Rally round the Leader:
I challenge you to think of anyone not named Palin or Limbaugh who would get this kind of full-throated defense from the blogospheric right. Dear Leader wants an NFL team, so the troops must rally.
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SGEW
Some of those audio clips must exist, right? Be nice to see those get some serious play.
Anyone have any good links to clips of Rush saying obviously racist shit? This seems like a good thread for it, plz.
gnomedad
Hey, Glenn, pass the Vick’s.
Tokyokie
The Constitution guarantees everybody the right to own an NFL team.
Waynski
I go to the mat like that for Bitsy.
chopper
four star daydream, think i’ll buy me a football team.
matoko_chan
It is the Conservative Ragnarok of Known Blogspace…..aka Peak Wingnut.
We shall see Malkin, Allahpundit, Ace, and CJ engaged in an Epic Battle at World’s End, the Doom of the Gods.
Modernized poetic edda– my Voluspa
Comrade Mary
Off topic, I know, but I think it’s just fantastic that John has a beta version of the site set up that finally lets us know what he really looks like.
Redshirt
This is going to be more good fun – The Dittoheads attacking the NFL on behalf of their Liege.
At some point the dissonance will reach a harmonic vibration and shatter the entire Right Wing Nutosphere.
Michael
I guess this just goes to show that if you make a career out of showing your ass for 3 hours a day over a 20 year period, an industry based on fun and entertainment might not want to enthusiastically receive you into its ownership ranks.
Some people like to bring up Marge Schott as an example. Marge was a nutberger of the first order, but she sure in shit supported her players and didn’t make a career out of being an asshole.
One other thing – my thing about Limbaugh getting his narc’ed up ass into the NFL tent is more about his notions of class warfare than race. The players would find their climate to be vastly changed as Limbaugh dragged the owners into a state of constant battle with the rightful demands of the folks that the fans actually pay to see play.
Shell
On the news t’other day, Rush said something along the lines of ‘he doesn’t understand how people could think he’s a racist.’ Do you think he really believes that his 3 hour radio show is just some kind of performance piece and has nothing to do with him personally?
Keith G
Yeah, but its actually kinda cool to see that for once there are some real life consequences for being such an enormous ass hole.
Hunter Gathers
@Comrade Mary: That scared the crap out of me for about 2 seconds. Then I figured out it was the world’s biggest fool, and then it was funny. Awesome.
John Cole
@chopper: Thanks. can’t believe I missed that. I fixed the title.
chopper
@Keith G:
exactly. you can argue all you want about how racist the guy is but either way the guy is a huge asshole.
asiangrrlMN
@gnomedad: I assume you are referencing Beck, and that was gonna be my pick, too.
You know what would be really funny? If Colbert pretended to be in the hunt for an NFL team. What would the conservatives think of that? Heh.
chopper
@John Cole:
i figured you didn’t want two posts in a row from the same song.
SenyorDave
Many people don’t get that the NFL owners “club” is just that, a club. They have to approve prospective owners, and my guess is that they would not approve Limbaugh, if for no other reason the Donavan McNabb incident. Interestingly, one of the New York players (can’t remember if it was the Giants or Jets) cited the following quote as a reason he would not consider playing for a Limbaugh-owned team:
You put your kids on a school bus you expect safety but in Obama’s America the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering ‘yeah, right on, right on, right on.’ Of course everybody said the white kid deserved it he was born a racist, he’s white.
If that is not overtly racist, I don’t know what is (of course, it turned out that race was not the reason, it was a simple bullying issue). It never matters what Limbaugh said for Limbaugh’s defenders – they think his “Barack, the magic negro” things was the funniest thing they ever heard.
IMO, no ownership group with him involved would ever get approval from the other owners, and you are not dealing with a bunch of liberals. Guys like Jerry Jones only v=care about the bottom line, and Limbaugh would not be good for the bottom line.
dmsilev
@SGEW: Dunno about audio, but here’s an article with a direct quote:
This was from a couple of days after Limbaugh made the statement; by the end of that week, he was out of the ESPN gig.
EDIT: Found a copy of the video.
-dms
gnomedad
Rush has always been vile, but this strikes me as a new level of whining.
