Limbaugh strikes back. We can only hope that Newt responds in 3D. But, dear lord, not smell-o-vision.
***Update***
Some think that Gingrich made a smart play by taking on Rush directly. That is simply false. How much good do you think that technically significant Republican bloc that hates Rush will do for Newt? My magic eight ball keeps flipping between little and none.
Here is why. For all its numbers the constituencies that power the GOP political machine are relatively small. The religious right delivers warm bodies to the polls. Rush moves his dittoheads to volunteer and donate money to candidates. Finally, wealthy donors like Richard Mellon Scaife fund thinktanks and astroturf groups that push the media zeitgeist in useful directions. Most of the rest are like my dad – one issue or another keeps them voting for whoever the GOP puts up but they have better things to do with their life than get involved with interparty spats between a loudmouth and a has-been.
Rush has a third of the Republican base in his pocket. The country doesn’t hold that many hyper-motivated, single-minded angry people with time on their hands, say a couple million at the most, but about half of them will clog a congressperson’s switchboard at the drop of a name on the Limbaugh show. That, and the disproportionate amount of money that dittohead types donate, makes them a serious concern for any Republican politico.
That doesn’t mean that it’s not a fair fight! Newt has guys like David Frum on his side. Still, other than than exiled doofuses who lost the party’s soul on the day that Karl Rove met David Addington, I’m not sure whose support Newt is looking for here. The “middle” that used to keep Newt in business hates the GOP now. Newt would have to be pretty stupid to think that another serving of clif’s notes Reaganomics will lure them back.
It doesn’t matter that from your perspective and mine people like Gingrich and David Frum unquestionably have the better part of this argument. Whoever the GOP has left to referee this kind of fight* doesn’t have the liberty to ignore the dittohead mob, but they can safely ignore the exiled doofuses who will back Newt. It doesn’t seem like a very hard decision.
* Honestly, does the GOP have anyone to referee these things? This is a serious question. After ten years of top-down rule by DeLay and the Bush team it seems feasible that the rest of the party never developed the ability to make its own decisions. Who was this ‘they’ who made Michael Steele apologize to Rush? Eric Cantor? The only unmoved mover I can think of is Rush.
Kirk Spencer
I guess that starts the clock ticking. How long till Newt kisses the ring?
Martin
Newt won’t kiss it. He’s done the math and figured out there’s enough non-Rush Republicans out there, and ones that he has enough credibility to win.
This is the leadership move. He runs the party after today.
Les Miserable Fulcanelli
Neither are we Rush. Like we didn’t see this coming. Yawn…
kommrade reproductive vigor
We’ve seen this movie before. Two headstrong people move in parallel worlds until one day circumstances bring them together. There’s the inevitable build up of tensions, increasingly acrimonious clashes and then the inevitable happens.
I wonder if they’ll register at Target or Wal*Mart.
feebog
Ya gotta love it:
So, Rush, if it’s not worth the energy, why are you saving the soundbites from MTP?
Republicans eating their own; delicious.
Comrade Stuck
Is it me, or is Rush looking more and more like Nikita Khrushchev and the party leader struggles resembling a public version of the Supreme Soviet Long knives Alpha Dog selection.
Left Coast Tom
I agree with your first sentence but not the second.
Newt won’t kiss the ring because he doesn’t need to. He hasn’t been an elected elephant for some time, whether he becomes one again or not is immaterial. Just like before, he’s stroking his own ego by exploring a Presidential run. Whether he actually runs or not is beside the point.
ed
How many marriages between those two loathsome creatures?
libarbarian
when 2 egos collide….
SpotWeld
Are there any two people less relevant to the current political climate.
Okay, Joe the Plumber.. that’s one
Violet
Oh, God, I actually heard this bit on the radio today. Had the radio tuned to the AM station to catch the traffic report at the top of the hour and caught this.
