My reaction to Rush Limbaugh’s apology, like my reaction to Komen’s shit-canning of Karen Handel, is two words: Uh. Winning.
Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Brinker backed down because they were scared, mostly of losing sponsors. They didn’t see the error of their ways, they saw their careers flash before their eyes.
There are those of you (though I’d like to think I’ve alienated most of the hard-core totebaggers at this point) who think that everything would be fine in American politics if Mark Shields could just make the most thoughtful, incisive possible argument to David Brooks. You know I ain’t down with that shit, Lieutenant. Human beings are greedy, fearful, irrational beings, and most (maybe all) of what makes conservativism ascendant right now is its ability to scare — xenophobes into voting against their own economic interests, “journalists” into deference, elected officials into toeing the teahad line, liberals into keeping their mouth shuts — and bribe (do I even need to give you examples?).
Andrew Breitbart’s so-called success is a testimony to the power of intimidation. Anne-Laurie’s post gives a perfect example.
Never forget that. When liberals cower in fear of the awesome moral and political power of right-wing Bishops and talk show hosts, we lose. When we say “I wish a motherfucker would try to ban contraceptives”, we win.
Soonergrunt
And not only that, but you don’t stop until the enemy is dead as a political force. You keep piling on. You keep driving the message home, you keep after the sponsors, you keep hitting, hitting, hitting, until the only thing left of the conservative movement is a bunch of old guys at the community center with their pants pulled up to their armpits bitching about the gubmint and hoping that their medicare will cover their heart medications.
JeremyH
True dat.
Wag
Who was cursing all the Yids.
Fucking greatest album of all time.
And it rings as true now as ever.
numfar
Fuckin’-A Tweetie-Bird
Jewish Steel
Gotta step on their fucking necks.
Emma
Amen. If you’re not willing to cut their hearts out and eat them you’re in the wrong business.
J (reader)
I usually get your references (eg Lauryn Hill or Beastie Boys) but i don’t know the post title or the line about the lieutenant. Anyone care to clue a brother in?
sfinny
I’m thinking Rush got a call from his lawyers as well as the ad reps. But his apology was bull and does nothing to address the fact that nothing in Fluke’s testimony had to do with sex. But as they went there, let’s hit them as hard as possible.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
Can Ah get a motherfuckin’ AAA-MEN up in this bitch?!! I hate watching people cower before this bunch of fascist half-wits. I’m not interested in their feelings, because I know that they aren’t interested in mine OR in those belonging to people far more fragile and/or less fortunate than me. They can resent my snobby ass all they want (yeah Rick, I’ve got a couple degrees, what of it you closet case self-loathing Opus Dei motherfucker?) for ridiculing them. I don’t care. A lot of these clowns have been taking a dump on decent people and the country of my birth for a lot longer than I’ve been alive, and damn near irreparably damaged it. Heaping helpings of scorn and indignation constitute the LEAST I can give in return.
Woody
“deferential journalists” all the way across the board — one thing the GOP has learned well is that after several whopping lies in a row, our Jell-O-spine Journos grow increasingly uncomfortable calling them on it without inventing “the other side does it” for “balance”.
It’s a bit like a teacher giving a bubble test with eight straight “B” correct answers. By the fourth or fifth straight “B” answer, the student is sweating and second-guessing what they know is the correct answer . . . but it couldn’t be “B” again!!
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@J (reader):
Post title: The Pogues – The Sick Bed of Cúchulaínn.
Lieutenant: Snoop/Dre, G Thang.
Wag
@J (reader):
Here you go
slag
I agree with much of what you say here, DougJ, but there are shades of gray. There are people who are genuinely intellectually honest and can be reasoned with. I know this because I’ve met them and reasoned with them. You may be surprised at what a little nonthreatening Socratic method can do for a person. Not for David Brooks, of course, but thank Darwin the David Brookses of the world are few and far between.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
sloan
More of this. We’ve got an entire generation of right-wing hacks who’ve never seen anyone fight back. That’s why Dr. Laura, Imus, Karen Handel etc. cried like little babies when they got their asses kicked. Fuck ’em.
sfinny
@efgoldman: Would not be surprised if this occurred as well.
