“But ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy.” – Sarah Palin
“One thing we can all do is stop assuming that the way to beat [the Democrats] is with better policy ideas.” – Rush Limbaugh
Palin/Limbaugh 2012, because ideas don’t matter (and thank goodness for that!).
(thanks to Jay in Oregon for the bumpersticker)
*** Update ***
Sorry for the wall to wall Rush stuff, but this is too funny. Steele is now walking back his remarks:
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says he has reached out to Rush Limbaugh to tell him he meant no offense when he referred to the popular conservative radio host as an “entertainer” whose show can be “incendiary.”
“My intent was not to go after Rush – I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh,” Steele said in a telephone interview. “I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. … There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.”
***“I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking,” Steele said. “It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of people … want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not.”
“I’m not going to engage these guys and sit back and provide them the popcorn for a fight between me and Rush Limbaugh,” Steele added. “No such thing is going to happen. … I wasn’t trying to slam him or anything.”
Too late. We know where the real power in the GOP is these days. Rahm Emanuel, yesterday:
EMANUEL: You just named them. It was Rush Limbaugh. I mean, he has laid out his vision, in my view, and he said it clearly, and I compliment him for that. He’s been very upfront and I compliment him for that. He’s not hiding.
He’s asked for President Obama and called for President Obama to fail. That’s his view. And that’s what he has enunciated. And whenever a Republican criticize him, they have to run back and apologize to him, and say they were misunderstood.
I’m dying here. Explain again to me how it was a mistake to elevate Rush Limbaugh?
*** Update ***
Beat you to it Sullivan:
Steele Reports To The Politburo
Comrade Steele dutifully apologizes to the Great Leader and offer his regrets to his fellow comrades in the movement. Re-education camp will follow shortly.This climb-down marks the end of establishment Republican resistance to the Poujadist pontificator. It’s Rush’s party now. So why shouldn’t he run for president in 2012? Make Palin his veep – and be done with it.
This is just too funny.
Notorious P.A.T.
Palin/Limbaugh 2012
Oxycontin-free for 7 months
Fwiffo
This is great. Steele just walked it back and apologized to Rush.
Snark Based Reality
Do you honestly think there would be enough room on the ticket for Palin? Limbaugh would need at least two seats of power to support his ass.
Krista
We could produce those and sell them, with the net proceeds going to Svensker’s pal. Or to Obama’s re-election campaign.
JL
@Krista: Good idea! The proceeds could also go to John to upgrade his site when PJ’s media goes away.
JenJen
@Fwiffo: Nobody could have predicted that Michael Steele wouldn’t be able to withstand the barrage of Dittohead backlash. ;-)
Surreal American
Palin/Limbaugh 2012: A mind is a terrible thing. Also.
hana
I like Surreal American’s!
kommrade reproductive vigor
So the head of the RNC is apologizing to a draft dodging drug addicted recovered welfare dirigible for telling the truth.
G.O.P. R.I.P.
jnfr
Is this as delicious to everyone else as it is to me?
valdivia
@Surreal American:
best slogan ever.
TR
Palin-Limbaugh is a sure thing. They’ve already posed for the campaign photos.
Robin G.
…Steele just apologized for being "inarticulate"? I… wow.
Nick
When I said you were ‘incendiary’ and ‘ugly’, I really meant I love you.
Lev
Steele had it right to begin with, and this just adds more grist to the mill. It’s another scalp for Rush, and another example for Democrats to say that Limbaugh is basically running the Love Boat of a party they have these days, with Steele as Gopher.
These guys are hopeless, aren’t they?
Fwiffo
I mean, I’m not actually surprised, but what does Rush have on these guys? Surely they can tolerate a few angry phone calls from ditto-heads. Why do they always hurry to grovel so quickly?
Comrade Stuck
It’s a two-fer for dems. Makes Steele, and repubs in general, look like a wimps in service of the Wingnut Whale, while making Rahm Emmanuel look like a prescient genius on This Week..
phillip anderson
key quote:
there really can’t be much doubt about who is now the de facto leader of the republican party. it ain’t steele. he just admitted as much.
Comrade Stuck
@Robin G.:
That’s one of the fallback words, along with taken out of context, or misunderinterpreted. He sure won’t say the truth that Rushbo makes him pee his pants.
The Grand Panjandrum
Thanks for the bumper sticker. I’ll post it at my blog.
OT: Blago signed a book deal.