You don’t get the tone of voice from this transcript, but Rush had this tired tone in his voice when he said the "I’m frankly getting tired of talking about Newt" bit. Like he had been humoring people all day with this subject. It sounds like it was the first call he’d taken on it. The caller was (hilariously) truly worried about this rift. That part was particuarly popcorn-worthy. She was shocked – shocked! – that Newt would dare to challenge El Rushbo.
I think Rush is right about one thing – Newt probably wishes they were running TV ads against him (Newt). Because that would mean he were more relevant – and hence a more viable contender for the presidential nomination – than he is.
I hope Newt fires back. Off to check popcorn supply.
Joshua Norton
Oh my God! ! IT’S COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE!
Mike in NC
Caught "24" tonight with Hollywood right-wing fruitcake Jon Voight as some nefarious villain. Can they cast him as Rush Limpballs when the FOX miniseries on The Fat One comes out? The resemblance is quite remarkable.
Cain
@Martin:
Que the Godfather music…
cain
Cain
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
They fuck in a bathroom at an airport? Oh.. oops.. did I say that out loud?
cain
Fulcanelli
Limbaugh relishes his title as GOP Kingmaker first and foremost, as he gets the power and the filthy lucre with none of the responsibilty. He’s like Rasputin looking for a new Czar to polish up for the throne. All the wingnuts packin’ a chubby at the thought of him entering politics need to take a cold shower. He’s too damn lazy.
jrg
This is nothing but a good cop/bad cop drama. I’ll bet that Newt and Limbaugh are engineering this thing. Rush gets the ratings and credibility from attacking the GOP. Newt can get high-profile appearances allowing him to re-brand himself as somewhat of a centrist (which is exactly how McCain got the nomination).
The GOP base has the attention span of a comatose seabass, so 2012 may as well be 3072 in wingnut-years. This is a smart move, provided that they play it as a dust-up, then patch up later. Think pro wrestling.
bootlegger
Also evident in the transcript is a revealing self examination of Jabba the Rush’s ego. He says he is at the top, people like Newt want what he’s got, and that is why they keep sniping at him. Oh baby, I could not imagine a more delicious scenario. I was just at happy hour toasting the conservative double helix firing squad.
srv
Comment from that blog:
We need a graphic.
SpotWeld
@jrg
They’re frienimies?
bootlegger
@jrg: Wouldn’t surprise me a bit. They know the Dems have been successfully baiting them, may as well use it to their own ends.
El Cid
An unimprovable object meets an irrational force.
Martin
I don’t think they’re engineering it, but Newt is an opportunist, and Steele is weak and there’s nobody else. If he wants to run in 2012, he can take the ‘inevitable’ title if he chooses.
Why else stand up and get in front of Rush if not to do this?
Stuck
@bootlegger:
A drug habit and tiny clogged heart/
camchuck
@jrg:
Except Rush had already taken an unsolicited jab at Newt at CPAC.
LaDonne
Newt for the win.
The local weather guy reminds me of Steele. He wasn’t much help during the hurricane.
Please let Newt win. His ideas are great.
Keith
Jeez, a post about Newt n Rush AND one about Lou Dobbs? Is today National Ripe Melon Day or something?
Stuck
Yes, it would be for the good of the party to keep it from qwacking up. oops.
jim
There’s no dog in this fight that I can possibly root for … & yet I don’t ever want it to end.
*
Here’s to hoping Gingrich can do for Limbaugh’s career what he did for Bill Clinton’s – meanwhile torpedoing his own political future in the process. Two rattlesnakes devouring each other by the tail … & nothing of value will be lost.
srv
This blog is for commenting on Republican detritus, not any cogent analysis or snark of anyone who actually wields any power once the democrats are in power.
LaDonne
There’s a weight thing to consider.
Is that not enough?
Bubblegum Tate
@El Cid:
WIN
Stuck
@srv:
We leave the cogent analysis to you srv. The rest of us are in it for the fun.