Shygetz
Oh c’mon. I, for one, sincerely hope that Rush gets his football team. I hate it when there’s a football game on and I really don’t care who wins or loses. Now, every Rams game, I’ll have someone to cheer for!
Waynski
Being an asshole probably doesn’t disqaulify you as an owner of a professional sports team but I would think being a drug addict would. Would they let Darryl Strawberry buy a baseball team?
Boots Day
Was Rush really unaware that the majority of Americans hate him? And that there might be consequences to that?
Most of the time, he wears the contempt of liberal America like a crown. You’d think he might have considered, at some point, that there might be a downside to that.
Michael
I was listening when Limbaugh did his McNabb gaffe, and the other announcers (don’t remember who they were) tried to help him walk it back.
He refused the lifeline.
Boots Day
And gosh, how unfair is it for people to be attributing fabricated quotes to Rush? This is a man, after all, who would never say that Al Gore claimed to have “invented the Internet.”
Michael
Ohmigod – an impersonation chock full of win, and check out the laughter of the real commentators.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLVoJccbRII&feature=related
Ash Can
Oh ho. Maybe this means Soros is writing checks to lefty bloggers.
Except his name isn’t Soros.
And they ain’t lefty bloggers.
Victory
http://www.amazon.ca/Porn-Star-Legend-Ron-Jeremy/dp/B00007JZXS
Read the first few sentences of the review. Replace Jeremy with Limbaugh and “serious actor” with “NFL flunky” and it’s a shocking parallel.
jon
@Waynski: I, too, wondered about how interesting it would be to have a drug-addicted owner in the NFL. Then I remembered that Rush abused a prescription drug which is okay, rather than a non-prescription substance which isn’t. The NFL wouldn’t have any public-relations trouble with that distinction getting distorted if a player on a Limbaugh-owned team is punished for a drug violation.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Why would Rush Limbaugh want to buy an NFL team? The NFL is pure socialism – stadiums built with taxpayer money; salary cap; a luxury tax that transfers money from the richest teams to the poorest teams; the NFL players union.
A real capitalist would buy a European soccer team.
Ash Can
@Boots Day:
I think that’s entirely possible. When you’re an entitlement whore down to the last fiber of your being and everything is simply all about you, that doesn’t leave much room for being realistic, especially when it involves some kind of downside for you.
BTW, I really do get a kick out of your handle.:)
SpotWeld
I wonder if Limbaugh will just give up the pretense a see if he can buy interest in WWE.
It seems to be more his style, football seems just too cerebral for him.
Zifnab
I always enjoy watching GOoPers rally around the Rush. Nothing says loser like another round of, “We’re not racist, you’re racist!“
Napoleon
So who will be the first person to attack NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s quotes coming out against Rush on the basis that his dad was a RINO US Senator?
drillfork
The McNabb comment is the absolute least of Limbaugh’s offenses. In fact, it’s kind of annoying that the MSM seems to make this comment the sole reason that the NFL can’t let him in their Club (while adding that shrill voices on the Left like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are exploiting this and are just as extreme as Rush).
I would argue that the McNabb statement back in the day was Rush’s little way of trying to put the “liberal” media in its place, and of course the MSM doesn’t eat its own (same is true for sports media), so ESPN tossed Rush out on his ass.
Dave Zirin has a good overview of Rush’s greatest racist hits:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091026/zirin
I like that he emphasizes that probably 90 percent of NFL owners have similar views to Limbaugh. But they’re smart enough to know that Limbaugh simply cannot own a team in a league where something like 70 percent of players are African American…
kth
The fun part comes every Sunday night, when Rush looks at Keith Olbermann working the Sunday Night Football telecast, and thinks to himself, that could be me if I had had the sense, like Keith, to keep my politics away from my sports commentary.
But Rush couldn’t, and can’t, and that’s why he can’t be a sports owner–he would invariably politicize, in racial terms, every failure as well as every success (“we beat the Lions because there’s no black or white in our locker room”).
Notorious P.A.T.
One of the most glaring signs of a sociopath is their demand of sympathy for harm they cause themself.
The Moar You Know
Interesting that class issues could arise with a man who will make almost a half a billion dollars over the next ten years. But those who are part of the elite who own NFL teams are all worth much, much more. And a class issue is definitely at work here.