.
kid bitzer
you know, i always thought that one of the ugliest things about the bush crime syndicate was its forcing people to say ‘uncle’.
after diulio told the truth about the mayberry machiavellis, they made him knuckle under and eat it.
after treasury secretary snow criticized bush, the browbeat him till he said sorry.
fuck, after cheney shot a man in the face, they forced the victim to appear on t.v. and apologize to cheney.
it was such a perfect distillation of their criminal thuggery.
and now bush’s heirs are doing it to the rnc chair.
say what you want about ineffectual democrats. they are never this insanely brutal.
demkat620
Very, very nice. But would Limbaugh accept 2nd place?
Why wouldn’t it be Limbaugh/Palin 2012?
Dreggas
Palin/Limbaugh 2012 – "Because one loud mouthed idiot is never enough"
Studly Pantload, Would Be Minion of John Cole
@hana:
Yeah, that’s a winner.
JL
@TR: Very good!
The Dangerman
I’m missing something.
The Right regularly has fits over Hollywood types having an opinion…
…and yet they are all kneeling at the throne (a fucking BIG throne, mind you) of Rush to kiss his, um, ring.
At the end of the day, he’s a radio shock jock; it’s not like he’s well educated. He’s a college dropout for fuck sakes (of course, Queen Sarah bombed out of half a dozen schools, too, so this could be a Net positive).
It has to SUCK to be an earnest Republican these days.
Scott
Yeah, I reckon it’d be Limbaugh/Palin. Rush wouldn’t accept the second spot on the ticket.
In a way, I wonder why they don’t try to shoehorn all their clowns in. Limbaugh/Palin/Plumber/Jindal/Mittens/Huckabee/Coulter/O’Reilly/Malkin/Beck/Crazy Guy Screaming On The Corner in 2012!
JGabriel
Politico:
Where’s Atanarjuat? Wasn’t he just complaining yesterday that:
Hey, hey, Fast Runner, are you calling Michael Steele, chairman of the RNC, a "spitballing, leftist partisan?"
You really gotta get your talking points straight with the rest o’ the party, Ata.
.
Mazacote Yorquest
Palin and Limbaugh are already conferring about 2012, along with Tucker Carlson and spokesperson Nancy Pfotenhauer.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_PLfTynrGpbc/R0h4yqyQIlI/AAAAAAAAACY/QcoV5tM1bRw/s640/663266-R1-00-1_001.jpg
Bulworth
This is, just, very sad, in a pathetic kind of way. It’s hard to imagine a more demeaning spectacle than Steele (and other GOP’ers) saying what they actually think about their party’s Godfather, and then once having said it, be forced to bow down and lick the dirt of the overlord’s boots in repentence.
trizzlor
I was reading an old post by Greenwald about diplomacy in the middle east and how to do it right, specifically, when the US treats Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran as a single entity we end up uniting them against a common enemy even though they have some fairly significant ideological differences.
It’s pretty clear to me that Obama has applied this approach domestically – not just in pitting the elected republicans against the pundits, but also in his more recent rhetoric about good businesses and bad.
shirt
Urkel hearts the big Guy.
Waingro
I remember that and thought it was chilling. The Bush administration really was full of sociopaths. They would have been great apparatchiks in the Soviet Union.
There’s something about forced apologies of any kind that give me the creeps. It’s infantilizing and degrading, which I guess is the point for these psychopaths.
PaminBB
While I kind of understand the idea of not dignifying the man with a response, I agree that the more public exposure Rush Blimpo and his "ideas" get, the better.
I liked the idea that Mitt Romney got the most support at CPAC. It is a testament to their power and influence that Mitt (the winner in the 2007 strw poll) was catapulted to the Repub nomination last year…
Oh, wait.
c u n d gulag
Man of Steele v. Massive Jello Man-Titties.
An EPIC battle.
Who will win?
Man-titties wins in a no-show!
I’m pissed. I lost the pool. I figured Steele would hold out at least until 7pm tonight.
Well, now we truly know who’s in control. Rush’s little dick is probably standing about as straight and hard as it can. Not that anyone could find it. Apparently 3 wives couldn’t.
Maybe the boy hookers in the Dominican did.
gbear
@Nick:
LOL + Win.
Paddy
Neutered, surgically clean. A pleasure to watch.
Hugh
This is crazy isn’t it? Rush has vanquished the chairman of the RNC. As I said in a comment on the post regarding Steele’s first statement, Rush is a narcissist of the highest order. He is almost certainly loving this. He is KING REPUBLICAN and this can only please him. Prior to this he was just propagandist in chief. It is highly unlikely that he has enough of an observing ego to let him see the destructive role his narcissism plays in these engagements with other Republicans. I suspect he sees these things as power struggles only, and that within these struggles he is indistinguishable from the Republican party – so his wins are Republican wins. The Obama administration somehow has caught the big one (no pun intended) with this line of attack. My God it’s amazing.