ChrisB
As off topic as possible but I’m inspired listening to Energy Secretary Stephen Chu on Charlie Rose. The guy is really smart and he’s got his shit together (Chu, not Rose). Just the kind of guy I want in charge. The complete opposite of what we had and the clown show this thread is about.
les
Who teh fuck would that be? The stupid is getting so deep it actually frightens me; is there a responsible opposition somehow flying under the radar? Or are you just looking for a Geithner bash fest?
By the by, your request for a graphic on the "Sarah Palin, Jindal, Rush, Newt" pile up is disturbing, yet strangely attractive.
jrg
We tried already. Turned out his ideas were for shit. Still, he’s the only strategic thinker that remains in the GOP.
That’s because unfucking this country after 8 years is occupying all the Dem’s time. Look at the stem cell ban – it’s been almost 2 months, and they are only now getting to it.
Or maybe we should ignore the Yoo memos and start bitching about "Porkulus".
Martin
How come nobody alerted me that Chuck Norris may run for President of Texas?
Looks like Glenn Beck has someone to double-dog-dare into saying even stupider shit than him.
KG
@35: there is, unfortunately, no responsible opposition at this time. Hell, there’s barely an opposition, responsible, loyal, or otherwise. Not sure when they’re going to get their shit together.
jrg
Shit. Now I’ll have to spend tomorrow feverishly refreshing Sadly, No.
Fulcanelli
Watch Newt wind up as head of the RNC. I loathe the bastard but he’d likely do a better job than "O.G." Steele.
"Chuck Norris may run for President of Texas?" Ah Texas, the state of mind that thinks it’s a country. Lots of WIN there, boy.
priscianus jr
You’re right, but then again, guys like Gingrich, Frum and Brooks have nothing to lose. They don’t hold elective office and are not actively campaigning. It can’t hurt them to pose what looks like a Republican alternative to Rush, even though it has no chance of achieving anything concrete right now. it makes them look somewhat idealistic, somewhat concerned about the party, somewhat "grown up," even though what they are saying has no bearing on the nation’s current problems. It’s just marketing, but you could say they are the republican un-Rushes.
Max
I could be wrong, but I thought the Republican party washed their hands of Newt a few years back after polls revealed how intensely most of America couldn’t stand the guy. So I’m amused by the thought that Newt might now be seeking the Republican nomination in 2012.
gnomedad
@Martin:
Apparently Black Belt Patriotism consists of taking your marbles and going home if people won’t do things your way. Too bad Texas didn’t secede in 2000 and take W with it.
Stuck
Not sure there really ever has been. The space between most of their factions could almost be measured by an equivalence to political parsecs. Once in a great while, a bubbly wingnut comes along with enough charm and charisma to close the gap, and allow the faithful with the single shared thread of hatred for liberalism, to come together for an electoral cycle or two. Or act like carrion specialists and feed on a current failed liberal leadership.
Other than those two exceptions, only increasing time without power has served as the crazy glue long enough to put down the mallets and spears long enough to dupe the electorate into believing they can govern effectively as they promise to.
Currently none of those options are operative and what we see are starving animals with nothing left but to go primal on one another until the stars realign.
Noah Brand
It is, unquestionably, a dumb move in the short term for Gingrich to be getting further into this slap-fight. In the long term, though, it might be the right thing to do if he wants the Republican party to have a future.
Now, personally, I don’t particularly want the Republican party to have a future; a spiral into total irrelevance and continuing loss of seats that eventually leaves them as nothing more than a nostalgia punchline for politics nerds would suit me just fine. But let’s assume that Gingrich really does want there to still be a Republican party, and for it to matter.
Limbaugh cannot offer the GOP a future. This is a guy who actually laughs at the idea of having real policies. He really thinks that you can run half of a two-party system on nothing but hatred and dishonest pandering to a very few demographics, all of which are shrinking. His vision of the party is what’s been in effect for the past eight years, resulting directly in the greatest broad-based all-purpose Fail in American political history. Sticking with his non-plan plan can only result in further Fail.
