This condemnation of Rush by the WaPo editorial board is a masterpiece in the “both sides do it” genre:
IN A DEMOCRACY, standards of civil discourse are as important as they are indefinable. Yet wherever one draws the line, Rush Limbaugh’s vile rants against Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke crossed it. Mr. Limbaugh is angry at President Obama’s efforts to require the provision of contraception under employer-paid health insurance and the White House’s attempts to make some political hay out of the policy. His way of showing this anger was to smear Ms. Fluke, who approached Congress to support the plan, as a “slut” seeking a government subsidy for her promiscuity.
Like other “shock jocks,” Mr. Limbaugh has committed verbal excesses in the past. But in its wanton vulgarity and cruelty, this episode stands out. Mr. Limbaugh’s audience, and those in politics who seek his favor as a means of reaching that audience, need to take special note.
We are not calling for censorship. Nor are we suggesting that the ostensible policy issue here — mandatory provision of contraception under health insurance paid for by religious-based institutions such as Georgetown — is a simple one. Those who questioned President Obama’s initial decisions in this area — we among them — were not waging a “war on women,” as Democrats have alleged in strident fundraising appeals.
What we are saying is that Mr. Limbaugh has abused his unique position within the conservative media to smear and vilify a citizen engaged in the exercise of her First Amendment rights, and in the process he debased a national political discourse that needs no further debasing. This is not the way a decent citizen behaves, much less a citizen who wields significant de facto power in a major political party. While Republican leaders owe no apology for Mr. Limbaugh’s comments, they do have a responsibility to repudiate them — and him.
House Speaker John Boehner took a step in that direction Friday: “The speaker obviously believes the use of those words was inappropriate, as is trying to raise money off the situation,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in an e-mail Friday morning. But there’s no moral equivalency between the Democrats’ hyperbolic but abstract “war on women” line and Mr. Limbaugh’s targeted attack. Mr. Boehner and others of his stature need to say unequivocally that such gutter rhetoric has no place in their party or in American politics.
Incivility is not a one-way street in America. Far from it: Mr. Limbaugh’s left-wing equivalents have trashed any number of conservatives over the years. Conservatives have a point when they protest that the “mainstream media” don’t always heed their legitimate grievances.
Yet under the influence of Mr. Limbaugh and his ilk, the Republicans risk coming before the voters in 2012, and after, with nothing but grievances. This is what former Florida governor Jeb Bush was trying to tell his fellow Republicans when he observed, apropos of a recent discourse in the GOP primary: “It’s a little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people’s fears and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon for a broader perspective, and that’s kind of where we are.”
For the good of U.S. political culture — or at least its own political self-interest — the GOP must distance itself from Mr. Limbaugh. In response to listener complaints and, apparently, the promptings of its own corporate conscience, Sleep Train Mattress Centers has quit advertising on Mr. Limbaugh’s show. Dare Republican leaders show less decency?
Who is the left-wing equivalent of Rush Limbaugh?
Comrade Mary
You see, it’s all Obama’s fault.
SiubhanDuinne
Hahaha. Oh John, you are so droll.
Chyron HR
Dear Republican Party,
My health insurance plan is not some sort of gift from my benevolent employer. It is part of the compensation I receive for the services I perform. For further information on this phenomenon, get a real job for once in your lives.
Liberty60
On other blogs, conservatives have helpfully offered:
Ward Churchill
Sandra Bernhard
Bill Maher
Dixie Chicks
Jeneanne Garofolo
Sean Penn
Some commenter at Balloon Juice (OK, that was me trolling for attention).
AxelFoley
Is this a serious question?
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@Liberty60:
Of course none of which COMBINED have nearly the amount of influence on the left-wing that Rush has on the right wing all by his lonesome.
David Koch
Where is Ruth Marcus’ column decrying Limbaugh’s “potty mouth” and incivility?
bleh
Who is the left-wing equivalent of Rush Limbaugh?
Why, the “liberal media,” of course. Oh wait, that won’t work for the WaPo. Well then, it must be Rachel Maddow. PLUS Jon Stewart — it’s two against one!
Or maybe it’s … the entire White House political operation! And all their allies! That must be thousands! Rush, standing alone, is truly a heroic figure against those formidable, taxpayer-financed odds!
Alas, the question is both unanswerable and pointless. The WaPo people know perfectly well that there is no equivalent, or equivalence. But they don’t care. They’re not making a convincing argument; they’re maintaining what they think is a survivable political position. They think of themselves as actors in Washington — a powerful and influential Fourth Estate — not as mere reporters or explainers. That is for lesser newspapers, or ones who do not understand what it is to be In The Loop and Very Serious.
How nauseating. BTW, does anyone actually read the WaPo any more?