The men who own the NFL are professional business people. Rush Limbaugh is not; he’s never run a business in his life. But although that’s a strike against him, it’s not the main problem.
What Mr. Limbaugh is, as far as the owners of the NFL are concerned, is a hired clown – paid to holler, dance, and distract the ignorant rubes while the country is looted of all its worthwhile assets. The last thing the NFL owners want is to be associated with a raving drug-addicted blowhard with a big mouth and a very public life, unless that person is a player.
Things are different in the owners club; they live their lives quietly, they do their business quietly, always behind closed doors, and are going to make sure it stays that way.
It’s a class thing, Mr. Limbaugh. You wouldn’t understand.
Mr. Limbaugh will not be getting a piece of a football franchise – not now, not ever.
Persia
@drillfork: This one in particular stands out:
I think we should keep repeating and linking that one. “Slavery had its merits.” That’s the kind of guy we want owning one of America’s teams, yes?
(Though I confess, rooting against the Rams every time does have a certain level of appeal…)
Boots Day
I don’t think the drug addiction had anything to do with it. There have been plenty of alcoholic sports owners, and probably drug-addict owners too.
What really killed off his chances – which of course those righty bloggers are ignoring – were the players who came out and immediately said they’d never play for a Limbaugh-owned team. There are probably a sizable number of fans who feel the same way, who would never buy a ticket or root for Rush’s Rams.
As much fun as it would be to see a perpetually 1-15 Rush-owned team, I can see how that would be bad for the NFL.
Ash Can
@Comrade Mary: I clicked on your link hoping to be able to
snort coffee through my nosecompliment our host on what a dashing figure he cuts, but I didn’t spot any differences at all, let aloneincriminatingphotographic evidence. Oh well.Joe Beese
RedState explains it all for you:
geg6
@SenyorDave:
Not to mention that there are owners who aren’t complete tools and actually are offended by racism. Irsay, for one. And I find it hard to believe that Dan/Art Rooney III will think much of Rush being in their club. After all, Dan Rooney is not only a member of the Obama Administration as a diplomat, but is the author of the Rooney Rule requiring that minority candidates must be considered for open coaching positions.
Notorious P.A.T.
“Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”
http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/limbaugh.asp
Original Lee
@Boots Day: This.
Plus, the number of fans who would stop going to home games would probably drop, at least initially. Can’t be having a drop in revenue from parking, gate receipts, and concessions, now.
Original Lee
Although I have to admit a certain smirky anticipation at the concept of Limbaugh being an owner of the Rams. The snark almost writes itself (although not by me, because my snark-fu is lame).
Notorious P.A.T.
Donovan McNabb:
Least-intercepted quarterback per pass attempt of all time, (4303 attempts-90 interceptions, 2.09%)
Third-best touchdown-to-interception ratio of all time, (194-90, 2.16) behind Steve Young (232-107, 2.17) and Tom Brady (197-86, 2.29)
One of six quarterbacks of all time to have over 25,000 passing yards and 3,000 rushing yards (alongside Randall Cunningham, Steve Young, Fran Tarkenton, Steve McNair, and John Elway)
Currently the third-highest winning percentage among active quarterbacks (83-45-1, .647) behind Peyton Manning (119-59-0, .669) and Tom Brady (88-25-0, .779)
Yeah, Limbaugh knows football.
Persia
@Notorious P.A.T.: I am saddened to see that the slavery one has no source, but that’ll do.
Just Some Fuckhead
Rush has always been a Steelers fan. He prolly started thinking he needed his own team when the Steelers hired a black coach.
Seanly
@Michael:
Yeah, I saw it too. It took a few seconds for his words to sink in. Rush was off by himself otherwise I think a couple of the guys in the panel would’ve jumped him.
Another thing: Rush had originally been vying for the 3rd spot on MNF that had gone to Dennis Miller. I think the ESPN spot was a concillation prize from ABC.
slag
They’re just trying to vindicate themselves. Because they love to frolic in racial slander and then bathe their souls in righteous indignation afterward. The only question for us on the left is why we just can’t get it in our minds that they’re the true victims in all this.