Steele is a joke, by the way. He won’t last too long. They’ll kick him out within a year.
Martin
3 hours per day, prime time, on half of the radio stations in the nation, plus armed forces radio.
Rush has the only microphone in the auditorium, that’s what he has. This is playing the lack of a fairness doctrine to your advantage.
4tehlulz
I WANT TO HAVE RAHM’S E-BABIEZ.
Bulworth
I suspect it won’t be long before Steele’s "apology" takes the form of a Michelle Bachman-like "I never said Rush’s show was ‘incendiary’ or ‘ugly’ or that Rush was just an ‘entertainer’ ", and that even when confronted with the video evidence, continues to deny his having said any such thing.
gbear
@Fwiffo:
Perhaps it was the dozens of specific death threats.
Attaturk
A black man just called himself inarticulate so as to kiss Rush Limbaugh’s ass.
Thank goodness Black History Month is over.
Napoleon
God I love this.
kay
"What I was trying to say was a lot of people … want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not.”
Scapegoat for what? Bogeyman of what? Who wants to make Rush Limbaugh the scapegoat? What is Michael Steele babbling about?
They may as well speak a different language. I didn’t know what Limbaugh was talking about either. It was in some kind of code. What can people who don’t follow this closely be thinking?
amorphous
I can’t be the only one who watched the first episode of the Half Hour News Hour on Fox, hoping it would be a train wreck (it was). Remember the opening sketch with President Limbaugh and VP Coulter? I think Rush actually fancies himself as that IRL.
Sadly, it seems many Rushpublicans and Limbaughtarians do too.
Rick Taylor
Oh my God, I can’t believe this. I remember how the Republican party used to try to tie the Democrats to Michael Moore. Oh, look, they invited him to the nomination ceremony, the Democrats are in thrall to their base. Yet Michael Moore never had prominent Democrats tip toeing around him and apologizing if they got out of line.
amorphous
@Bulworth: That said, does Bachmann have to retrace her steps from when she noted that Steele "be da man"?
flounder
It’s like what would would have happened circa 1990 if Republicans could have pegged Al Sharpton as the head of the Democratic Party.
dem be happy
It’s like watching two turds fight as they go swirling down the toilet…
Incertus
@Martin: I think that pretty much nails it. In the absence of a politician leading the way, Limbaugh gets to do it, and I’m cheering him on all the way.
r€nato
The GOP is certainly doing an admirable job of filling Bush’s role of guaranteeing permanent employment for comedy writers.
former capitalist
If you haven’t had a chance everyone, please go back and read JC”s Give a Hand if You Can post from earlier today. Thanks.
gbear
Can you imagine how much fun we’re going to have on the day that Al Franken takes his seat in the senate? I cannot wait. Coleman wrapped up his ‘case’ today. Franken starts tomorrow and I’m sure he’s going to try to be fast. Three weeks tops until he’s seated.
JL
Josh Hueco mentioned on the open thread (comment #30)
Obama knows what he’s doing.
Blue Raven
I figured Steele was in trouble when he got "de facto" and "de jure" confused. He is the de jure head of the Republican party, since he chairs the RNC. But the de facto head is the person who really holds the reins. "By law" and "by fact." Limbaugh’s exactly what Rahm Emanuel called him on Sunday, no ifs, ands, or buts.
It would be very, very wrong to have Steele drawn as a lawn jockey on Limbaugh’s lawn. Yet the image cannot leave my head.
Jay B.
@Rick Taylor:
At the very least Democrats/lefties love arguing with each other. Blue Dogs love to whine about liberals. Liberals love to hate Naderites. Naderites and Liberals hate the DLC. The DLC hates labor. Labor hates a certain subset of liberals. Technocrats hate passionate progressives. Passionate progressives hate pragmatists, Congressional leadership hates the grassroots….and on and on and on.
And NO ONE ever apologizes.
It’s nice that the GOP has united us for awhile.
Atanarjuat
@JGabriel:
It’s called a misunderstanding, JG. People have them all the time.
Molehills to mountains, that’s the corrupt, leftist game plan.
P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C.
