Limbaugh fills leadership void, Republicans find

[Tyr]

I don't know if anyone bothered to catch Rush Limbaugh's strident diatribe yesterday, but it was truely bizarre bordering on "black comedy"

Is he the "de facto" candidate for the leadership of the RNC? Or is he the kingmaker for a Gingrich-Palin ticket in 2012

Regardless, If's he's leading the charge they are in danger of becoming even more of a fringe party

National Post - Feb 28/09

Maybe Phil Gingrey was growing genuinely tired of hearing conservative talk radio trash Republicans in Congress. Or maybe he'd bought in--just a little bit -- to Barack Obama's call for bipartisanship in Washington.

But when the congressman for Georgia's 11th district sounded off this week about Rush Limbaugh-- saying it was easy for him "to stand back and throw bricks" while elected officials provide leadership -- he had little inkling of the uproar his remarks would create.

Within hours, his offices were bombarded with phone calls ande-mails from outraged constituents and Limbaugh devotees, known as "dittoheads."
By the next morning, a humbled Mr. Gingrey was phoning in to Mr. Limbaugh's show to apologize.

"I just wanted to tell you, Rush -- and all our conservative giants, who help us so much to maintain our base and grow it to get back this majority -- that I regret those stupid comments," he said.

This grovelling mea culpa is being heralded as evidence to support two emerging views of the conservative movement in the post-George W. Bush era: there's a Republican leadership vacuum in Washington; and Limbaugh, the great tormentor of liberals everywhere, is stepping up once again to fill the void.

More than any other conservative since Mr. Obama's election, Mr. Limbaugh has been his most vocal and unwavering opponent.

First, he riled the left by saying he hopes Mr. Obama "fails" because his success would bring the rise of socialism in U. S. government. Then he led a full-frontal assault on the Democrats' $819-billion economic stimulus package, even as Mr. Obama was wooing congressional Republicans with drinks and invitations to watch the Super Bowl at the White House.

 

[Kreskin]

I watched Limbaugh speak at the CPAC conference. A bunch of hot air and bs. For example he makes an assumed linkage between federal governing parties and the coach who got fired after his team won 100-0. Complete nonsense but I suppose if one likes Limbaugh it probably makes complete sense.

 

[Tyr]

 

[Cannuck]

This grovelling mea culpa is being heralded as evidence to support two emerging views of the conservative movement in the post-George W. Bush era: there's a Republican leadership vacuum in Washington;

So what. There was a leadership vacuum during the George W. Bush era.

 

[Tyr]

So what. There was a leadership vacuum during the George W. Bush era.

...Not acccording to Mrs. Cheney :roll:

 

[gopher]

If all the Republicans can come up with as their leader is a drug and pornography addict, I'd say this party is in deep trouble.

 

[damngrumpy]

Wasn't that speech the greatest waste of time television has ever seen? Conservatism has slipped into a very large black hole, and while I am delighted it is
not a good thing. There has to be a balance of viewpoint in all things and lately the conservatives have splintered into tiny factions all grasping at the same straws
hoping for a miracle. I bet most of these people wish they had not supported their
friend George W, for the white house. Rush was either on or off his meds when he made his comments Here is a guy who was supposed to speak for twenty minutes, and took up an hour and a half to say virtually nothing

 

[Walter]

Regardless, If's he's leading the charge they are in danger of becoming even more of a fringe party.

A party that garners $47% of the vote in a national election is a fringe party?

 

[Cannuck]

Everybody sees their self as in the middle. That's why people that are on the fringe, usually see the mainstream as fringe.

 

[Tyr]

LIMBAUGH AT CPAC - David Frum

President Obama and Rush Limbaugh do not agree on much, but they share at least one thing: Both wish to see Rush anointed as the leader of the Republican party. Here’s Rahm Emanuel on Face the Nation yesterday: “the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican party.”

What a great endorsement for Rush! (And we know Rush is fond of compliments – listen to his loving account in his CPAC speech of the birthday lunch given him by President Bush just before Inauguration Day.)