If the Republican party is going to still exist or matter in ten-fifteen years, it’s time, past time really, to cut Limbaugh loose. He’s done all the good for them he can do, and now he’s not helping. Yes, his army of angry know-nothings will be pissed, but so what? What are they going to do? Vote Democratic? Form their own party? Try to make the Libertarian party relevant? Even if the GOP permanently loses every dittohead vote to… I don’t know, write-in candidate Francisco Franco, so what? There’s no future in those guys either.
Yes, cutting Limbaugh free from the party’s body will do damage. That’s a big mound of flesh to chop off. But it’s gangrenous, and letting it rot off instead will just do more damage. The GOP can recover from ditching Limbaugh, though it will be slow and painful. It can’t recover from keeping him.
So, speaking just for myself, I hope they build big statues of Limbaugh in every party headquarters across the country. I hope they appoint him Exalted Ruler For Life. I hope they run him for office. I’m all for loyal opposition and the marketplace of ideas in a representative democracy, but after what that party has done to my beloved United States, I WANT to watch them die of gangrene. I think it would be FUNNY. But then, I’m a bit of a bastard.
srv
The Mellons have been fighting demo-fascism since FDR. They aren’t going to run away like Galt.
Rich and Bill go to lunch now:
Says Richie’s Newsmax partner.
GSD
Limbaugh’s Mr. Creosote moment is in the offing.
He looks ready to erupt any day.
If I were Gingrich I’d dress like I was going to a Gallagher show because it’s gonna be messy.
-GSD
jrg
Tim F.:
That’s why Newt has been on about Climate Change.
No. That’s the point, there is a power vacuum. Neither man benefits from that. Theatrics aside, you’re betting that Rush and the big players (donors) of the GOP are working against each other. I don’t find that likely.
We’ll see. If Newt is made the Chair of the RNC soon, this was a setup.
Adolphus
Off topic a little, although related.
Did anyone catch the Daily Show tonight? Apparent Cramer kicked back at TDS and Stewart put him back in his place pretty handily with his trademark scouring of the video archives.
Daily Show vs. CNBC
Rush vs Newt
I haven’t been this excited since the first Wrestlemania!
stickler
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Newt’s "ideas" are for shit, but he’s got good political instincts (in opposition, mostly, and right up till he actually gets power and has to "govern").
Newt must figure that he’s out of power anyhow, unelected and damned unpopular. People loathe him and have done since 1997. But he’s _less_ unpopular than Rush Limbaugh. Plus, he’s the man with "ideas," and while all of those "ideas" may suck, they’re better than the steaming pile of angry yawp that Rush peddles. Anyhow, name all the other GOP leaders proposing "ideas" that have more syllables than "tax cuts" or "drill now here, baby."
So even if Newt ends up unpopular with the Ditto Nation, he’ll come out of this looking like an almost-plausible moderate. This plays well with mindless glibertarians, as well as with the Beltway media. "Look, what a reasonable man that Newt is! And he has IDEAS! He even Twitters them!"
Chances of this working are poor indeed, but they’re not zero. So, why shouldn’t Newt give it a shot? What’s the worst that could happen? He’s already unelected.
zoe kentucky
Newtie Newt is trying to stage a comeback. He’s hoping that people just remember his name/face but don’t remember any of his policies or failures.
How adorable.
Who’s next, Tom Delay?
Oh, wait, I spoke too soon.
The power vacuum in the GOP is certainly entertaining. At the very least it’s an amusing distraction from the economic shitstorm.
Anoniminous
I’ll take an jumbo popcorn with extra American Processed Petroleum By-Product Imitation Butter Goo, please.
Tush has to keep the daily hate going to get his troglodytes to listen.
Newt is a has-been who wants to climb back and achieve is-being.
Neither one has any standing outside the inner rectum of the Conservative movement.
Neither one has anything to lose.