-A
Dennis-SGMM
@r€nato:
If memory serves, there was some concern on one of the post-election threads about whether Stuart and Colbert would be starved for material under a reasonably sane Democratic administration. Guess we can put that one to rest.
jenniebee
This has been just win-win for the Democrats. Once Emanuel made his announcement, the only way out of the trap for Republicans was to ignore Emanuel, which they just couldn’t do. Now the R’s get to go into convulsions, and at the end of it, either every one of them who is on record being lukewarm about Rush is going to have to establish nutter cred at the expense of the middle (this is the so-you-thought-Palin-could-bring-the-crazy option), or else they’re going to preserve the Burke/Buckley/Goldwater brainstem of the party by utterly destroying Rush (it’s not like they don’t have enough dirt on him to do it). Worst case, they expend a lot of effort on loyalty oaths and the RINO paranoia goes up a notch.
Makes you wish you had popcorn.
AnotherBruce
Dammit, I just opened that barrel of popcorn. Do you think that Steele actually gift wrapped his testicles when he handed them to Rush?
Ninerdave
@Atanarjuat:
…and it just might have worked if it weren’t for you meddling kids.
jnfr
@dem be happy:
Okay, you made me actually laugh out loud.
Joe Lisboa
Can we ignore the troll/parody troll and just enjoy this moment? Because it is so, so delicious.
gex
@The Dangerman: Fred Grandy, Sony Bono, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwartzenegger, and Ronald Reagan. Yup, Republicans sure do dislike Hollywood types.
In this, as in everything else, there are arbitrary standards to hold others to, while IOKIYAR.
binzinerator
Looks like Frum didn’t get what he wanted — which is not allowing Rush to be the public face of the GOP.
Here’s the nut of the problem for the goopers:
People like Frum have no clue that 1) insisting Rush and his fucktards play an important role and be treated with respect mean that 2) Rush is going to be an important voice.
Stupid fucking republicans. They created their frankenstein, and removed the restraints (see martin’s comment on radio ownership), and now they have no idea how to control him. Their servant creature is now their master.
Anoniminous
Apparently the "Just scream NO! to everything; We Need to Move to the Right" faction of the GOP is winning.
Interesting. Interesting.
theturtlemoves
Yeah, Steele misunderstood his proper place and got all uppity. That’s now been taken care of and we can all move on. What’s the big deal?
Martin
At least he didn’t call himself ‘uppity’.
Comrade Jake
Can an apology from Eric Cantor be far behind?
Max Renn
@Atanarjuat:
Nothing much to say to this except:
Ship of Fail, on a Cruel Sea.
It must be lonely as a crew of one, there, ‘chum.’
How do you like you new, XXXL, overlord, sonny?
Martin
Except how does Colbert function in this environment? There’s no room for satire here.
Atanarjuat
@theturtlemoves:
Liberals. Always the first to inject racism into any political debate, without fail.
-A
dem be happy
@Martin #70: Just be patient.
Comrade Jake
The Daily Show will certainly be must-see-teevee this week. Clown shoes galore.
theturtlemoves
@Atanarjuat: You mean the black fellow being forced to grovel to the fat, white southerner didn’t sort of lead that direction, anyway? Seriously? I’ll admit, it was a bit lazy, but there were an awful lot of fish in that barrel and you guys keep handing us such high caliber weapons.
dem be happy
You know who’s really pissed about this? Lorne Michaels, who aired a re-run last week.
Now he’s saying: "Jindal, Steele, Rush, Little Boy Neo-Con…how I am supposed to fit all that into one show?!"
JGabriel
Atanarjuat:
Where’s the misunderstanding, Ata? Yesterday, you accused "spitballing, leftist partisans" of conspiring to raise Limbaugh to the level of a conservative leader, implying that it was a slander and misrepresentation of the GOP:
Today, Michael Steele, the chairman of the RNC, confirms Limbaugh’s leadership role:
Where’s the misunderstanding, Ata? It’s not a misunderstanding; it’s a complete undercutting of your point by the leader of the RNC. It’s a: FAIL.
.
Mike in NC
Did Steele spit or swallow after Limpballs had his manly way with him? By the end of the week they’ll announce the head of the RNC is stepping down "to spend more quality time with his family" or some such BS.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@AnotherBruce: That would take teabagging to a whole new level.
Oh noes, he has not fully embraced the greatness of the Bloated One! Summon the Red State Stroke Force to castigate this blasphemer!
AnotherBruce
What’s amazing is the speed of the walk back, we’re talking sprinter speed. What, did a whole hour lapse between his "incendiary" comments and his apology? I wonder what causes someone to walk, no run backwards that fast? Maybe they threatened Steele by telling him that he would have to find a real job if he didn’t straighten up and grovel.
kid bitzer
now we can look forward to michelle bachmann’s attempt to translate her retraction into ebonics:
"and to mr. steele, i now say: you *not* be da man!
uh, i mean: you be da *not* man!
uh: you be *not* da man!
oh dear oh dear…."
