Hugh Hewitt on what he calls “The Speech”:
Rush gave a speech at CPAC today that will be talked about for years and even decades.
***Rush eschews “leadership.” He doesn’t tell people who to vote for or where to show up and march.
But he does communicate with quite extraordinary clarity the deep, abiding attachment that conservatives have for liberty. He does so with great, good humor, and it is this quality that drives the left to distraction. Rush is funny; really, really funny. This is of course the reason he has succeeded far beyond every other radio talk show host. The “women’s summit” this week was just the latest in a long string of innovative –and profitable– firsts that amused even as it made key points.
And Rush is authentic. And deeply appreciated as a result. Long may he prosper.
Is this the tipping point? Will Hugh’s advocacy for Rush push him the way of Harriet Meiers, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and the many others that have given Hugh starbursts? Time will tell.
*** Update ***
A comparison. By the way, I was thinking to myself that compared to the clowns currently angling for the top seat at the GOP table, Multiple Choice Mitt Romney looks downright dignified and Presidential.
dmsilev
Hinderacker should sue for copyright infringement; change the names and this is a dead ringer for his infamous "George Bush: unappreciated genius" posting from a few years ago.
-dms
matt
I know, I know…but a serious problem for the GOP is that for my entire generation, that cultural/political/legal narrative (bullshit or not) doesn’t exist in any capacity whatsoever as it pertains to the Republican party
Edited for clarity.
miss wild whiskers
Snark is insufficient. It is redundant. Do they realize they’re writing SNL, Colbert and TDS material for free?
KCinDC
What was this "amusing" women’s summit? Some event they had at CPAC for Rush to meet chicks?
rachel
But was Rush finally able to figure out why the chicks don’t dig him?
Dave
@rachel:
My understanding is that as the women explained why Rush turned them off, he explained why it was their fault. Which is a microcosm of the problem the GOP has as a whole.
"It’s not our fault you hate us. You just have to be smarter!"
Comrade Stuck
"Liberty" must be the wingnut watchword of the month. I’ve been hearing it from gooper gas bags the last few days. I guess if we can’ts have liberty then gives we death will follow shortly. Maybe they can dig up Patrick Henry along with Reagan for the GOP ’12 comeback ticket, assuming Henry passes Limbaugh’s purity test..
Genine
OMG, a Billy Ocean reference! I love it.
Anyway, I really think we are reaching new heights of insanity. There is opposition, then there is just plain nuts. The conservatives (as a whole) have been just plain nuts. I really hope the sensible members that are left do something soon. This is just said.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
God, I hope he’s right about this.
If Rush helps to keep the GOP irrelevant for the next 2 or 3 decades, he’ll have accomplished something worthwhile after all.
miss wild whiskers
The thing that really sticks out in my mind about Rush’s speech, some of which I watched, was his observation that "conservatives are happy, positive people."
matt
I’ve sort of babbled about this for a couple of years on various blogs, but with the constant obsession with framing this issue or that issue, I’m surprised there isn’t more discussion about how issues, after a certain point, get framed for an entire age group of people.
If you’re 19, flipping through the channels, and come across some GOP talking head going on about fiscal responsibility, or how much Conservatives love liberty, is that just like a total mind fuck or what?
sgwhiteinfla
Uhmmm didn’t Rush Limbaugh promote Mitt Romney during the primary? So much fail.
sgwhiteinfla
Operation "Chaos" telling people to vote for Hillary during the primary also comes to mind. Sheesh what is the color of the sky in the world Republicans live on today?
Dennis-SGMM
Rush Limbaugh is to the conservative movement as Pol Pot was to the Khmer Rouge.
miss wild whiskers
What exactly is "conservative" about these people? They have hi-jacked the term and, if you think about it, pretty much smeared their own feces all over it for all time.
Laura W Darling
I am declaring this Post Title of the Week.
Until tomorrow.
Clio
Funny how these "lovers of liberty" also have a torture purity test.
Clown car, indeed.
MattF
In case you were wondering… just how much denial and bullshit people can deal out before they start to think "Why is everything I say denial and bullshit?"
The answer is: There Is No Limit.
Montysano
@Comrade Stuck:
It’s amazing how the talking points get distributed and put to work. Limbaugh, Hannity, "The Great One", all have been yammering about "liberty". In wingnut-speak, liberty must = Social Darwinism and keeping brown people at bay.
TCG
Limbaugh is on record in saying that he says whatever he needs to say to make his people motivated enough to turn out to the polls.
He’s even said this on his radio rant.
Truth has nothing to do with it.
joe in oklahoma
Rush is funny funny funny…..
…. to adolescent boys in a locker room, yes, I am sure he is.
JGabriel
@miss wild whiskers:
Ignorance is bliss.
.
John Cole
@Laura W Darling: I aim to please.
Clio
@Genine:
And yes, the Billy Ocean reference is teh awesome! You can always count on John to make you spit your morning coffee onto the computer screen!