Scott
Who is the left-wing equivalent of Rush Limbaugh?
I’m sure the WaPo editorial board hates Obama much, much more than Limbaugh, so I reckon they’ll go with him. He keeps doing all that awful offensive stuff, like being black and not-a-Republican and willfully refusing to rubber-stamp stuff that gives Rush Limbaugh a stiffy…
gbear
Rachel Maddow! She says that John Boehner is really rotten at his job! All the time!
Liberty60
@The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
But any one of whom alone can damage the fee-fees of the entire American conservative movement.
Linda
There’s not a “left wing equivalent,” but conservatives are power players in this company town (Washington), and have been for about 30 years, and so the media is used to genuflecting–or flinching–in their direction like frightened kids with lunch money. It’s a hard habit to break.
David Koch
The Senate needs to vote on a resolution denouncing Limbaugh.
lamh35
CNN with their usual all sides do 2 to 1 republican with mary matalin and ari fleisher. Mary Matalin defeding Rushbo.
WTF. This is really maddening.
Anderson Cooper should be ashamed of the segment he just had on CNN where he let both repub panel member just lie their fuckin’ faces off and let Ari Fleisher trying to compare Arianna Huffington to Rush fuckin’ Limbaugh. And the Dem strategist who tried her best, but Anderson completely let Matalin and Fleisher’s bullshit go out without barely any pushback.
dexwood
Limbaugh’s left-wing equivalents have trashed any number of conservatives over the years.
Is there a left-wing equivalent of Limbaugh? And, wouldn’t trashing of conservatives who are wrong about everything be right?
jl
@AxelFoley:
I think it should be a serious question posed to the Washington Post editorial board.
“Mr. Limbaugh’s left-wing equivalents”
Name them
” Conservatives have a point when they protest that the ‘mainstream media’ don’t always heed their legitimate grievances ”
List the legitimate grievance, and the ‘main stream’ media’s heedlessness
“don’t always heed”
Why must the ‘mainstream’ ALWAYS respond to whatever conservative’s (or for that matter, moderate’s, or liberal’s) happen to think are their legitimate grievances?
So, need to ask the WaPo to explain. They won’t. So that means, have to then contact their public editor.
I assure you, hilarity will ensue.
Edit: At least Rmoney had the required combination of decency, prudence, and self control under intense fear, to walk on by in silence. So, we know where WaPo editorial board lies in the spectrum.
xochi
Shorter:
Jon Stewart needs to apologize for what Rush Limbaugh said.
David Koch
/fixed
amk
american fourth estate, the real fifth columnists at work.
SiubhanDuinne
@jl:
I love this! Let’s do it!
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
Dems, for once, use a well worn right wing tactic of creating evocative terms like “war on women”, and then WAPO weasel words it to mitigate Rush calling a women involved in the matter a ‘slut’. Well, I think the weanies claiming a ‘war on faith’ or ‘war on religion’ are big poopyheads, so there.
redshirt
Once a hippy punched a cop. Forever.
AA+ Bonds
Could they really not come up with a single loudmouthed asshole among liberals, because I can think of plenty
RSA
Let’s see… To which media figure has Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schulz groveled? Not thinking of any.
AA+ Bonds
I guess they were too late to press to call out Matt Taibbi for saying that he’s glad Breitbart’s dead
cathyx
The right wing would have you believe it’s Mark Shields.
Narcissus
Does the leftwing Limbaugh also have a thing for Dominican twinks
Or is that just the rightwing one
AA+ Bonds
The left-wing equivalent of Rush Limbaugh is non-famous and probably poor as shit
The liberal equivalent is Rachel Maddow who had a segment about ceramic Glocks on her show
All you have to do to be Rush Limbaugh is have a mass medium at your disposal and an unwatched staff of idiots to Google up the lies, the rage is there in every human being
amk
@xochi: yup, they instigate all the outrages, and then when people retaliate against the outrages, they are outraged against the people reacting to their outrages.
Unlimited first amendment and second amendment will be the downfall of us of a.
jl
Cole: How is that project to get us all paid gummint money to have sex coming along? I’d like an update.
redshirt
@Narcissus: Haitian Twinks instead methinks.
Trentrunner
As a gay guy, I don’t have a direct sexual stake in this fight, but isn’t it true that women’s better access to contraception = more sexytime for the straight gents?
Cacti
I’ll be happy to stop saying the GOP is engaged in a War on Women when they stop trying to treat them like two-legged companion animals at best, and ambulatory incubators at worst.
beergoggles
Anyone to the left of the WaaahPo. Duh!
slag
Not just one. Equivalents plural. The left wing contains multitudes of Limbaughs. Multitudes!