Pasquinade
“Stop, please. Please. My sides hurt. Please stop. I can’t take it any more. The nominal party head is a coward. The real party head is a drug-addicted radio buffoon. The two brightest lights in the party are a semi-literate witch hunter from Alaska and a do-it-yourself exorcist from Louisiana who can’t even read a canned speech from a teleprompter. The best thing you can say about him is that he’s almost as funny as Kenneth the Page. The last presidential candidate is wandering around DC in his Depends yelling at pigeons. And they haven’t had an original idea in about 50 years.”
http://www.americablog.com/2009/03/steele-caves-apologizes-to-gop-party.html#disqus_thread
kay
@Atanarjuat:
I don’t think anyone knows what they’re talking about. Rush Limbaugh says Obama is bastardizing the Constitution. I had to ask what he meant. He meant the census? I mean, do you think that’s a huge area of mainstream concern? ACORN? That’s wingnut stuff. That’s not the keynote.
It’s as if Obama gave a speech that centered on card check. Two million Democrats would be thrilled. The rest of the country would be baffled.
Atanarjuat
@JGabriel:
No, JG, the point I was making is that you lefties are magnifying any scuffle among conservatives into a Chicken Little crisis of cataclysmic proportions. You know, turning molehills into mountains and pretending your opponents are at each others throats.
No Republican believes that Rush Limbaugh is the "de facto" leader of the GOP. That’s just a leftist invention you Obama Juicers are using to try to sow pointless chaos.
And it’s not working.
-A
AnotherBruce
Look, I’m on the west coast, and I’m still at work and my boss is a republican. Any minute now he’s going to start wondering why I’m laughing. I gotta get outta here, you people are dangerous.
dslak
Yes, I can see how liberals would be genuinely worried about the GOP imploding.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
As I said in the other thread: Rush. Republicans. Cornfield.
There can be no other explanation for their gibbering fear of thwarting his desires. Seriously.
Chum
You better start ‘cc’ing Rush because apparently it is.
JGabriel
Atanarjuat:
Michael Steele, Repbulican National Committee Chairman:
Yeah, Ata, I can see how the accusation that Limbaugh is some sort of conservative leader is a calumny that’s just coming out of nowhere, that "leftists" are making up out of whole cloth.
I mean, how could anyone possibly think that Limbaugh has any position of leadership amongst conservatives and the GOP. It’s not like any Republican leaders are praising his leadership or anything like that, right?
Oh, oops. You were saying, Ata?
.
Ejoiner
Mr. Steele:
Atanarjuat:
So there you go again, claiming the head of the RNC is a leftist. Please explain.
amorphous
@Atanarjuat: Brick Oven Bill does it better.
Atanarjuat
@JGabriel:
Um, hello, JG? There’s more than one leader in any political party, and more importantly (now pay attention to this next part), there are many different TYPES of leaders.
Michael Steele is one Republican leader. Boehner, McConnell and Cantor are other leaders. And so forth.
Rush Limbaugh is a leader in that he gives a clear and strong voice to the many concerns among Republicans nationwide.
This is why Steele can praise Limbaugh’s leadership without eclipsing his own.
Perhaps the reason this is so incredibly confusing to you is because you lockstep leftists expect to have one strong leader — and only ONE. Well, you have him, of course, the Great Redistributionist, President Barack Obama who is setting federal spending records right out the gate. There’s no seeming ambivalence in your party, naturally; you look up to The Leader, and the Leader tends to his flock. It’s the natural order of things for liberals, I suppose, but not so for conservatives.
Anyway, relish your false "aha!" moment as long as you can, because the nation’s economic fortunes continue to sink and the cold reality of your spitballing partisanship will come back to bite you in your ample asses.
-A
Comrade Jake
It’s important to keep in mind here that Atanaruat guaranteed a McCain victory. He guaranteed it. You’re not exactly conversing with a particularly bright fellow. He’s closer to a fart smeller than a smart feller.
Mike in NC
Corrected and you are most welcome, goatfucker.
Atanarjuat
@Comrade Jake:
It’s also important to keep in mind that Comrade Jake is my personal stalker who is trying to give Meryl Streep’s obsessed, psycho mistress character a run for her money.
-A
TR
Atanaruat. Is. A. Spoof.
JGabriel
Atarnarjuat, Yesterday:
Atarnajuat, Today:
You can’t have it both ways, Ata. You can’t accuse "leftists" of "deceivingly" characterizing Limbaugh as a conservative leader, then call him a leader yourself the next day.