I’m also with you on how pathetic this is getting. It’s almost like the GOP is your mean, total fucking asshole next door neighbor….he calls the cops when you have a few friends over, but then has an all night gang bang while his wife is out of town, kicks his dog, purposely drives over the same part of your yard every day while parking and now there is perma-tread in the lawn…then one day a bird shits on his head, then his wife finally leaves him and takes the dog and the car, and you think "That’s right, fucker, that’s what you get!" But then you see the poor bastard get pummeled by a bus that knocks him into a hill of fire ants. Then a four wheeler with spiky wheels drives over him. Then an acid rain cloud forms directly over said fire ant hill….and he keeps insisting that he’s never been better. Yep, totally sad.
Jinchi
The guy who refers to his listeners as "Ditto Heads" eschews leadership?
JGabriel
Hugh Hewitt:
I know there’s a Trekkie joke in there somewhere, but so far the best I can come up with is:
The needs of the heavy outweigh the needs of the many.
Lame, huh?
.
miss water whiskers
Clio, i think your analysis is pretty much spot-on. wish i’d thot of it.
Michael
Hugh types one-handed when Rush speaks.
Keith
His Body Mass Index of about 90 and love for opiates and vasodilators say otherwise.
gnomedad
@Jinchi:
Fixed. This enthusiastic self-abasement has always astonished me.
Mazacote Yorquest
Teh party’s got Big Love for Mitt!
Balconesfault
@sgwhiteinfla:
In retrospect, Operation Chaos may have been a classic boomerang. I think it definitely encouraged the Clinton team to think they had a chance when they took out the tire irons last spring … but rather than permanently weakening Obama, they just treaded through the Wright/Ayers bs for so long that the non-wingnut public just yawned when McCain brought it up … and then got annoyed when McCain and Palin complained they were yawning.
Had the primary campaign not been so tough, some of this stuff might of seemed fresh in October, rather than over the top rehashing. Even the right wingers knew that had there really been any skeletons in Obama’s closet, the evil Hillary would have infused life into them and let them run free months before. Since Hillary had such a reputation as a brutal campaigner, a lot of independents who had bought into the Hillary = She Devil hype over the years (and I do know a lot of them) figured that Obama really must be pretty clean.
Michael
On a funny note
Apparently, Laura Ingraham is flying into nasally New England WASP rage that she’s getting the cold shoulder from Mike Pence on her planned ambush over the Cantor rejection of Lord HawHaw.
And to think – Pence is pretty much a wingnut.
SalParadise
If we HAVE to talk about Rush, can we do so without actually putting up any pictures of his big shiny pie-face?
Every time I see him in that all-black getup with the first three buttons of his shirt undone, I throw up in my mouth a little.
argh
John Cole says: "Multiple Choice Mitt Romney looks downright dignified and Presidential."
Wow, I guess great minds do think alike … are you echoing this test-balloon or did you just have that singular thought yourself?
c u n d gulag
Next, Rush is going to have a "Young Boy’s" Summit, to explain why he loves them, and they love him – when he pays…
bootlegger
@JGabriel:
Now its teh awesome!
bootlegger
@SalParadise:
He needs some bling. I’ll bet Snoop Dog will share one of his cigars with him and give him a few pointers.
TenguPhule
Well shit, now I’m out of a job.
GSD
Mika Brezinski: "I love Rush, I think he’s a great thinker."
-GSD
ricky
Happy Texas Independence Day. Rush iddn’t the only good speaker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PtB-Y8-nsM
Anton Sirius
@Dennis-SGMM:
I was thinking more like, "as James Belushi was to the sitcom."
Anton Sirius
@argh:
MC Mitt is yesterday’s news.
John Huntsman FTW!
Mike in NC
Hewitt tells it like it is!
Hewitt tells it like it ain’t!
jake 4 that 1
On Planet Teabagger liberty means the ability to do wtf they want while telling people not to do anything they don’t like.*
Gosh. That sounds exactly like one of their favorite compliants about the DFHs.
I say we fuck with their heads by accusing them of being PC Police.
*Or at least will admit to liking.
jake 4 that 1
@Anton Sirius: Ham sandwiches to Mama Cass?
CMcC
You quote Hugh Hewitt: Rush … ”doesn’t tell people who to vote for or where to show up and march."
Except all last year during the Democratic primaries.
"But he does communicate with quite extraordinary clarity the deep, abiding attachment that conservatives have for liberty."
If, by "liberty," you mean pill-popping without a prescription.
"He does so with great, good humor, and it is this quality that drives the left to distraction. Rush is funny; really, really funny."
If, by "funny," you mean the failure of the United States.
"And Rush is authentic. And deeply appreciated as a result. Long may he prosper."
Except that Hewitt’s "authentic" lover of all things military didn’t serve himself because of an ingrown hair in his ass, and his "authentic" promoter of family values can’t stay married — perhaps because he would rather play around, with the help of some of those previously mentioned pills, down in the Dominican Republic
lady Liberty
The Irrelephants, led by Rush, get their daily messaging from their word-of-the-day toilet paper, which is sort of an abbreviated version of voting for idiots. Example:
Today’s word: Liberty: Lib-er-ty (not related to libertard). Again: lib-er-tee.