IF this is a serious attempt at power by Newt things be a going to get real amusing over the next couple of weeks.
Martin
I don’t think it was a setup, just Newts usual shit. Newt is dumping ideas out there again – new air traffic control system, climate change, etc. They’ll go nowhere with the GOP (and he knows that), but they’re something other than tax cuts, and that alone is a big improvement. Newt is going to be the grown up. And I don’t know if he’ll run the RNC or turn down the offer to run the RNC, but he’s positioning for leadership, and there’s no competition right now.
KG
Newt as chair of the RNC makes little sense. There’s no power there, and I just can’t see Newt taking all this time to get a position that doesn’t get him some sort of power or influence. No, Newt is trying to set himself up as the eventual nominee. And keep in mind, with the exception of 2000, the GOP typically votes for the guy whose turn it is (Nixon in 60 and 68, Ford in 76, Reagan in 80, Bush in 88, Dole in 96, McCain in 08).
Rush is an anti-intellectual posing as an intellectual. I use to listen to him quite a bit, he never said anything new, ever. It was the same stuff, day after day: name calling; mocking; and throwing hissy fits. He’s fond of telling his listeners that Dems see the world as if it’s 1932 and there are soup lines everywhere. The funny thing is, for him, and many of his listeners, it’s always 1980: taxes are oppressively high; the economy is being regulated to death; and, there’s a global movement to destroy our way of life.
Comrade Stuck
And to the rescue to save republicans from irrelevance is Mr. Fidget (David Brooks)
Or going all Chicken Little on Capitalism as opposed to "The Sockalists are coming!! The Sockalists are Coming!!!
Brooks offers his three point plan of attack
Or, David. Could it be that part of the problem we are facing, other than several decades of unfettered Capitalist Mania, is the fact that wingnuts have been suppressing investments in future markets and technologies in health, and a dozen other small things. And while desperate measures to correct those wingnut suppressions is likely not optimal, it is the position you morons put us in that has our backs currently against the wall.
Step two
LOL. First admit that Repubs don’t know what the future holds, then predict that by summer, the dems plans and assumptions will be obsolete. Orwell is smiling somewhere. More doubletalk. And of course waiting to know where things stand before making long term investments is the ultimate Catch 22 of cart before horse thinking that gets you exactly where your at, which is nowhere, forever.
And finally
A realistic appraisal would include an admission that republicans screwed the pooch and don’t have a clue. Imbalances ? Do you mean the kind you get when flooding the market with easy money from massive tax cuts for rich people in a time of war. At least flooding the market this time with money going to someplace other than an already supply heavy business sector might actually cause a little demand that is currently flat on it’s back, in case you hadn’t noticed.
Surreal American
@GSD:
Hey take it easy on Limbaugh! It’s hard out there for a blimp.
(I know, I know. Rush fat jokes are the low hanging fruit of comedy. I make no pretense of industriousness)
Sigh. If only it was possible to lend support to every GOP faction so that their internecine conflict could be sustained indefinitely.
TenguPhule
I’m down for Mutually Assured Destruction.
Martin
The GOP has no electoral infrastructure left other than the churches and big business. He’s not the first pick of the former, and the latter are fucked. The only upside to running the RNC is he gets to set up a new infrastructure. I agree that running the RNC doesn’t make a lot of sense, which is why I imagine he’d turn it down, but that’s one reason I could see him doing it – plus, head of RNC means a lot of face-time, which Newt never dislikes.