I personally haven’t called Limbaugh the "defacto" leader of the GOP. Basing your argument on whether one uses "the leader" or "a leader" – i.e. basing it on article selection – seems a pretty slim fucking reed to support a "spitballing leftists" conspiracy theory.
.
Laura W Darling
@Atanarjuat: Do you mean Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction? The one with the dead bunny? If not, I’d love to see Meryl in that sort of role, so please share the movie title to which you refer. I look a lot like Meryl.
Comrade Jake
@Atanarjuat:
What are you going to guarantee next, genius? That your clown shoes won’t quite fit tomorrow?
kommrade reproductive vigor
@TR: Really? I’m pretty sure he’s myiq fucking a different rat.
TR
The two-liner yesterday — about how we all had to pull together as a country in patriotic unity, and goddamn all you treasonous liberals — proves he’s either (a) a brilliant spoof or (b) the stupidest person to visit this site since Birdzilla.
Either way, there’s no reason to waste a second responding to his nonsense.
Atanarjuat
@JGabriel:
JG, it seems no amount of edification will penetrate that hermetically sealed prejudice of yours. You just keep flitting, butterfly-like, from one "aha!" moment to the next. It’s headache inducing.
Fine, you’re right. Conservatrons are Teh Evil who drink the blood of atheist babies, and Liberals are enlightened angels, complete with a flaming sword of Truth and a radiant nimbus to symbolize their just cause.
-A
P.S., thanks for the correction, Laura. I did mean Glenn Close, but I was thinking of Streep for some reason.
bayville
Limbaugh to Steele: "Fetch!"
JGabriel
Atanarjuat:
Thank you, Ata. Admitting you have a problem is the first step towards recovery. Congratulations, and good luck on your journey to a healthier, better, you.
.
Chuck Butcher
I offer you my LTE regarding Republican leadership and Rush. I offer it as an example not a cut and paste in place of your own composition. If we do not engage in the political debate beyond our screens we deserve to not have our position in play.
JWW
John,
Have I been wrong all this time? Is this a Lib blog or for those who think they are Democrats but don’t know what the Democrat party actually stands for?
It’s not easy to decipher what it is all these pessimistic voices are truely looking for in government. We don’t have a utopia, but I can name oof the top of my head 50 + nations I don’t want to live in or our nation to be like. It would be an alphabetical quick scan but very accurate.
priscianus jr
One thing I find particularly funny is what just happened to the meme "Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer." For years, any time someone would try to make a serious assessment of Limbaugh’s influence they would be short-circuited with, "Whoa, calm down, he’s just an entertainer." It’s so ambiguous, though, very often it would be people on the Left attempting to cut Limbaugh down to size by saying "He’s not a journalist, he’s not a politician, he’s an entertainer!" — the actual, if unintended, effect of which was to let Rush off the hook. Now when Steele says, "Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh, his whole thing is entertainment," he’s saying that Rush’s NOT the head of the GOP. However, now that that honor has been awarded to His Fatness by none other than Rahm Emanuel, the familiar phrase becomes an insult, which requires an apology.
Bob Somerby, posting on Nov. 29, 2002, hit the nail on the head:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh112902.shtml
"Rush Limbaugh “is entertainment,” [Fox News “reporter” Jim] Angle says, neatly chirping the latest key spin-point. In fact, in case you didn’t hear him say it, he states the prize point two times. Readers, is Rush Limbaugh “an entertainer?” You know—like the Olson twins, or like Seigfried and Roy? The notion is utterly stupid. As everyone living on earth surely knows, Rush Limbaugh is one of the most influential voices in America’s political discourse. Listeners don’t call themselves “ditto-heads” because they recite Limbaugh’s jokes. But whenever Rush gets into trouble, he runs and hides behind the idea that he’s really just an entertainer. (“Circus clown,” John McCain once corrected.) Never mind the sheer absurdity of acting like Rush is just there for Big Fun. …Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer is the latest, dumb-ass conservative spin-point."
Joe Lisboa
Seriously, this guy is clearly a pathological case (or a terrible parody) and gets off on the attention. Starve him already. Besides, he probably has to get back to his homework before bedtime. Eighth grade is a bitch. Partisan spitballs and whatnot…
tagimaucia
@Atanarjuat:
I don’t agree with this, but I do think that right-wingers, generally speaking, are not particularly interested in slow, austere art-cinema made by Canadian eskimos.
Atanarjuat
@Joe Lisboa:
Joe Lisboa, vai-te foder, OK? Your concern has been noted, twice now. Enough.