Don’t worry, wingnuts, when the laughter dries up, the pity will flow.
gex
Here’s where Rush’s treasured free market can go to work. The NFL is entertainment. Generally entertainers don’t get too political as it is bad for business. The Rams are already such a mess, it would be surprising for the league to decide they can also alienate a portion of the audience. Maybe they will.
It could be kind of fun. Rush gets to sit back and call out other people who are actually out there running things. I imagine he’d have all the success of the post Jimmy Johnson Jerry Jones or a Daniel Snyder. Big head, big ego, bold moves, no on field success.
funluvn
St. Louis is a fine city with fantastic fans (especially baseball fans of the Cardinals) that deserve so much better than to have 3/4 of America rooting against their Rams week in and week out.
That in itself should be enough to put an end to any pipe dreams Limpy might have of joining the ‘club.’
Scott
I thought it was real interesting that there were no players, no coaches, no sports columnists or journalists who were in favor of this, and most of them specifically cited Limbaugh’s racism and bigotry.
The mainstream media, however, would never accuse Limbaugh of racism. It would be uncouth.
I complain a lot about sports journalism, but there are a lot of times when I realize they do their jobs better than the people working on the front pages.
geg6
@Scott:
These days, I’m thinking they are the only journalists left out there.
Atanarjuat
All this wingnuttiness is getting kinda shrill and repetitive.
I need a hero.
http://www.herobuilders.com/08.htm
-A
bellatrys
@Notorious P.A.T.:
This. I actually had my abuser tell me that I should pity him because being a full-time asshole & loathed for it by those he alienates is such a terrible “cross to bear”…
The Moar You Know
@Michael: I remember that. I hate seeing people embarass themselves publicly, and even more so hate seeing them commit career suicide in public, and he did both that day.
Rush is a weird guy. He knew he’d fucked up and yet not only refused the lifeline, but dug in afterwards; he could have apologized profusely and saved his job (and it was a big deal for him – a childhood dream, apparently) but he just couldn’t do it. Like I said, a weird guy, one of those types who is his own worst enemy.
The tragic thing is, it turned him bitter. He got a lot more hateful after ESPN canned him. I don’t think to this day he understands that his words and actions left ESPN with absolutely no choice in the matter.
bellatrys
I expect that a racist like Rush would get off on *owning* a football team for all kinds of unsavory reasons.
Notorious P.A.T.
I second that. You can “report” that there are WMD in Iraq and face no sanctions, but if Mitch Albom writes that he talked to someone he didn’t there are consequences.
jibeaux
@Persia:
The slavery one is debunked on the snopes link Notorious P.A.T. posted, but one you would think would get a little air time would be “the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons.”
2th&nayle
@Notorious P.A.T.: Good Point! I suppose in some ways that would explain his loyal listeners. He’s preaching to the choir and they understand!
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@bellatrys:
Last night on IFC they ran CSA: The Confederate States of America. It was actually pretty good. One of the side effects of the Confederates winning the Civil War was that Canada became a cultural and sporting super-power. The Mexicans didn’t fare as well.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Go Colts!
Bets:
Which toolerrific fRighty will be the first to claim this is a clear violation of Flush’s 1st Am. Rights?
Which super failtastic cretin will be the first to claim keeping Rush out of the NFL is even more racist than any comments he might have made a long, long time ago?
How long will it take for any of the diaper digging brigade to blame the NFL’s position on fear of Obama?
@Original Lee: In-deed.
Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Ash Can: I feel yer pain. Well, it’s more of a soft, hollow feeling, really. Then again, that could be because I haven’t had lunch yet.
Joshua
@Notorious P.A.T.: I think there is a difference between a lot of people working the beat in sports journalism (which, if you read Will Leitch’s book, can often be a difficult and humiliating job) and the Around the Horn loudmouth ESPN model that is everywhere on TV nowadays.
Did the Around the Horn guys take on Rush this week? PTI? The ESPN Sunday NFL show?
JGabriel
I like the implication here that you can be TOO anti-racist.
Is that like being too sane, or too anti-evil? If anyone wants to call me too “anti-genocide”, I think I’m ok with that.
Winguts. What a world they live in.
.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Oh, and what stupid item will the Wet State Stroke Force send to Isray? My money’s on a bag of manure. Or maybe they’ll just go pick their own horse apples.
Jay C
Fixed.
mcd410x
A football team? Who is he trying to buy? Fulham?
matoko_chan
Hotair link
It is interesting that you lump Palin in with Rush….I think a lot of the defense is that conservatives feel disrespected, dissed, in their choice of leadership. The implication is that they are stupid to promote these people…..so they are forced to rabidly defend them.
The Grand Panjandrum
The NFL let a convicted animal abuser back in the league, and they have several players accused or convicted of spousal abuse, not to mention all the drug problems, so I don’t see why another drug addict being in the league is a big deal. Have him line up across from Ray Lewis. If he can carry the ball for a gain against Lewis let him in. If not, we get to watch Lewis beat him until all the fat falls off his stench ridden ass.
kay
@Scott:
It’s really interesting looking outside/in on this.
I don’t have a clue about the NFL, except what you pick up from the ether: I know it’s a business, I know it’s entertainment, big money, licensing, etc. so I would assume they would protect the “brand”.
That they’ve so clearly and matter-of-factly consigned Limbaugh to the radical, unacceptable, divisive fringe is fascinating, not because it’s dramatic, but because it’s so….businesslike. They see him as a liability. To the brand.
It probably does more to marginalize him than than anything his political opponents have ever said.
LD50
@bellatrys:
Ay yi yi…. I know that one’s real, since I have known more people who think *exactly that way* than I would ever care to admit
Martin
That’s not an implication, it’s a flat-out assertion. And they’re stupid to defend them as well.
PanAmerican
The last thing NFL ownership needs is a loudmouthed jerk waking labor from its Gene Upshaw induced coma.
ericblair
@Notorious P.A.T.: I second that. You can “report” that there are WMD in Iraq and face no sanctions, but if Mitch Albom writes that he talked to someone he didn’t there are consequences.
Yep, the standards in sports journalism are much higher than in “serious” political journalism. Screw up a baseball statistic and hundreds of people will call you on it. Write complete garbage political stories for years and nobody in the organization seems to mind.
winguts to iraq
FYI, Michael Vick served his time… let it go.
Death Panel Truck
It’d be kind of fun to watch Rush’s “whites-only” team get its ass kicked every Sunday. After a couple of 0-16 seasons, even the Lions will start to look good by comparison.
(Yeah, I know, St. Louis sucks already. But Limpballs could make them even worse.)
Original Lee
@kay: Excellent point. This is the downside of Rush’s prominence, from the NFL’s POV, because most team owners have a much lower profile. Dan Snyder, for instance, is cordially loathed in the DC Metro area, but only really rabid fans in other places know or care who the owner of the Redskins is.
Mike
In a way, I’d like to see Rush own the Rams. Every game – home and away – would be a gigantic teabag show. He would use his show to question the patriotism of every major city in America when their team’s fans root against St. Louis.
Eventually, no one will want to play for or against the Rams, the team will fold or sold for a fraction of the purchase price, and Limbaugh will blame minorities, Nancy Pelosi, and the drive-by media.
tc125231
@matoko_chan:
The implication is that they are stupid to promote these people…..
smiley
@SGEW: I’m late on this but here’s a link from earlier today.
Bordo
My dislike for El Rushbo is mighty and strong, but folks, he is talking about taking a minority interest in the bid by Dave Checketts, who owns the St. Louis Blues. He would have no say in any day-to-day operations, setting policy, hirings, etc. Additionally, the Checketts bid has been described as “a long shot,” so it’s probably a moot point.
I absolutely believe Rush Limbaugh is a flaming racist, sexist, jingoistic homophobic douche nozzle. I am appalled at the millions he pockets each year by appealing to the basest, ugliest depths of his listeners. I am astonished he wields so much power over the GOP.
But his money is green. If Checketts wants to include him in the bid, it’s his business. Besides, imagine the tsunami of self pity that will roll over our fair land if the bid is scuttled because the Oxycontin Kid was part of the group. It will be nauseating.
Midnight Marauder
@JGabriel:
I think that’s a wingnut special when it comes to insults. Just like yesterday’s winner, “half-a-sissy.”
Midnight Marauder
@Bordo:
And if the NFL owners decide they don’t want a loud-mouthed, racist jackass anywhere near their league in any capacity, whatsoever, regardless of if he can even sniff the slightest hint of day-to-day operations, well then, it’s their business.
grape_crush
@1: Anyone have any good links to clips of Rush saying obviously racist shit?
Quotes:
Website.
Video.
Common Sense
To those defending sports journalists, I have two words and an initial:
Stephen A. Smith.
Not only is he a boorish loudmouth (Limbaugh on sports), he also defends Limbaugh.
Do not kid yourselves. Sports journalism is dead as well. The only good ones are slogging away in anonymity for dying dailies or on the net. The only reporters people listen to are obnoxious bomb throwers who would rather pick a side and stay there than have an intelligent debate.
Skip Bayless, Jim Rome, Mitch Albom. They are the last gasp of a failed and outdated concept.
Oh and anyone that roots for the 49ers should be praying to whatever God they worship that Rush gets the Rams. The combination of Mike Singletary + the chance to kick Rush in the nuts twice a year = some top level free agents playing for less with a chip on their shoulder.
BDeevDad
Rush is a WATB hypocrite
Bordo
Midnight Marauder,
You are quite right. There’s a story in our paper today about the owner of the Indianapolis Colts saying he would never vote to admit Limburger as even a minority owner because of his inflammatory statements. NLF commish Roger Goodell also is saying this would be a bad thing, bringing controversy and divisive to the league.
Perhaps this will be a rare case where the bloated, pill-popping bastard actually is punished as a result of his actions. How sweet indeed that a group of wealthy, largely conservative and Republican owners don’t want this big tub of goo anywhere near them.
As noted earlier, it looks like the Checketts bid won’t go anywhere, regardless of who is aboard. But it’s nice to see powerful voices like Irsay and Goodell raised against the fat man.
The only bad thing is that Rush will generate scads of publicity for himself and his miserable little circus act whether he wins or not.
Steve M.
I challenge you to think of anyone not named Palin or Limbaugh who would get this kind of full-throated defense from the blogospheric right.
Reagan?
Ayn Rand?
Carrie Prejean?
Midnight Marauder
@Bordo:
True enough, but I think (like others have mentioned) that this might be one occasion where that publicity is not beneficial to him with the public at large, and may even qualify as a solid negative against him. Save for the ESPN incident–which seems like it happened ages ago and in an entirely different country–I can’t think of another situation (especially in the last two years or so) where there was a sizeable negative reaction against Rush, and more importantly, a subsequent pushback from people of a higher elite status than he belongs to.
That, I think, is the real story in all of this (which, again, others have already discussed). All political implications aside, the monied interests of this country just soundly rejected having a character like Limbaugh associated with their organization, which just so happens to be the new national pasttime (and no, save it–baseball fell from that perch back in the ’94 strike season).
Svensker
@kay:
Brilliant.
Common Sense
After listening to an hour of Rush, I’m half convinced this was a publicity stunt. He knows he’s not getting the team — he just wanted his name in the headlines. The “PC Police” block his All American efforts, he goes back to preaching to the choir, and his minions are in full throated support.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Forgetting all his other rhetoric, Rush’s comments about Donovan McNabb were plenty enough to permanently make him radioactive to the NFL. To summarize that episode:
Rush called McNabb, paraphrasing, a token.
Anybody who is at all knowledgeable about football knows that McNabb is not a token. It’s not even arguable.
Rush is actually quite knowledgeable about football.
Therefore, there is only one conceivable explanation for what he said; it was a deliberately incendiary racial comment.
Rush wasn’t the victim of the PC police, and he didn’t accidentally let slip some little comment that he shouldn’t have. He deliberately set out to piss off a large segment of our population for no other reason than to piss them off.
Hob
Bruce: And/or to make the dittoheads happy, because whether they know anything about McNabb or not, they’re happy when Rush says that kind of thing. I suspect Limbaugh doesn’t care whether the targets of his bigotry have any opinion about it — as long as his fans know that he stuck it to those targets again.
Redshirt
Limbaugh just dropped from the group of buyers. I think this might effect his ego.
Matt Osborne
@SGEW:
Here you go