Culture of Truth
AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!
JGabriel
John Cole @ Top:
Al Franken! He called Rush Limbaugh fat! And an idiot!
Everyone knows calling an overweight entertainer who daily puts himself in the public eye for a living a big fat idiot is just like calling a heretofore unknown woman who testifies before congress a slut and demanding that she make sex tapes and post them online for Rush’s edification.
Both sides do it!
.
MikeBoyScout
Damn. I thought the one thing wingnuts, Limpdick and everyone else could agree upon was that there is no equivalent to Limpdick.
Why can’t we all just get along?
BO_Bill
Al Frankin is pretty bad.
jl
@Trentrunner: hetero and bi GOP dudes are all either swank wealthy sugar daddies who don’t have to worry about health insurance coverage for the cost of birth control, or lost in fantasies of being one, or fantasizing about their favorite GOP sugar daddy (when they are not lashing out in bitterness about the lack of opportunities to need to worry about birth control)
Boudica
@The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
I read that as all by his loathesome.
Boudica
@The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
I read that as all by his loathesome.
Boudica
stupid duplicate post
slag
@Culture of Truth: Funny. I think liberals have a point when the “mainstream media” doesn’t heed to our grievances. But apparently, “only one side does it” when “it” is having a point. Weird how that works.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Culture of Truth: Donnie and Freddie made Liz Cheney into a pundit, and last week gave the Very Serious Glenn Beck space to talk about the conspiracy between the Jooze and the Duke of Edinburgh to force Timothy Dolan to go on The Pill.
SoINeedAName48
Let us not forget that it was none other than Ronnie Raygun who, in an unsolicited note, called Rushbo “the Number One voice for conservatism”.
jl
@slag:
Another good question for the WaPo editorial board, and later, their public editor.
If they get enough letters, some one will try to respond, and it will be funny.
Boudica
sorry for triple post. I swear I only hit submit once,,,
Davis X. Machina
@xochi: Like.
slag
Out of curiosity, why doesn’t Sullivan have a Limbaugh Award? Or does Malkin serve that purpose? What about Hannity? O’Reilly? Neil Boortz? That Savage guy not named Dan? Am I forgetting anyone?
SiubhanDuinne
@cathyx:
Oh SNAP.
Culture of Truth
I’ve been hearing that ‘ignoring wingnut legitimate complaints’ shit for 30 years. cripes.
Little Boots
examples would be nice. examples of leftys trashing righties would be nice. we all know it happens, but random twitter feed versus talk show host that every presidential candidate defers to. well, these distinctions do matter.
cthulhu
I am surprised no one has said Michael Moore yet. C’mon people! Get with the program. Totally equivalent. Well, except that Moore has far more respect for truth and the suffering of average people. But they are both fat, know what I’m sayin’…
Little Boots
and incidentally, Culture of Truth is awesome and a real credit to this thread.
just saying.
Gus
@Scott:
ED drugs (damn you filter!) and Dominican boys?
pseudonymous in nc
Fred Hiatt is hurt because Teh Left calls him an appeaser of wingnuts and lickspittle lackey for unjustified war. Which he is. Poow wittle Fwed.
jl
@cthulhu:
They can’t go after Michael Moore right now. He has been the only one so far to defend Rmoney’s statement that the trees in Michigan are just the right height.
Gus
@cathyx: Win.
Chuck Butcher
So, the WaPo is finally showing its true nature out front? I would expect that editorial from WSJ or one of the WaPo stupid shit bloggers, but…
henrythefifth
You know, lost in all this is that Rush/Right Wingers are perpetuating the meme that women want the federal government to subsidize their birth control so they can screw like rabbits, when it’s really just a rule requiring insurers to provide contraception, not the government.
The Wash Post perpetuates this by stating Rush maligned Fluke for “seeking a government subsidy for her promiscuity.” Note how the Post (surprise!) nowhere states that this is a flat out lie? Of course they don’t.
Narcissus
remember that time rush limbaugh was a horrible human being
pseudonymous in nc
@jl: Well, I can imagine what Pittypatty Heston is going to say, and it includes “yes, Mr Limbaugh, no Mr Limbaugh.”
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@Liberty60:
Well, yes, and I suppose that’s what’s REALLY important here. Tarring all women who want birth control, for whatever medical reason they have, that’s fine, but hurt a conservative’s fee-fees, that’s just downright unconscionable!
@Boudica:
Can’t exactly say you were mistaken there, to be honest.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
And that judge wasn’t racists because he didn’t believe he was.
They should fucking ask some women before writing that crap.
Little Boots
WaPo is so afraid of … what?
what the hell are they afraid of? it’s just this weird instinct now. the right must be appeased.
pathetic.
Cacti
@henrythefifth:
And insurance companies are fine with that idea. The pill is a helluva a lot cheaper than a pregnancy and delivery.
slag
@jl: Haha! Score one for bipartisanship.
cthulhu
@jl:
Now that’s good!
amk
@henrythefifth: mainstreaming the rw lies, that’s how the media has enabled them to push the overton window. teabaggers, tundra twit all media creations.
Cacti
Rush’s looks and personality are all the contraception he’s ever needed.
Cluttered Mind
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I’m sure Ruth Marcus and Sally Quinn saw no problem with it.
Little Boots
so I get the following, politically:
hate gays, hate Mexican immigrants, hate blacks, hate the poor.
that kind of works. It’s disgusting, but it kind of works politically, mathematically.
but hate women?
who the hell decided that was a winning formula?
SiubhanDuinne
@Narcissus:
I’d ask you to remind me, but there’s not enough bandwidth in the solar system . . . .
slag
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Gasp! Are you suggesting that being opposed to contraceptive health coverage for women has deeply sexist implications?! Why I do declare! Where are my salts? Bring me my salts!
jl
@cthulhu:
In an interview Michael Moore said that Michigan trees are just the right height, especially compared to Wisconsin (too tall) and Ohio (too ‘shrubby’). I read his quote in TPM.
Mitt can’t use Moore’s statement, becauee might offend Wisconsin and Ohio. Oh, the hard hard choices and dilemmas of modern GOP politics.
cthulhu
@Gus:
Now, now, hey. There’s no proof of that. It could have just as easily been under-age Dominican girls.
Eric U.
I would be interested in having one of these moron republicans (but I repeat myself) explain how the amount of sex a woman is having determines the cost of her birth control. I guess that works with condoms, but last I checked they weren’t covered by insurance.
Comrade Mary
@cathyx: WIN.
jl
@henrythefifth:
“The Wash Post perpetuates this by stating Rush maligned Fluke for “seeking a government subsidy for her promiscuity.” Note how the Post (surprise!) nowhere states that this is a flat out lie? Of course they don’t.”
Another good point.
People should contact the WaPo editorial board to and ask them to clarify: they saying that or are they saying Rush said that? They won’t right away, so then will have to write their public editor.
Enough people do that, they will probably try to clarify.
It will be a real knee slapper, I tell ya.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Little Boots: They still have 8 months to prevent women from voting. I bet some of them will try.
Cluttered Mind
@jl: Come on now, what do you think they are, truth vigilantes?
Southern Beale
I usually hear Randi Rhodes equated with Limbaugh by right wingers.
Little Boots
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
true, but women can absolutely put an end to this crap. they actually have numbers on their side. just do it.
Steeplejack
__
That is two sacks of bullshit. There is no left-wing equivalent to Limbaugh, and the idea that the “mainstream media” have been insufficiently attentive to conservatives’ grievances–legitimate or only imagined–is absurd. That is one myth that I wish would go ahead and die, die, die.
scav
The Moral Majority and the party of Our Social Betters going to the mat in defense of a shock jock calling a Georgetown student a slut and asking her to post sexual videos on the Interwebs. Somebody really really loves me and wants me to laugh. (I’ll cry too, but later, and it will likely be tears of mixed motivation.)
inkadu
Don Imus is looking pretty good right now.
FuriousPhil
There is no left-wing equivalent. That’s because of the very nature of the right-wing “conservative” culture of being willfully ignorant, fabricators of everything, and being sensational to generate income.
For every advertiser that drops, there will be some company who just doesn’t care, thinks that any publicity is good publicity, or worse, the very same advertisers who buy commercial time who have dropped, will quietly creep back in months later and continue advertising.
The biggest thing that pisses me off is the “entertainer” excuse. I heard Bobo and Lil’ Ricky make nearly identical appeals today that Rush is just an “entertainer”. We nitpick celebrities for every little thing, but this professional asshole gets to verbally abuse whoever he wants, under the guise of “entertainer’? Fucking weak sauce.
Seonachan
That’s not the language I would have used.
Cacti
Any time Rush wanted to prevent a pregnancy in his 4 marriages…
He just got naked with the lights on.
Little Boots
@Southern Beale:
I totally reject that.
she actually deals in facts, always. and she invites everyone to check those facts. limbaugh does not, ever.
Punchy
I think the left wing equiv of Rush is DougJ. His incendiary rhetoric, insipid banality, and clearly Man-on-Sully man-on-crush is clear evidence of being a slut in need of Ortho-Tricycling and insatiable sexual need for marmots.
Punch +4
jl
@Cluttered Mind:
“Come on now, what do you think they are, truth vigilantes?”