-A
Comrade Luke
Michael Steele is OFF THE HOOK, yo!
fo-shiznit!
Atanarjuat
@tagimaucia:
Yes, because "right-wingers" are all a bunch of drooling jackanapes with no appreciation of the arts, much less independent cinema from foreign nations.
Did I get that right, tagi, or should I amplify my thesis into a multi-paragraph essay that analyzes the single-celled nature of the conservative lizard brain? Help me out, please — I want to stay in JG’s good, liberal graces.
-A
Chuck Butcher
@Atanarjuat:
heh
kommrade reproductive vigor
Holy shit, first 28%, now JustWankingWildly is back. It must be the Insanapocalypse. If Birdzilla lands we’ll know we’re fucked. Of course, most of us will be wiped out by the earthquakes triggered by scs’s return.
Chuck
You said it, not me. Get a lot of GOP donors at Cannes do they?
JWW
You all kinda remind me of those seeking Randell Flagg.
Rush speaks, some listen some don’t. Right or wrong he has the right to speak freely and of any subject he chooses, he also has an audience that pays the bills.
Your voice and ideas are free to speak. When the day comes that anyone wants to hear what you have to say on a national basis, the airwaves are still open.
You whine about that which you can control but have no idea of how to do it. Step #1, research before you vote.
I know things are looking better by the hour…
Chuck Butcher
Jay in Oregon,
I’ve appropriated your sticker so it has now gone full circle back to OR.
Calouste
So Obama has managed to saddle the GOP with a prospective Presidential candidate for 2012 that has about a minus 40 percent net favorability. And people are still second-guessing him with regards to what he does?
shortstop
Tomorrow: Steele issues general apology for insufficient cleanness.
Gus
Is Frum next?
Mike in NC
Not so. Larry the Cable Guy is almost as rich as Rushbo. Somebody laps up that retarded shit.
Admit it: fucking goats is a lot easier than fucking wolverines, who aren’t quite so docile. WOLVERINES!
Cyrus
@JWW:
JWW, you caveman with delusions of adequacy, there is no e in the name of Stephen King’s favorite recurring villain.
Delia
So does this mean the Republican hip-hop movement is dead?
piltdown
Rush would never take the pay cut.
He’s much more powerful, (and much less accountable) in his current position.
les
@Laura W Darling:
Oh. Well. Pictures? Not that I’m looksist, or stalksist, or anything…
bayville
Limbaugh/God – 2012
Clio
@Atanarjuat:
Yes, I remember it working this way under Bush, when any dissent was labeled as treasonous and giving aid and comfort to our enemies. Or do you not remember the idiotic chanting of "Commander in Chief" over and over again? Fuck you, dude. Bush was "Dear Leader" if there ever was one. Part of me wonders if the remnants of what was once the GOP actually believe what they say or if they recognize their disgustingly laughable hypocrisy. News flash: most of America recognizes the hypocrisy, hence the flailing about in irrelevance.
Mazacote Yorquest
Thanks, JWW, I was unaware Rush had the right to speak. Are you getting your talking points from Elizabeth Hasselbeck?
I always love that tack when someone from one’s own side says something stupid– well, uh, um, they have a RIGHT to say what they think (as if criticism were an implicit denial of free speech). On the contrary, we would love Rush to exercise his right more and more.
I’ll make it easy for you, JWW. When was the last time Al Sharpton or Noam Chomsky or some Hollywood celebrity said something you found stupid? Would your criticism imply they didn’t have a right to say what they did?
Aaron
IS that psychopath still on armed forces radio? Doesnt someone think about how bad an idea it is when our gun carrying troops, such as in Iraq, listen to his xenophobic muslim hating rants?
How many innocent lives has this f–ker cost?
chrome agnomen
it’s like the smartest progressive ever is clandestinely writing the republic script. this series will go into syndication and never stop being rerun. move over honeymooners, lucy, hogan, seinfeld, simpsons, there’s a new king of comedy in town.
media browski
Atty-boy condensed: the factionaliZation of the GOP is a win for -McCain- palin 2012.
Atanarjuat
@media browski:
Thanks for the reminder, mb. The people who are mostly obsessed with Governor Sarah Palin are you Obama Juicers, so the laser beam focus on Limbaugh should not be surprising, either.