AnneLaurie
Gingrich and Limpbaugh are competing for the same job — as head of the Permanent Opposition Party. Neither one of them wants a Republican Party that actually has to win elections, much less one that has to commit actual governing. They each see their brightest future as King of the Minority Party, the guy who gets the high-paid speaking gigs and the national media face-time as the leaden counterweights in the Media Village Idiots’ eternal game of ‘Some Say’ ("Democrats today asserted that water is wet; leading Republican spokesman **** complained that the ‘liquidity bigots’ fail to appreciate the importance of both ice and steam in the natural order.") The Pilonoidal Sinus has a headstart in this clash, given his position as chief toad atop the talk-radio dungheap, but Neutron Newt’s fierce competitive instincts and networking energies make him a worthy competitor. I have a suspicion that their biggest battles will be fought by proxy… but will Michael Steele or Sarah Palin be the first pawn sacrificed?
jcricket
I can see the slogan now:
I think we’re all getting ahead of ourselves. If the 3 weeks of intense blogospheric "debate" about the stimulus bill and the optics of the politics proves anything, it’s that we’re navel gazing too much. The american public, while not necessarily patient or fair, just doesn’t follow politics the way we do.
What will matter is whether Obama and the Democrats pass things that at least ameliorate the impact of the downturn, and hopefully help make things a teensy bit more equal across the country. If they any kind of "real" healthcare reform, forward looking energy and transit plans, and get us out of Iraq (and maybe un-fuck Aghanistan) – there’s just no way Republicans won’t lose more seats in 2010.
If we fuck everything up (or just can’t arrest the slide), all bets are off.
Surreal American
Why even bother to ask? Steele will be the first thrown overboard. He truly brings nothing to the table.
Palin still has some value amongst the wingnuttiest of Wingnuttistan as a fund-raiser and crowd-drawer. But the Law of Diminishing Returns will affect her sooner than she expects. Certainly sooner than she would like.
JenJen
Tom Tomorrow’s take. Ha!
The GOP’s surefire 11 point plan for success
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2009/03/10/tomo/
Michael
Neither – it’ll be the Cabelas catalog. Rush will order the faggy-looking ghillie suit (because one needs the finest in sniper apparel to "do" deer). Newt will go for woodland camo.
The visuals of the white hot passion will look like a tornado in a leaf pile.
Dennis-SGMM
OT: Another soldier leaves the back yard fort: Roger L. Simon announces the exit of Richard "Flounder" Miniter from Pajamas Media.
Minister’s destination? Why it’s The Washington Times. Miniter will assume the title of Vice-President of Opinion. Working for someone who has identified himself as both the Messiah and the Second Coming of Christ is a definite step up for Miniter.
Dennis-SGMM
@Michael:
I bet they’ll have the cutest spats over who gets the last Deep-Fried Whole Deer on a Stick.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Sadly, Chuck is ineligible for the position; he’s not a natural-born Texan. Unless he can provide his original hospital birth certificate stating otherwise?
JL
Maybe Newt needs an attorney in case he wants to divorce againg. His wife seems healthy though.
After nearly eight years, Randy Evans, one of Newt Gingrich’s closest associates, said Monday he would step down as general counsel of the Georgia Republican party, effective in May, when the state convention meets.
NonyNony
I think this is almost, but not quite, right.
Rush doesn’t push people to volunteer. Rush pushes people to make phone calls and (for the literate part of this audience) write letters. He also pushes wingnut memes that can get spouted at the workplace and infest people’s brains like ear worms. Rush gets them angry enough to do something minimal – he doesn’t pump them up to go out and volunteer to knock on doors or run petitions or anything that would involve people actually interacting with the political system. The volunteer force of the GOP comes almost entirely from the Religious Right, who at least have a shred of Christian teaching that tells them that community efforts can do good.
Rush can’t do anything positive for the GOP. He actually can’t do anything positive at all – he can only do negative things. That’s the box he’s built for himself – the fat angry white guy who screams about how terrible things are but can’t actually offer any solutions that have a chance to be implemented because if he were actually responsible and things didn’t get better, he’d be destroyed.
El Cid
This is funny. From the Guardian‘s George Monbiot, the Climate Change Denier Playing Cards.
JL
The Republican field is wide open. It appears that Newt is going to run along with his pals Rudy, Mitt, Sarah, Huck, and Chuck. Rush will through his support to the one who wants America to fail.
r€nato
oooh bad move there, Cramer. Woulda been best to ignore Stewart and move along.