Oh noes! I think I have been outed as one of the left wing equivalents of Lush Bimbaugh. How can I deny it? There it is in black and white, implying that the WaPo should be a ‘truth vigilante’.
Cluttered Mind
@FuriousPhil: I like how they excuse everything Limbaugh does by saying he’s an “entertainer”, but they also insist that Jon Stewart needs to STFU because he’s a “comedian”, and thus is unqualified to comment about politics. Don’t expect intellectual consistency from the right and you’ll never be disappointed with them.
Little Boots
women have to stop putting up with this crap. it really is up to them. the second they stop it will stop.
as long as some women buy into this bullshit, it will continue.
amk
This
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Take a look at the photo in here of OK State Senator Judy Eason McIntyre holding a sign that read “If I wanted the government in my womb, I’d FUCK a senator.”
jl
@Cluttered Mind:
Oh boy, just thought that letters requesting clarification from Chuck Todd are needed too.
Can he say about Limbaugh what he said about Stewart and Colbert?
Cluttered Mind
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I’ve been saying for years that the most awesome Democrats are the ones from the reddest states. Purple state Democrats usually end up like Joe Manchin or Ben Nelson, but if you go deep into Republican territory you can find some really great Democrats. They have to be, in order to survive and put up a fight against the maniacs who surround them.
Citizen_X
Der. You are, John. Did you not say “fuck” a couple of times? I rest my case. Left wing incivility! Left wing incivility! Both sides do it!
Besides, we need “the left-wing equivalent of Rush Limbaugh” as a tagline.
Cluttered Mind
@jl: Of course he won’t. IOKIYAR might as well be our state religion.
Little Boots
also, john cole has to talk to me, cause,
why not?
gnomedad
I don’t think the left has anyone of note who lies as shamelessly as Rush, but WaPo won’t outright call Rush a liar, so it’s a non-starter.
Little Boots
and now, monkees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOfsPSXqJDc&feature=related
Bruce S
“Conservatives have a point when they protest that the ‘mainstream media’ don’t always heed their legitimate grievances.”
Has there ever been a more overt textbook case of self-loathing?
Who is the left-wing Rush Limbaugh? I once ran into a guy who was wearing an “Ask me about 9/11” button who probably fits the bill. Also the moron selling some book by a guy named Bob Avakian who accosted me at a demonstration a few months ago. On major media? Nobody, obviously. Anyone who claims, say, Ed Schultz is “a left-wing version of Rush Limbaugh” needs their head examined. Not irrational hatred, insistent racist and sexist slime nor the Big Lie as standard operating procedure are part of the equation for Schultz or any of the other leftie media personalities who have an audience beyond some street corner.
Cluttered Mind
@gnomedad: The closest I think you could argue is Bill Maher, but when he gets things wrong it’s because he’s talking about things he doesn’t really know much about and gets details wrong in his eagerness to land punches. Rush makes things up out of whole cloth. Not really equivalent.
realbtl
You’re all over thinking this. Anybody who’s ever said anything but “Yes sir, you are right” to a conservative is the left-wing equivalent to Rush.
They are so oppressed!
Little Boots
define “legitimate” mr. washington post.
does that include the “legitimate” trauma that there is a black guy in the white house? how about the “legitimate” fear that somewhere, somehow, a millionaire is paying taxes.
please define legitimate?
jl
The real outrage was the proposed legislation; absurd false and hateful statements and actions from GOP pols and their contemptible Democratic fellow travelers (eg, Manchin); fixed rigged and dishonest Congressional hearings.
Yet, it takes a rather routine and expected offensive statement from a drug addled fraud and known BS artist to get even a quarter-way honest reaction or notice at all from our Greater People overlords.
gnomedad
@Cluttered Mind:
If I had to choose someone it’d be Michael Moore — making shit up and saying “I’m an entertainer”. Maher’s just careless. In the vileness category, of course, Rush is in a class by himself.
Little Boots
ya know, what is with the misogyny lately? seriously, is that a winning formula for politics?
somebody got some splainin to do.
Little Boots
and where the hell is Omnes?
AA+ Bonds
It is true that Michael Moore plays fast and loose with the facts to needlessly saladize stronger but more mundane arguments and peppers them with personal accusations that he can’t possibly back up, such as more or less calling every scooter-driving chain-wearing bin Laden a likely terrorist in Fahrenheit 9/11 which is goddamned ridiculous by all accounts and IMO that segment was plenty racist
I guess I don’t care as much because his tendency is to the left and thus objectively correct by accident a lot of the time
I just prefer Mark Ames who has never pretended to be upright, and I suspect it is the Ames/Taibbi tendency that they are thinking about over at Kaplan when they talk about “left-wing equivalents”, as both of them continue to wage a long-term war against the Washington Post that the impoverished newspaper is now sure to lose
pseudonymous in nc
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): The Oklahoman apparently needed a fainting couch, as it wrote an editorial chiding the Democrats for their mocking amendments and crude language.