-A
Porkulus fka Media Browski
@Atanarjuat: Your every post indicates how much this troubles you. Thanks for adding seasoning to my tasty schadenfreude! It’s like salt for my soup!
zoe kentucky
Atanarjuat-
Um, have you turned on CNN in the past 2 or 3 days? THE MSM LOVES covering conflict. Ever since Obama became president they’ve been giddy about the GOP v. Obama. That all changed last weekend, now they have the interparty feuding of the GOP v. the rushwingnuts to talk about. First Rush’s address at CPAC (which CNN showed uninterruped), then Steele’s comments, Rush’s response and then Steele’s apology. The thing about Rush is that he talks for 3 hours a day and his entire schtick IS being outrageous and hyperbolic while pretending to care about conservative values. There is a very deep well for them to go back to every day.
I’ve seen more coverage of Rush Limabugh on MSM teevee news than I’ve seen in YEARS. No one, not even the most powerful members of the GOP, dares to deny his power in the party. For pete’s sake, even Pat Buchanan this morning talked about how important and valuable Rush is as a conservative voice. Steele dared to criticize him in pretty clear language– "ugly" and "divisive"– and then offered one of the worst backtracking, most embarassing apologies I’ve ever seen. The GOP is screwed– if Rush isn’t their de facto leader they’re certainly acting like he is.
The most amusing part is that Rush is laughing all the way to the bank.
zoe kentucky
Also, pretending that the GOP/rightwing base doesn’t love Sarah Palin is just plain silly. Remember her rallies last fall? She was a overnight sensation! It was one of the funnier moments of the campaign last year, McCain tries to paint Obama as an empty, worshipped "celebrity" and then he chooses a running mate that GOPers quickly worshipped and drew crowds of 10k or more.
I think the only reason Sarah Palin didn’t win the CPAC straw poll is because many at the conference aren’t comfortable with a woman leading the country. They are social conservatives after all, many of them believe in "traditional values" and "traditional gender roles." Not to mention that the attendees at CPAC are almost all white, middle aged men. (I’ve been to CPAC 3 times, 99, 00 and 02.)
Uli Kunkel
@TR:
I vote (a), but brilliance, not so much.
One thing I’ll say for Atan’ is that he/she/it taps into a vast reservoir of humorless earnestness in liberal comment sections.
jeff
It’s more likely to be Limbaugh/ Palin 2012.
Palin’s just a girl. She’ll know how to make Rush’s coffee the way he likes it.
JenJen
I see Bobby Jindal has now reported to the Politburo, as well.
TPM – Jindal Calls Limbaugh A "Great Leader" For Conservatives, Is Glad Steele Apologized
Shiva
I’ve had many disagreements with Democrats over the years. But now, the Republicans really worry me. You have literally millions of Americans who openly want Obama to fail. And all this is happening when the country is in a very fragile condition. Obama has no choice but to continue to reach out to Republicans. Obama now has a majority, if you will, of perhaps 60%. If he can raise that to 65%, or 70%, so much the better. Meanwhile, the "fanatical opposition" to Obama is perhaps at 30%. If Obama can reduce that to 25%, great.
I agree that the "extreme" Republicans are a sorry spectacle, but in these fragile economic times, these people can do a lot of damage.
Jay in Oregon
@Atanarjuat:
Which party/political movement put up this billboard again?
George W. Bush: Our Leader
ricky
But their leader, Mr. Limbaugh, my inner Inuition tells me, would have no trouble slowly eating ample Eskimo pies.
Mike in NC
Black, with one tab of Viagra and one tab of Oxycontin. Yum!
JenJen
I see Nicolle Wallace is now throwing all-in with Rush Limbaugh.
Stop Lecturing Us, Mr. President!
You tell ’em, Nicolle! Good gawd, the dramatics, the death pangs. Painful to watch.
priscianus jr
Aaron writes:
"Is that psychopath still on armed forces radio? Doesnt someone think about how bad an idea it is when our gun carrying troops, such as in Iraq, listen to his xenophobic muslim hating rants?
How many innocent lives has this f—ker cost?"
Come on Aaron, it’s all in fun, he’s just an entertainer.
jim
For the first time in his life, Limbaugh is doing something good for his country – simply by holding out his ring for Goopers to kiss. As long as he likes the way it tickles (& even better, how well all this media face-time sets him up for yet another lucrative contract renegotiation), he couldn’t care less how badly it hurts the Republicans. Apres-moi, la merde frappe le ventilateur!
…
I keep thinking of Marat during the French Revolution, tearing his own party to pieces from the inside "for its own good" while his fanboys howled with joy – although his end is more likely to be from ODing on pills than getting caught in a tub by a crazy lady with a knife.
…
Now I want to see Palin take a shot at his fat ass … she’s every bit as sociopathic & egomaniacal as he is, & she doesn’t strike me as prone to apologies – ever.
Make It So.