Liberty GOOD. Libertards BAD. Usage in sentence: Hitler hated liberty just like Obama. Alternative usage: Libertards are morons who hate liberty like Hitler.
Rinse, repeat.
Comrade Darkness
@Michael, heh, that link paid dividends
To: Yossarian
Maybe it is time for a new Conservative party….
Maybe we can call it the Libertarian Party….
———–
To: Zevonismymuse
Maybe we can call it the Libertarian Party…
LOL – good one!
Oh, please. Make it stop…
Dennis-SGMM
@Anton Sirius:
As Hannibal Lechter was to cuisine.
John PM
Good of you to mention Hewitt today. With all of your previous posts on Rush, Hannity, Beck and Malkin, I suspect that Hewitt was starting to feel like the proverbial red-headed stepchild.
frankdawg81
Some time ago I coined a more appropriate name for this particular defiler of the English language. It fit his ‘Intellectual’ heft better. Huge Fuckwitt.
Mike G
"On the right right bullying hold a special, exalted position. This is a movement that adores bullies, that cheers their bullying slogans at conventions, that longs for a bully mean enough to put the weaklings back in their place forever."
–Thomas Frank
Kyle
But he does communicate with quite extraordinary clarity the deep, abiding attachment that conservatives have for
libertygiant, saggy man-breasts.Bubblegum Tate
@Michael:
Nice one. I suppose there’s a study to be done as to why wingers like the Freepers always choose radio idiots over politician idiots.
Jay in Oregon
@gnomedad:
I think it may have started out as an ironic reaction to being called Rush’s brainwashed followers; an attempt to rob the term of its power by embracing it (see also: DFH, dirty fucking hippie).
People used to refer to themselves as "dittoheads" because it would piss off the liberals. Now they call themselves dittoheads because that’s what they are.
Will
Speaking of Hewitt, who can forget this gem?
http://24ahead.com/blog/archives/004059.html
Ash Can
Shorter Hugh Hewitt: "Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the GOP and ZOMG I WANNA BE HIS BFF!!11!"
binzinerator
@Clio:
Damn that whole thing was funny, Clio.
I loved the fire ant part. Fire ant stings are the most miserable unfun insect bite that I can think of, short of an anaphylactic reaction to a wasp sting, I suppose. And the burn and the itiching and the rash and the pain keeps coming back for a long, long time.
Fucking perfect for these assholes.
Hey Tenguphule, you need to add ‘bury up to the genitals in a fire ant hill’ to your repertoire of proposals for gooper fucktards.
I’d pay to see it. ‘Specially if it was a double-deadender with Rush planted up to his boil-infested ass in the fire ant hill next to Hugh Hewitt.
binzinerator
@bootlegger:
Someone told him black doesn’t make him look nearly as fat.
Michael
I’ve been listening to Jabba the Nut out of morbid curiousity today. He’s going completely spastic over Michael Steele, whining about all the message framing requests he gets from the GOP, pretty much calls him an ingrate. He’s talking about how Conservatism is empowered, the sleeping giant awoken.
Today, fat ass is the Black Knight from The Holy Grail. "Its just a flesh wound…."
Funkhauser
It’s worth repeating…
GTFO. Get the f–k out. Go speak Newspeak somewhere else.
Kathy
I found this comment after another orgasmic review of El Creepo Rush’s Castro like speech. He was referring to the "sad librul’s" who don’t get Oxy Rush’s wisdom-
Don’t mess with these types of big words if you don’t know how to use a spell check.
Ash Can
@Michael: Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any reports of either Steele or Cantor backing off from their dissing of Limblow over the weekend. Evidently they mean to hold on to their turf. I’ll be interested to see if Limblow can make either of them blink.
In other news, OT but fascinating — via a diary posted at GOS by someone in Cuba, Raoul Castro has overhauled the makeup of the Cuban government. This has included the sacking of Fidel’s two most loyal ministers.
Maybe in 3 years’ time we’ll be able to book cheap vacations to Havana. I really think things are moving in that direction.
tas
Is there any conservative shit sandwich Hugh Hewitt would swallow with a smile?
Martin
Glad to see Rush isn’t taking the bait and handling this fight as well as BOB thought he would:
Full. Of. Win.
D-Chance.
Can you say, "Operation Chaos"? I know you can…
Clio
@Michael:
LMAO!! The Black Knight is exactly what is going on with the GOP right now.
"You’ll do what? Your arm’s off!!"
"No, it isn’t."
"You’re a looney!"
"Come back here, I’ll bite your legs off!!"
Catsy
@miss wild whiskers:
It really says all you need to know about the state of the modern GOP that bloggers routinely have to tag direct quotes of prominent Republicans with the disclaimer of "no, this is not from The Onion."