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@slag:
I have never met anyone like this.
geg6
@Soonergrunt:
THIS. With even more feeling.
geg6
@slag:
I haven’t met a Republican like that in 30 years, at least. I don’t know where you live, but here in purple PA, they are Limbaugh clones. Every.single.one.of.them.
gnomedad
I really didn’t think Rush would issue even this pseudo-apology. Guy’s worth hundreds of millions and could bankroll his show himself if he lost every advertiser tomorrow. But I guess advertisers bailing is too big a hit to his ego, and several are still bailing, “apology” or no. It will be interesting if he gets hit with a defamation suit. Could this be a local peak wingnut?
slag
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis: Maybe you’ve heard of a fella named John Cole? I understand he has a blog and used to be something of a winger but chose a more rational course for himself instead. You should look him up sometime. Reasonable guy, I’m told.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@efgoldman: Amen. As we’ve all been reminded lately, George Romney no longer exists in the Republican party. People like him got pushed out years ago, and either have no affiliation or became Democrats. Republicans now are a mix of Birchers, militia members (in fact or in mindset), Dixiecrats, plutocrats, Randians, and people waiting eagerly for the Rapture. What kind of compromises can you offer that crew that retain any grounding on the planet in which the rest of us live?
geg6
@slag:
Been quite a while now since Cole saw the light. Hell, it’s getting on quite a while even for Charles Johnson. Who may well have been the last of the breed.
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@slag:
I think he flipped because Schiavo and Operation Iraqi Freedom were so batshit crazy that he couldn’t take it, not because some Mark Shields type sat him down and explained it all in a reasonable, rational way.
slag
@geg6: I’m so old I can remember when George W Bush was President.
geg6
@efgoldman:
Well, I’ll admit to voting for Spector a couple of times. But that was very, very reluctantly and with a lot of anger at being put in that position, mainly due to his pro-choice position.
The last one I voted for enthusiastically was Senator John Heinz.
slag
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis: Are you suggesting that Cole is not genuinely intellectually honest or capable of being reasoned with? Were you not one of the people who helped him find his way to the higher path back in the day?
geg6
@slag:
You’d call him some sort of reasonable Republican? Seriously?
You’re too young to know what a reasonable Republican was actually like.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis: I think I’d quit watching any of his outlets by then, but given Shields’ pre-Vatican II brand of Catholicism I wouldn’t be surprised if he was on the side of Brother Theodore and Terri Schiavo’s parents.
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@slag:
I didn’t use reason, though, I used crazy satire and hyperbole.
I’m not saying you can’t change people’s minds, just that you can’t do with sane, sober-minded type stuff.
mrmcg
Fucking A yes yes and yes.
The ghosts are rattling at the door and the devil’s in the chair.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@geg6: Do you think if Specter had switched parties back when it would have meant something, 2005 or 06 or 7, he’d still be in the Senate?
slag
@geg6: Bush? No. Cole? Yes. I know he was a reasonable Republican because he’s not a Republican anymore. But it wasn’t that long ago that he was a Republican. Voted for GW. Twice.
I remember, back in the day, being absolutely sure that anyone who voted for GW the second time was a lost cause–a complete teardown. I was wrong. Being wrong can sometimes have a wicked upside.
slag
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis: I’ve known people my whole life. I still haven’t figured them out. Of course, libertarians tell me that’s because I’m an idiot who doesn’t read enough Ayn Rand. And, of course, I tell them they’re simple-minded douchebags who don’t read enough Shakespeare.
Go read some Shakespeare, DougJ. Good stuff in there.
wasabi gasp
I wish a motherfucker would sprain his dick in my ass. FTW.
Dan
Basically, this.
Quiddity
Thimbledick issued and “apology” that was at variance with the facts. He says, “I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke”, when in fact that’s what he did for three consecutive days. The reference to “absurdity” and an “attempt to be humorous” is the kind of miserable excuse a bank robber gives when captured.
I suspect he heard from a lawyer or someone high up in the Republican organization. For what it’s worth, David Frum thinks this is hurting the Republicans badly.
mick
people do not change their minds as a result of considering a reasoned, sound logical argument (unless they are already liberals, and there are certainly liberal exceptions to that! liberals have their own blind spots, yo.)
people change their minds as a result of peer pressure and fear.
fuck reason.
geg6
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Late to the party, but it would have been better for Specter had he just stayed a Democrat, which is what he started out career as. I’ll never understand why he switched. He was from Philadelphis, for chrissake. Why would you become a GOPer if you’re from Philly?
samara morgan
and yet…….you hopped right on the EDK kumbayah train with Cole.
have you changed your mind?
samara morgan
@mrmcg: the devils on the stairs.
as in “if you paint the devil enough times pretty soon he appears on the stairs.”
devils.
J (reader)
thanks Dougj. I knew the Lieutenant line sounded familiar. i believe it is coupled with a comment about who had permission to ride in his Bennet
rikyrah
tell it
gn
@mick: “fuck reason.”
I disagree. I’m not in this to become a pale imitation of the right, in some sort of contest to see who can out-asshat the other, with sensationalist declarations, bluster, and from the gut lizard brained thinking replacing appeals to reason and moderation.
We “won” this because most rational people, regardless of ideology, view the type of immoderation which resulted in a shock jock labeling an accomplished law student as a “slut” to be beyond the bounds of decency.
priscianusjr
@slag: