscure. He's constantly telling the American people that bad times are ahead, worst times are ahead. And it's troubling, because this is the United States of America.
Yes, Rush this is the United States of America. And your timely and spectacular gift to the President is much appreciated indeed.
Rush Limbaugh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rush Limbaugh calls on conservatives to take back nation - CNN.com
If you would like to complain about these two companies sponsoring an event with Rush Limbaugh as keynote speaker:
Google: 1-650-253-0000
Corporate Office: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 CEO: Eric Schmidt
Google's diversity and inclusion statement can be found here:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/diversity/community.html
*******
AT&T: customerservice@att.com
Corporate Offices: 208 S Akard St, Dallas, TX 75202 CEO: Randall Stephenson
Read this page about AT&T's diversity, outreach and multicultural programs, which reads in part: "At AT&T, diversity encompasses respect for all individuals......"
http://www.att.com/gen/corporate-citizenship?pid=7738
Their corporate policy is an odd contrast to Mr. Limbaugh's hateful messages.
He has challenged President Obama to a debate. His claim is that since they have elevated him to the status of leader for the Republicans, it is only right that they allow him to debate. Certainly not a spin I expected to see. No matter how the WH responds, a response is a win for Rush.
It will of course never happen, but it certainly calls their hand if this gains momentum in the media.
http://federalistblogs.wordpress.com
Now to stir up the fear, they use words like socialism, freedoms (or loss thereof) and whatever else they think will work.
They don't realize we have moved beyond that, and are looking to rebuild a great country.
You, on the other hand, just believe what Rush tells you.
Just ask yourself, if you are making, say $65,000, whether you'd mind switching places with someone who makes over $250,000?
Conversely, if you are making $250,000, would you rather give up the $185,000 in order to be at the $65,000 level so that you could be taxed at a lower rate?
Were the Clinton era tax rates punitive socialism that killed the entrepreneurial spirit?
People who are losing their jobs, their health insurance and retirement savings are rightly unconcerned with a marginal tax hike for people who can well afford to pay it.
Even those people at the $250,000+ income level will benefit greatly from universal health care, a higher level of educational skills, and cheaper energy costs. It's a good investment for them.
I like your post. here's why: Dispite the fact that I was a Republican and did not like the ground Clinton walked on, during the 90's every year--for SIX YEARS--I recieved $3,000.00 Christmas bonuses and a 3 week vacation period per year, 100% medical, dental, and visual coverage! Can you believe that? And I was badmouthing the man as an inveterate liar. But when Bush stepped in and the 911 deal went down, so did my fortunes. The company I worked for had to eventually close its doors. I was reduced in 2004-2005 to no electricity for nearly 10 months (and rent wasn't paid either). I found food in dumpsters or selling alluminum cans and odd day jobs, etc. All true.
They all happen to be on President Obama’s cabinet.
(You made that way, way too easy for me..!!)
It's a matter of taste.
I guess its a matter of taste.
THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING, AND GIVING, AND.................
The republican party has already stated that should the economy turn around in 2 years that they will find the alternative reasons for that occurrence. It will be plain and simple for the American people to see that first with Bush we witnessed how devastating a negative presidency can be on everyday Americans and two how stabilizing a positive presidency can be. This is a direct assault on the republican party's basic claim. Less government is better. The success of the Obama administration negates that claim and assertion; leaving the republican party searching for yet another theme or to continue to re-write history in its favor.