I guess Cramer doesn’t remember or realize that Stewart single-handedly ended Crossfire‘s 20 year run with one appearance on the show.
NonyNony
@r€nato:
To be fair, Stewart mostly jumped up and down on the rotting corpse of Crossfire long enough for the suits to finally figure out "oh, it’s dead."
Crossfire had been dead for a long, long time. The only reason the suits didn’t notice is that its festering corpse didn’t smell any worse than any of the other shows on CNN.
SpotWeld
Look how the GOP is defining leadership here. A sucessful leader is pretty much the person who people to repeat what he (or she) says.
It’s not a requirement to get people to think the same way, or even agree… just repeat without further consideration.
Rush has been spending decades tuning his show to produce people who do just that.
Newt needs those repeater/followers to give volume to his message, but Newt also needs to interact with people who actually think (people with money, other polticians…)
Newt can’t force down a lexicon like Rush does, and Rush doesn’t need to act in a responcible manner to get the support of any actual polical machinery (money, actual polticials).
So while Newt can get some real political action going, he can’t sustain it without popular (repeater) support.
Rush can get people to repeat whatever he wants, without penality since he really has no poltical aspirations.
Rush has the superiour position because of his low expectations (all he wants is loyal listeners, he doesn’t need voters).
WereBear
I think the current crop of conservatives are incapable of creation; only destruction. It is a system-wide, second tier, mental vapor lock that will be what prevents them from doing anything but get ground into irrelevancy.
After all, the whole point of their conservatism is No New Ideas. We’re in the 21st Century now, and they will have to wait for forward thinking people to radically change society, again, for them to find a solid place in it, again.
The Pendulum has swung too far for anyone to consider a return to the virtual world of Leave It to Beaver, which is all their public face consisted of, anyway.
Josh Hueco
Geert Wilders in that PJTV ad looks like some Eurotrash version of Bill Clinton.
Original Lee
BTW, I came across this pearl today:
Deepak Chopra –
“By any sane account, Rush Limbaugh is dead weight when it comes to finding a solution to anything. Like Sarah Palin, his spiritual bride, he lurks in the shadow of the human psyche, expressing the dark anger, resentment, jealousy, and vindictiveness that society can never escape.”
Corner Stone
@AnneLaurie
That’s exactly right, IMO. Neither has any interest in actually governing. For Rush, it’s too hard and too big a temp pay cut. For Newt, he’s tried that and got his head ripped off.
I think they both recognize that the last 8 years have delievered everything the powerbrokers behind the Republicans could’ve ever asked for – there’s nothing left to defund, deregulate or just out and out steal. The country’s fucked beyond fucked and they know it.
Now they get to enjoy the part where they try and stick the knife in the Democrats running the country, which is what they’ve always excelled at (mainly due to a lot of stoopidity by Dems themselves). It’s a 1000 times easier to sit back and say "I told you so." then it is to actually try and build a coalition or make hard governance choices. These guys care nothing for actually *leading* the country, they just want the TV face time and massive ego strokage.
Corner Stone
@NonyNony
I think the volunteer part is right but IMO the motivation part is off. IMO, absolutely nothing self-identified members of the RR do is "Christian" in motivation or spirit. They could never conceive of doing a good for the community as a whole because said community would almost certainly have individuals of teh ghei persuasion, along with people of not-white skin color and/or those who may not speak English very well. And we all know that doing a good thing for any of *those* kinds of people makes the sweet Baby Jeebus cry like John Boehner.
Joey Maloney
Wow, I had to go dig out the DVD of that and watch it again. That was full of win before "full of win" was invented. That video should be in the sidebar to the Wikipedia page for "pwnd".
Mike in NC
That’s cool but it must be a big letdown not to call yourself "Minister of Propaganda".
Miriam
Well, leader or no leader, conservatives seem to be swinging an awful lot of power right now – much of it from inside the Democratic party.