Yeah, as if journalists never say the word ‘fuck’ in public.
Little Boots
@AA+ Bonds:
then maybe they might want to specify and elucidate. maybe.
AA+ Bonds
The Washington Post is at a disadvantage in the new world of newspaper collapse because unlike Rush Limbaugh, Mark Ames, and Michael D. Higgins, the Washington Post cannot call somebody a “jack-off” or similar term implying onanism, even if the person is a jack-off.
Bago
@Cluttered Mind: Zactly. Or in rush speak, ditto’s.
Little Boots
@AA+ Bonds:
I blame John Cole,
and as always, Doug.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
i am shocked and offended that the democrats are using the gop stance for “strident fundraising appeals”.
i cannot believe this one time moral outrage that fundraising follows controversy, the democrats are clearly out of control and are rewriting the rules of politics. i mean how dare they marry speech and money. the rhetoric is intemperate enough, how dare they marry speech and money?
they practically deserve to be ridiculed by proxy by the honorable rush limbaugh.
pseudonymous in nc
@Bruce S:
Does he get paid $38m a year and have an seven-figure audience? Do members of Congress issue public apologies to him?
The point to make on equivalency is that Limbaugh supplies a large chunk of the 27%ers with their daily nutritional requirement of hatred and cruelty. There is no left-wing equivalent, on the horizontal axis or the vertical.
AA+ Bonds
@Little Boots:
It seems like maybe they think it’s a little middlebrow to call someone else out in their Rush Limbaugh-is-the-proper-noun editorial?
But this is the Kaplan Post and I’m honestly surprised that we didn’t get a throwaway spooky quote from some liberal, yeah. What did they have to lose by doing it?
Cluttered Mind
@AA+ Bonds: I find Moore’s tendency to embellish and exaggerate pretty annoying, yes. In Bowling for Columbine he basically created a speech from Charlton Heston that he never actually gave by splicing together bits and pieces of his real speeches. That sort of thing isn’t really forgiveable to me, especially when you don’t really need to do that to make the NRA look bad, the truth works just fine. Oh well. Even so, he’s not the left-wing equivalent of Rush Limbaugh by a long shot. If a bunch of Democratic elected officials start kissing up to him in public and walking back criticism, I might change my mind, but that’s never going to happen.
AA+ Bonds
Clearly I think John Cole has some advantages over the Washington Post although I am sure he would be okay with things if they traded
Little Boots
@AA+ Bonds:
it’s like we need our own newspaper. but you know what? I think the internets do that. John may not love me, but I love John, and what he is doing here.
we win, really.
Odie Hugh Manatee
No, his foot slipped.
I am loving every second of this mess the right has made for themselves. My wife and daughter are pissed, my three sisters are pissed, female friends of mine are pissed and they are a mix of opinions from the left to the right. Obama has to be one of the luckiest presidential candidates/incumbents in history to have the opposition party pouring gas on themselves and lighting it right before an election. I bet the White House is loving every second of this too.
The warriors of the Republican War on Women think this strategy is a winner? Wow.
Vodkamuppet
Not saying he’s the liberal equivalent to Rush but Ed Schultze did call Laura Ingraham a slut last year. I’m surprised the trolls didn’t point that out yet.
Little Boots
now blondie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xKIfKhIEMA&feature=related
jl
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Things are necessary developing to their advantage in the culture war effort. hoocoodanode?
Edit: srsly, their effort to navigate between their creation, the teanut wingbagger loons in the primary and the sane majority the general election, is not working out. IHMO, that is a another hoocooodanode, but they are so self confident in their ability to BS the population, they fooled themselves into thinking they could pull it off.
Little Boots
@Vodkamuppet:
and he apologized. that’s the difference.
amk
@Marcellus Shale, Public Dick: LOL
Little Boots
Can I post a song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5r7cGY92k4&feature=related
Odie Hugh Manatee
OT: Erickkk, Son of Erickk, let loose a squirrel at Redstate and the dogs are off and running in a thread where the always informed Redstate Leader, Erickk, dropped this bomb on the commentariat:
Bad news people, Erickkk is catching up on his reading. He’s up to 2009 now! All he has to do now is learn to spell and we’re in a heap of trouble! It’s clear that Erickkk is fanning the flames against Romney and the membership is, ummm… responding. Yeah, that’s the ticket! I guess it beats talking about the benefits of calling women voters “sluts”.
Good times, fucking good times.
Little Boots
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
they’re doomed.
pity them.
Heliopause
But notice the clever way the editorialist defines the terms:
You see? All you need to do is identify somebody in the public sphere who has “trashed…conservatives.” That would include you, John.
Of course, it would be idiotic to compare John Cole with someone who not only trashes liberals but children, college students, athletes, random citizens, and so on, but that’s the game the editorialist is playing. An intellectually honest equivalence would be a liberal public intellectual who is trashing Andrew Breitbart’s children at this very moment. Possibly somebody is doing that though I’m not aware of it.
Little Boots
in the meantime, cheer up sleepy jeans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU615FaODCg&feature=fvst
Birthmarker
John, can we please have ” Koch’s a Hell of a Drug” as a rotating thingy? I lolled.
RickD
I was told today that people who criticized Limbaugh but don’t also critcize Taibbi are somehow blind partisans. I tried to point out that Taibbi’s hate fest on Breitbart was nothing more than an echo of Breitbart’s hate fest after Teddy Kennedy died.
At which point I’m told “well, then Breitbart is bad, too” but I’m still not seeing how _I’m_ bad unless I’m denouncing Taibbi.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@jl:
Yeah, who could have ever guessed that letting a bunch of racist religious misogynistic assholes run the political show would lead to the desired outcome?
Hey wealthy dudes! The rubes have taken the wheel of the limo, get out of the car while you can!
DanielX
Oh yes, that’s totally going to happen starting tomorrow.
To: Editorial Staff of Washington Post
Re: Necessary operation
Please report to Georgetown University Hospital at 7:00 am on Monday, 3/5/12. Each of you will undergo an operation whereby it will be made possible for you to again have 20/20 eyesight while your craniums remain firmly inserted in your rectums.
Little Boots
@Birthmarker:
don’t talk to john.
he gets angry.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Little Boots:
Pity them?! No fucking way. I am laughing derisively at them, as should everyone else.
BTW, I know you weren’t serious but why pass up a chance to be indignant? ;p
Bruce S
“pseudonymous in nc” – I thought I was making that point with fewer words and a bit more irony.
some guy
the biggest outrage for Fred Hiatt isn’t Rush calling a grad student a slut, it is clearly the accuracy of the Dems explaining that the GOP is “Waging War on Women.” how dare these Democrats accurately describe the legislative actions of their opponents?
scav
@some guy: I somehow don’t think phrasing it as “The Republicans as Lowly Instruments Serving God’s Holy War On Women” is going to improve anything.
Villago Delenda Est
Just fuck the WaaaPo. Sideways, with a rusty chainsaw with no lube. With the governor off.
Villago Delenda Est
There are several problems with this.
For one thing, “Conservatives” are not conservative. They are, at best, reactionaries. At worst, they’re nihilists.
For another thing, they have no “legitimate grievances” unless you’re falling all over yourself to be “fair and balanced” in the Faux Nooze/Reichsrundfunk sense of “fair and balanced.”
Mike in NC
Yeah, the fucking WaPo can’t die soon enough. Loved cancelling the subscription when we moved from the cursed Beltway in ’07.
DanielX
Y’know, I may have to actually visit the Post website and see this for myself. The more I read this, the less convinced I am it’s an actual Post editorial instead of a piece from the Onion. Kidding…
Dare Republican leaders show less decency? I don’t even know how to parse that question. Has Fred Hiatt been paying any attention at all to what the Republican candidates have been saying for the past few weeks, or listening to the Republican audiences at the debates? Decency isn’t a word that any of them seem to know, unless maybe it’s Santaronola raving about the indecency of sluts. Has he been listening to the likes of Paul Ryan or Scott Walker or Eric Cantor or Louie Gohmert or the rest of the Asshole Chorus? Their general theme seems to be that anyone who may need government assistance of any kind ought to have the decency to just die. Unless, of course, your last name happens to be Co. or Inc. and you make a shit ton of campaign contributions in which case it’s hey, how much you need, bubby? Would you like that as a subsidy or a tax break? Oh, and can I have a job lobbying when voters get tired of me?
Decency from Republican leaders? Simple human decency? Seriously?
Jesus, even some of Hiatt’s staff must have to work at controlling the urge to whack him upside the head and scream “you utter fucking hypocritical sonofabitch!”
g
@Liberty60:
“On other blogs, conservatives have helpfully offered:
Ward Churchill
Sandra Bernhard
Bill Maher
Dixie Chicks
Jeneanne Garofolo
Sean Penn”
I am curious, when have any of these people slandered a private citizen? Please cite.
Jamey
Who is the left-wing equivalent? Hitler. Because Nazis were far-left.
You’re welcome.