But what about the rest of the party? Here’s the duel that Obama and Limbaugh are jointly arranging:

On the one side, the president of the United States: soft-spoken and conciliatory, never angry, always invoking the recession and its victims. This president invokes the language of “responsibility,” and in his own life seems to epitomize that ideal: He is physically honed and disciplined, his worst vice an occasional cigarette. He is at the same time an apparently devoted husband and father. Unsurprisingly, women voters trust and admire him.

And for the leader of the Republicans? A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as “losers.” With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence – exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we’re cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers cheering Rush’s every rancorous word – we’ll be seeing them rebroadcast for a long time.

 

[Tonington]

A party that garners $47% of the vote in a national election is a fringe party?

Rush gets less than 5% of America listening to him. Sure, he'd get more than that if he were leader, but he'd probably lose moderates in the party.

 

[A4NoOb]

On the one side, the president of the United States: soft-spoken and conciliatory, never angry, always invoking the recession and its victims. This president invokes the language of “responsibility,” and in his own life seems to epitomize that ideal: He is physically honed and disciplined, his worst vice an occasional cigarette. He is at the same time an apparently devoted husband and father. Unsurprisingly, women voters trust and admire him.

Congratulations. Frum would get an A+ for this at Chomsky Academy. He's a joke of a right winger.

 

[Walter]

Regardless, If's he's leading the charge they are in danger of becoming even more of a fringe party.

A party that garners over 58,000,000 votes in a national election is a fringe party?

 

[Tyr]

TownHall.com - The voice of the conservative

You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," the newly installed President Obama told Capitol Hill Republicans.

Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, just days ago, called the popular conservative radio talk show host "the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party." Then Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele appeared on a CNN show hosted by comedian-turned-pundit D.L. Hughley. When Hughley called Limbaugh "the de facto leader of the Republican Party," Steele stepped right on top of the trap. "No," said Steele, "I'm the de facto leader of the Republican Party," and called Limbaugh an "entertainer" whose show can be "incendiary" and "ugly." Steele later apologized to Limbaugh. Game, set and match.


http://magazine.townhall.com/coulter

 

[Socrates the Greek]

HE IS a TOTAL MESS, A DIVISIVE BIGOT WHO POTENTIALLY CAN HURT AMERICA IF HE WAS EVER IN POWER MUCH WORST THAN BUSH.
One good positive aspect to his loud mouth B S is that in the pursuit of his litany many Conservative voters may see through his obnoxious political aspiration and move to the democrat camp, and should that happen Rush Limbaugh is a toxic asset for the American Cons.

 

[Tyr]

Rush Limbaugh is a toxic asset for the American Cons. HE IS a TOTAL MESS, A DIVISIVE BIGOT WHO POTENTIALLY CAN HURT AMERICA IF HE WAS EVER IN POWER MUCH WORST THAN BUSH.

Rush is the "de facto" Leader of the Republicans. That's why they continue to lose any crediblity they had 12 years ago

 

[Socrates the Greek]

Rush is the "de facto" Leader of the Republicans. That's why they continue to lose any crediblity they had 9 years ago

Good point Tyr,

 

[EagleSmack]

It's a good point today because the Democrats have the reigns. But give them time and they will slip as they have always done.

 

[Socrates the Greek]

It's a good point today because the Democrats have the reigns. But give them time and they will slip as they have always done.

Good day Eagle, give them time? Here is a little Canadian history how quickly the voter forgets or don’t forget.

In 1993 when the Canadian people realized how bad Brian Mulroney the PM of Canada then had dune them in, the Canadian voters reduced them to ruble, out of 100 seats they ended up with only 2 miserable humiliating seats in the house, the Conservatives became so insignificant that it took 13 YEARS to make a come back in the political arena, remember one thing the debt Mulroney subjected the Canadian people in was $40Billion small drop in the bucket when you talk Trillions. So, the fate of the Conservatives in the US WITH THAT LUNATIC ON THE HELM THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE PARTY WILL BE LINGERING FOR A LONG WHILE. Expect Obama to be on Rush Limbaugh's way allot, maybe 8 years.

 

[Tyr]

It's a good point today because the Democrats have the reigns. But give them time and they will slip as they have always done.

it's "reins"

The Democrats don't have a Rush Limbaugh of their own to trundle out on slow news days

The also tend to get the country out of the debt the Republicans put it in