Chris Andersen
>Who is the left-wing equivalent of Rush Limbaugh?
Hint: “equivalent” means more than just saying things as equally offensive.
Chris
Before you can have a left-wing equivalent of anyone, you need a left wing.
The most left wing president ever elected in this country was the dude who saved capitalism from itself, and we’re parsecs to the right of where we were back then. So… yeah.
@Villago Delenda Est:
This.
Bullsmith
It’s Michael Moore.
kay
It’s just gibberish.
It doesn’t hang together on its own terms.
The premise is that Fluke is an ordinary person and Limbaugh is a national figure, a conservative leader.
From there they go to how Limbaugh is mad at…President Obama, and unnamed famous liberals also get mad
at conservatives.
None of that has anything to do with Fluke, who said absolutely nothing offensive.
They don’t know how to think.
Even the basic sequence of events is wrong.
Limbaugh said horrible things well prior to Obama’s phone call, so he wasn’t responding to Obama’s “making political hay”, he responded to Flukes testimony.
For God’s sake. Someone sketch it out with names and arrows for them. It’s not all that complicated. It’s 3 people.
It’s a mess.
It doesn’t make sense.
TBogg
It’s me.
Also, fuck Fred Hiatt with Bill Kristol’s salted dick.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@TBogg:
eewwwww
dww44
@Vodkamuppet: Yes, but did you see Ed’s show tonight? He talked about that at the first of the show, and how he apologized, was fined, and even took himself off the air for a week or so. This by way of saying to Limbaugh to “Man up and apologize”.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@TBogg:
Only after it’s been rolled in hot glue and dipped in fire ants. Curare will do instead of hot glue and fire ants if you wish to have mercy on the ants.
I’ll understand. ;p
pseudonymous in nc
@Bruce S: Once again, I pine for a font style that can be deemed ‘ironic’. Perhaps a reverse italic?
OzoneR
The media wouldn’t write this if Obama just used the bully pulpit. Then they’d respect him.
Comrade Mary
@TBogg: Way to run salt for me, dude.
kuvasz
Robert Mugabe?
Comrade Mary
run = ruin
SRW1
As the WaPo editorial tries to point out, it’s Barack Obama. And he’s in the White House! Mr El Rushbo only has a microphone. Kind of an unfair fight, don’t you agree?
Egg Berry
I AM THELEFTWINGEQUIVALENTOFRUSHLIMBAUGH! (/spartan voice)
Jonny Scrum-half
As many here have said, there’s no one who can be described as the “left-wing equivalent of Rush Limbaugh.” But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t liberals who routinely make unnecessary and offensive remarks about people on the other side of the political spectrum. For example, Maddow routinely referred to Tea-Party protesters as “teabaggers.” Also, every reference to the “Flying Spaghetti Monster” is pretty insulting to religious people.
Frank
@lamh35:
That was just awful. I turned it off as soon as I noticed there would be two Republicans and one Democrat talking. What the hell gives? How much more obvious can it give that the discussion is going to be biased to the right?
I rarely watch CNN anymore because of things like this. And I had it on last night only because there was a commercial on the Ed show. Won’t bother with that again.
BC
Some anonymous commenter on Daily Kos or other prominent blog using 4-letter words. Y’see, can’t have one party to be all at fault because that would be “partisan” and you get vile e-mails.
Zak
Who is the left-wing equivalent of Rush Limbaugh?
Pol Pot.
nellcote
@Vodkamuppet:
He also got suspended for a week and publicly apologized.
Next.
WayneL
“Who is the left-wing equivalent of Rush Limbaugh?”
Jesus?
Jado
The left-wing equivalent of Rush is whichever elected official is currently on the floor of the Rotunda telling the truth about Republican policies.
See, right-wing policy is decided by Fox news and Rush; left-wing policy is decided by elected officials. Therefore, they are equivalent.
So, left-wing equivalents? Obama. Pelosi. Reid. Alan Grayson (when he was in, hopefully again in the future). Or anyone who spouts facts in response to GOP policies.
Some Guy
@Jonny Scrum-half:
How is Miss Maddow being excessively rude to Teabaggers? They came up with the term, and they haven’t shown a shred of courtesy to the left, Maddow included. Being called teabaggers is the least they deserve.
Since I am a good mood, I won’t call you a blistering idiot who needs to be flogged publicly. You’re simply an ignoramus.
Here’s the About Page. Read it, and educate yourself.
Read the above carefully, ignoramus.
John N.
If both sides do it, then that means that it’s a feature of political movements, and no one needs to get shit for it. That means we can stop talking about that, and get down to the business of talking about which side’s policies are better for Americans! That’s the argument I’d rather have, and I think we’ll be able to win it, too.