I think I may have mentioned that I rarely listen to Rush Limbaugh, unless I’m on the road and there’s nothing else, but I may have to start listening. I say that, because I’m wondering if this nipple-headed jackdaw could possibly have made me regret supporting him any more quickly than he has:
HUGHLEY: You know what we do, we talk like we’re talking now. You have your view. I have mine. We don’t need incendiary rhetoric.
STEELE: Exactly.
HUGHLEY: Like Rush Limbaugh, who is the de facto leader of the Republican Party.
STEELE: No, he’s not.
HUGHLEY: I will tell you what …
STEELE: I’m the de facto leader of the Republican Party.
HUGHLEY: You know what? I can appreciate that. But no one will actually decry down some of the things he says. Like when he comes out and says he wants the president to fail. I understand he wants liberalism to fail. Like, I get it’s not about the man. But it is still about the idea that he would rather have an idea fail so his idea can move to the forefront. And that would succeed. And that to me is destructive.
STEELE: How is that any different than what was said about George Bush during his presidency?
HUGHLEY: You’re absolutely — let me say something. You’re absolutely right.
STEELE: So let’s put it into context here. Let’s put it into context here. Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh, his whole thing is entertainment. Yes, it’s incendiary. Yes, it’s ugly.
D: You do get a sense that he would say anything.
HUGHLEY: He influences the party. And I tell you what, you’re the first Republican I have talked to, and I have talked to a lot, to say he’s not the leader of his party. I have never heard anybody say that on any show.
I’m an equal-opportunity racist.
I’m waiting for Karen to finish her lunch, so let me ask: what’s the problem with being an entertainer? Is there something wrong with being entertaining? Do you know, I rather suspect that people like to be entertained. I know I do. So start entertaining me, or STFU, Michael Steele. When you’re trying to light a fire under “the base,” for God’s sake don’t use something inflammatory!
Not to mention, you know Steele was at The Black State of the Union dealo.
Steele is no outlaw.
i am sparticus
I now feel better about the comments I left on Steele’s campaign website when he was seeking the nomination. My instinctual distrust of Steele’s panderings was well-founded.
Plus his “blog” was a joke, a sop thrown to the youngsters. He’s a slick customer and he’s a product of D.C., born and raised. Reason enough, like someone from Chicago, to reject his leadership.
[And I tell you what, you’re the first Republican I have talked to, and I have talked to a lot, to say he’s not the leader of his party. I have never heard anybody say that on any show.]
Liar.
Better order up another container of feet for the GOP to shoot themselves in.
I expected better from Steele. I did not expect him to be an outlaw, but fuck, he should go on ElRushbo, Hannity, Levin, and even bat shit crazy Michael Savage and reach out.
Steele is like Roger Simon, living the dream as student council members. Howard Dean is a fucking douchebag, but he was not a pussy when he took over the DNC.
Steele is as pusillanimous and emptyheaded as our fag president I think and he’s not the leader of dick.
He’s not the leader of dick. I am the leader of dick.
Wow. Ace is *defending* this as responsible and mature and necessary for reaching out to moderates.
That’s retarded, I think. Pandering is not honest, and it’s not like we need more lying douchebags in politics.
damn straight
And do you know something? Before hf said it, I hadn’t heard a single person state that he isn’t the leader of dick.
Ace is probably in sort of a mood since he had to pass on his CPAC blogger tiara this week.
Best In Show!
I did not expect him to be an outlaw, but fuck, he should go on ElRushbo, Hannity, Levin, and
Why lend legitimacy to Savage?
Limbaugh and Hannity are wrong more per dollar income they make than most anyone I know of, but at least they’re not completely out of their trees like Savage.
Ack, blew the html.
Oops, no: it’s just ice cream.
i feel like a blue dress
That was…timely, pdbuttons.
We’ve simply placed another Republican in a leadership role who believes that Lucy will hold the ball still so he can kick it all the way over the moon – this time. If he just gets along with everyone.
Feh. k.
Oh, and Savage is a steaming pile of dung.
No, no, no. What dear Michael is refering to here is the time that Rush’s studio caught fire. And, let’s face it, Rush has a face made for radio.
He’s not dissin’ Rush, He’s just pointing out these facts.
WTF is a moderate at this point. I consider many of the folks on this blog moderates, because they don’t consider themselves particularly religious or focused on social conservatism. However, most of us, moderates and far right wingers agree the economic situation is shit and getting shittier by the moment. Its the one issue that brings out party together and Rush is focusing on that. He won’t talk about abortion, he rarely mentions religion, he doesn’t typically take any kind of stand on moral issues but he sure as hell will tell the truth about the economic policies. Being a moderate doesn’t mean “agreeing in principle with democrats”, imho, it means accepting you have a series of core beliefs and values, even if you differ on some of the more polarizing issues (like abortion). Example- I believe in God but have no problem with atheists in my party because we both believe God or no god, socialism sucks, doesn’t work and all the prayers in the world are not going to do a damn bit of good if Barraky ruins our economy.
Joan’s right- Steele’s another inside the beltway guy, who is listening to inside the beltway “conservatives”, who are more interested in “reaching across the aisle” so they can get their own pork through and attend the right parties on the circuit.
Its disgusting, it really is. I thought alot more of Steele when he was running for governor of MD. I guess I misjudged him.
i am splatter-cus
don’t go there…
oh no u didn’t…
Okay, no Savage.
My point is uberdouchebag Howard Dean was picked to bring the radical left into the DNC tent and still reach out to the traditional DNC powers that be (teachers, regular unions, environmentalists, etc.). The DNC made an effort for a fifty state goal. As a strategy, that seemed to work.
My thought was Steele play a similar role (albeit from a more conservative perspective than Dean’s). That does not seem like it is happening.
Bipartisanship: “A state of affairs in which Republicans betray their supporters in order to mollify their political enemies and the editorial boards of The Washington Post and New York Times. Cf., capitulation, professional suicide.”
-Tony Snow
Honestly, it’s stuff like this that makes people hiccup in their support for the RNC. I hope Obama’s plan fails too. Unless he changes direction, gets a new plan, I hope he fails. This isn’t incendiary or ugly. Pandering to stupid people is incendiary and ugly.
And, FTR, I can’t STAND Savage. He’s a loon.
I kinda like Michael Savage. My favorite is when he just starts slapping the desk and saying, “Oh my God, I’m so depressed. I’m so depressed. What am I going to talk about? Every day is a blue Monday.” Fits my mood sometimes.
#Comment by Carin on 3/2 @ 1:39 pm #
Dittoes.
Except for the “Liberalism is a mental disorder” line.
I don’t get the hoping Baracky fails thing. He’s a socialist. He will make things suck and call it success. That’s what they do. No. I keep my hopes for Baracky to myself.
Rush is hammering on Steele even now. Reminding everyone of his former support for the “gutless” man. Telling Steele his is NOT the leader of the GOP, but the RNC and he needs to start doing his job.
More at my site, but all paraphrase.
AMissing the bigger picture here … why does Steele waste time talking to D L Hughley?
D L Hughley? C’mon give me a break. The guy’s not a political commentator, he’s not much of a comedian either (he was the worst in “The Kings of Comedy”). He’s just on of CNN’s diversity picks.
thats what makes this worse. sell out to a nobody who inhabits some awful timeslot on CNN that no one watches, anyway.
limp.
It’s a small point, but just listen to one of Limbaugh’s current lines — that Obama is spending more in six weeks than all the gov spending totaled since the founding of the nation — then stop and think, are his numbers toted in constant dollars?
Hmmm, no, I don’t believe they are. Then what is he doing and saying?
Can that, will that be the way to go? Who’s being taken here and where are they going? I mean, aren’t Obama’s policehs bad enough without a call for intentional distortion?
I already decided the only monies I will give this cycle will be for John McCain’s primary challenger, who could be a rabid transvestite muskrat and still have my wholehearted support.
I guess that Steele didn’t get the memo- there is no GOP in the United States of “O”topia.
Not only do I hope he fails but I hope that the majority of people come to realize he is a socialist piece of shit interested only in holding his nose as high up in the air as he can while giving speeches. If that makes me a bad person I really don’t care. I do not want my money going to other people so they vote for Obama, I want that to fail. I do not want my money going to people who made idiotic choices, I want that to fail. I do not want my money going to the government so it can nationalize banks, I want that to fail. I do not want socialized healthcare, I want that to fail. I do not want 900 million dollars going to Hamas, I want that to fail. I do not want my President goin to the middle east and apologizing to terrorist supporting regimes, I want that to fail. I am glad Obama already failed in his opposition to the surge, that seemed to help the country, so why should I not hope everything else he wants to do fails?
If Mr. Steele, which by the way is a really cool last name, wants to marginalize and piss off millions of conservative voters I want him to fail too. I guess I am just a horrible bad mean person for wanting things I do not like to fail.
D L Hughley.
Wasn’t he on The Jeffersons, or Cosby kids?
I think maybe black people hate Rush, so Steele is not allowed to like him.
Unfortunately, Rush is the best thing going right now.
How pathetic is that?
That really is depressing. I expected better than that out of Steele.
I think he’s attempting to prove a point with his comments about that spending sdferr- hyperbole works. Plus, he’s not getting into a detailed analysis of the issue, where he’d have to address adjusted dollars etc-he’s not an economist- in fact, I think he’s challenging people to look at the spending, research the issue and decide for themselves.
Though I agree with you, Obama’s policies are indeed bad enough, though REAL economists are not geting much time in the MSM.
Please if someone can point out a time where Howard Dean spoke out against MoveOn or CodePink even though they took out front page ads full of the stupid and did embarressing crap on national TV someone let me know. I thought the leader of the DNC and the RNC’s job was to get people to vote for them not call them ugly and try to piss them off.
That is a great line.
Michael Steele needs to resign because he is not up to the job and he’s making an ass out of himself.
Granted all Matt. Still, I don’t like it when Jared Bernstein or Jason Furman pull this shit (and they do it all the time, have been for years), so I’m not going to like it when I catch people on my side doing it either, that’s all. It’s a simple cause for mistrust that isn’t necessary but is salient.
This is ludicrous beyond all description. While we spend precious minutes worrying about whether or not the sainted “moderates” are going to run screaming from the likes of Rush or Hannity or Coulter, the Dems can’t get 2 mules and Sister Sara to listen to anyone from the left on radio and even Ulberdouche can’t see O’Reilly’s tail lights. Yet Dems made a point to at least give lip service to the 10%-15% moonbat idiots and nobody seems to be the least bit worried.
Fer cryin’ out loud why aren’t the sainted moderates afraid of the Democratic “fringe” like, supposedly, they are batshit terrified of religious folks? Michael Moore is given a seat of honor at the convention and nobody cares much but if James Dobson showed up at The RNC event, locusts would fall from the sky and the rivers would run with moderate blood.
Somebody needs to explain to me how social cons and Rush have such a toxic effect on the electorate that that so called moderates can’t be seen in the same room with them but would be more than content to go bowling with Randi Rhodes and Dennis Kucinich. Enough already! What do these people stand for? Are we going to be spending any time talking about individual liberty and limited government and fair taxation and common defense or are we going to while away the hours shaking our heads and Tsk-Tsking Hannity calling some Democrat a marxist?
Here’s a thought: civility and post partisanship in and of itself will not win back Congress or the White House. In point of fact, it will have no effect at all except to perpetuate the status quo. The last time I checked the big push for conservatism came during the Clinton Administration when Gingrich and several others were willing to stand up for principle and state clearly and unequivocally the direction they felt the country needed to go that best reflected conservative ideals. The fact that there may have been a “social con” element to the Contract With America seemed to get lost in people embracing the overarching ideas.. If the foundation makes sense, many people will still tour the house even if they choose to stay out of the Abortion room and the Gay Marriage room.
Like Jeff, I’m all fired freakin’ tired of civility in politics being a one way street. When do we stand up and fight for our core values? If a little mud gets thrown let’s just try to remember that the other side cares about winning, period. Remember how well that 98-0 vote for “moderate” Ruth Bader Ginsberg paid off for Bush and his Judicial Appointees?
Cowboy up, people.
Funny thing is that unlike Mr. Steele, Rush Limbaugh seems to be actually trying to articulate a reason for people to vote for conservatives and expand that base beyond what it is today. Mr. Steele seems more interested in looking good on TV to people that would not vote for him if a gun was held to their head. I guess in some people’s minds, being “one of the good ones”, is something to aspire to.
/I denounce myself.
I was watching this train wreck on CNN, and was already shell-shocked beyond reaction to this part of the interview.
I was channel-surfing when I saw Steele, and then he was talking about how Republicans need to clean up their image by claiming authorship of Affirmative Action, and promoting it.
Then, the host(don’t know who he is, nor care) asked about states rejecting stimulus money, so Steele went into an explanation of why unemployment funds have strings. A warm laugh was shared when the host quipped(I paraphrase) “I don’t know about that, I’m just worried black people won’t be getting their money”.
THAT’S when the Rush stuff came up, and why my TV sustained significant damage.
Authorship of Affirmative Action??????????? WTF my TV would have been broken. So we want authorship of a program that deliberatly discriminates based on race? A program that says my Veterans Preferences count less than the color of a person’s skin when applying for a Federal job? What a disaster. If that is true, and I really hope it is not, then I hope this asshole fails too.
What the hell is wrong with hoping Obama fails? Of course I hope he -and all his minions – fail! And I hope they fail miserably. And shamefully. And obviously.
Now I feel much better.
I used to think Steele was an okay guy. Now I have serious doubts. We don’t need a panderer, we need someone who will at least attempt to clean house.
We’re fucked.
Well that Howard Dean was quite the panderer and see how well that worked out for Dems?
*/sarc*
This is what bugs me about GoP pols: you can tell by every word they say (and don’t say) that foremost in their minds is to avoid being mocked and ridiculed and accused by their Dem buddies and the press corps.
AND they can’t seem to avoid taking a knife to a gun fight. They’re the good guys, dontcha know.
Rush is on the front lines. Gets paid well. Probably relishes it. But he is on the front lines.
These filthy socialist thieves are out to destroy anyone that steps forward. They did it to Sarah Palin. They are working full bore on to do the same to Bobby Jindal. Just watch. The strategy works, even on many of us who have read the Alinsky playbook. Down deep their hate starts working on our feelings. Be honest now, their tactics have worked on you right? Note how often people preface their remarks by establishing their distance from the recipient of recent leftist sneer.
I am grateful for Rush. He is one of the few who I believe will be able to stand strong and prevail.
Plus, I likes me a cigar smokin’, alpha, suitful.
Of course, one reason to listen to Rush is the song parodies:
“You can have, you can buy
any house your heart desires!
Zero-down financing
I am the banking queen!”
Think Gramsci folks.
The march on the institutions.
Why wouldn’t they march on the RNC?
Steele has become just another of the docile fossils of the “Respectable” Right. Fuck ’em. And fuck “reaching out” to moderates. In the end the only thing they want to see in anyone’s hands who’s “reaching out” to them is cash, and a silk hankie for to wipe their noses with.
It’s all about making them feel better for having to rely on people who hate them to tell them how they should vote.
Maybe that’s what we need to do: hate the moderates, and let them know it. Maybe they’ll come crawling to us begging us to like them, like they’ve been doing to the Left for years.
Now I have that horrid banking song stuck in my head. The song is funny, but I can’t help imagining Barney Frank in a filmy pink pretty princess dress and a tiara, prancing around.
That’s not a pretty image, people.
You want to reach out to moderates? This is reaching out to moderates, and it works.
Best is to throw the mocking and ridicule right back. They have no defense for that, and know it. That’s why they attempt to take out, any who do, do it too them.
and a necktie
a too tight necktie
ahh.. i remember closets
the better to hang myself
auto -erotic stylee
Those who tend to go into politics are those who have a tremendous need to be adored and liked and flattered. And this is the result, yo. This is the result.
Oh good.
FOXNews is reporting Obama is releasing secret Bush memos dealing with interrogating terrorists without a warrant.
Transparency don’t you know…
Hoisted by their own peckerhard?
Ronald Reagan was a hard core fiscal conservative. Reagan was not a hard core social conservative. Regan was a pragmatist, but not in a John McCain way, but as a means to an end. If Reagan couls get half a loaf by compromising (as opposed to no loaf) he compromised, but he was always going for the whole loaf. Reagan set goals and followed them. Republicans have screwed up in recent years in not having clear goals.
Reagan probably would not have been elected but for Jimmy Carter completely fucking up the country for four years.
The Reagan model still works: Strong national security, lower taxes, less government, pro civil liberties (including property and gun rights which get overlooked by the ACLU and the Dems), pro life, and pro federalism. It is really not that complicated. And at its core it is not really all that outlaw. It is a message, if presented right, that scores 60%+ of voters. And the reason the GOP has been losing over the last two or three years, is because the GOP was not consistently doing this over the last ten to eight years.
barney could say i love you until he’s purple in the face
we hang together
or we hang alone
Using the terms “Barney” and “hanging” together make me uncomfortable.
I’m not hearing anyone in DC calling for less government. Nobody’s talking to me. Oh, I voted for McCain, and whatever goat the GOP ran against Hillary in NY, and I’d do it again knowing it was futile.
What could possibly go wrong with more less-able people in government trying to run my life? The Congress has already caused more economic damage than Bin Laden was able to do. I swear 538 names picked at random from a phone book would be better. Forty five juries would be better. Heck, 538 criminal defendants could hardly be worse.
Thanks for that, Geoffb (#57). I got a chuckle out of a southpaw commenter at the link who said: “Ronald Reagan is a prime example of a Republican.” If only…
Ace the pragmatist. Yikes. How’s that workin’ out for us?
Outlaws!
Cut Ace (and Allah) some slack Jeff, last time he got laid this happened.
Michelle actually says Bush made her throw up in her mouth with the October stimulus! It still want more Jeri.
The only problem the Obama’s had with Bush’s stimulus is that it didn’t waste enough taxpayer dollars to tank the economy to their standards.
Jesus, Joe. Just when I thought I couldn’t get any more depressed.
Look at that Army of Davids PJTV has given us!
Face it. The money man bought himself a mini-news network on the web. And he wanted NAMES, not insignificant little people. Dr Helen comes with Glenn as part of a package deal, I guess.
I think I get ace’s point, sort of, about letting the media tell us how and when to eat our own. However, I’m really not much of a pragmatist these days because it’s more of a “give them and inch” situation with the dirty socialists who are busy fucking up our little country.
“You can convince anybody of anything if you just push it at them all of the time. They may not believe it 100 percent, by they will still draw opinions from it, especially if they have no other information to draw their opinions from.”
Oh, sure, you think Alinsky or the MSM said that, but it was really Charles Manson, one of my favorite mind-benders; Manson, who was like a mirror his Family could see their every desire in, and that’s why they worshipped him so…
Steele didn’t do that bad. He was deep in Indian territory and managed to make a couple of good points and rebuttals, and I’d rather say good things about him and this makes me feel like a nit-picker.
Me? I don’t see entertainer as a bad thing. And I don’t mind incendiary either. Saying that Rush is an incendiary entertainer seems like something he’d probably agree about himself. Steele agreeing with either of those descriptions would not have bothered me at all.
But the word “ugly” makes me think that entertainer and incendiary were meant in the worst ways and that Steele agreed with that.
There wasn’t anything ugly in the speech Rush gave the other day.
And Michelle Malkin is the original person who can’t see the forest because she’s intently studying one tree.
I would like to ask Mr. Steele two questions. Why in the hell is Rush Limbaugh’s statements, wishing for the defeat and failure of Obama’s ideas, more incendiary and “ugly” than Obama’s attendance and participation in a racist hate church for 20 years? Would not it have been more prudent of you to attack and call attention to the racist bilge that was spewed from Obama’s church, with the aid of Obama’s donations and attendence, then to attack someone who is your political ally for calling for the failure of someone who is your political opponent?
However since I am just some random internet guy I doubt I will ever hear the answers to those questions.
And what has DL Hughly ever done that I’m supposed to care about him?
Mr. Steele made his make by agreeing to ‘no incendiary rhetoric’. He should have responded with ‘What do you mean by that? Like the incendiary rhetoric that was used over the past eight years to demonize President Bush?’
He let the other guy drive the interview and put him on the defensive right away.
Steele didn’t do that bad.
This is not true. The clueless nutless fuck is yammering out of his ass as our piece of shit president enacts a Soros agenda designed to kick our little country four-square in the balls. Michael Steele needs to resign because he’s not good enough, he’s not smart enough, and he’s fucking useless. Might as well make impotent coward John McCain the party chair and be done with it.
Oh, BTW, Dan.
Am still having problems with the whole instant message class thingy. Geoffb sent me the e-mail with the Julius Caesar scene and I gave my take in an e-mail – then read the comments. I sent a follow-up e-mail. I am still working through Shapiro – interesting read.
(Getting into the class site is still proving problematic. Sorry.)
oh. DL Hughley made it to 100 episodes is all he’s ever done, and they gave him the last season as a sort of affirmative action syndication deal I think cause it was a time slot loser for well over half the time it ran I think and it’s really hard to explain why it stayed on the air.
I don’t expect that there was, I’ve heard him often enough to know he doesn’t do “ughly”, funny mostly. I downloaded the speech and burned it to dvd but haven’t had the free time to watch yet. Maybe later tonight.
Mikey NTH,
Anyway I can help?
Comment by Jeff G. on 3/2 @ 4:13 pm #
It is sad isn’t it? A crappier lesser version of The View (I did not think that was possible). That thing goes on for a hour and a half. And no, I did not watch the whole thing. I have not drowned any kittens or puppies or done other heinous crimes that would justify such punishment.
Not that Dr. Helen is some TV radio star, but she is by far the better half of that relationship on PJMTV. Glenn Reynolds has a face and delivery style made for blogging.
What happened?
Socialists, ccoffer. This country is lousy with socialists.
I prefer the term Marxist. Its much more accurate.
Bobby Jindal
Amazing how those old socialists at CBS do better TV than the Pajama Media crowd.
I prefer the term Marxist.
Stalinist.
Rush Limbaugh makes speech and the world comes to an end. George Clooney advises Obama on foreign policy and “it’s all good.”
The hulu.com commercial? about the delicious mushy brains? ring a bell?
Steele to Rush: I’m sorry
Rookie mistake? Learning curve? Simple ass covering? I don’t know, but I hope he’s learning.
Steele to Rush: I’m sorry
Bobby Jindal
Amazing how those old socialists at CBS do better TV
That’s a jaw-dropper, especially coming from 60 Minutes.
Steele to Rush: I’m sorry
So reads Politico’s headline, yet Steele never uses those words.
This is as close as he weasels:
“When I told you to suck my dick, I never imagined it would offend you. If you were offended, I’m sorry…..now how about you suck my dick?”
geoffb: I’ll give a shot at what you sent.
Thanks. I’ve just been e-mailing long things to Dan – which may or may not be good. I am an old history major and a lawyer, so that colors what I see and what I think about regarding the plays and their context. Part of what I said to Dan: Ireland is a sore-spot to England because it is a possible second front. The Channel is the first front, but turning Ireland gives England a second front in war. It divides forces they don’t have, especially in any war up to the Napoleonic Wars. Any history tells that; any atlas shows that.
I hope to get in to the discussion.
“Ronald Reagan was a hard core fiscal conservative.”
How did this translate into policy for him?
Jeeeezus, meya, it’s not our job to educate you.
“Ace the pragmatist. Yikes. How’s that workin’ out for us?”
Wow. So, you think Ace should abandon pragmatism, not because it’s kind of flip-floppy, but because it doesn’t work?
Uh…I may be kind of slow, here. But did you do that on purpose, this espousal of a kind of uber-pragmatism?
That’s not uber-pragmatism.
That’s OUTLAW!
I think the point is that “pragmatism” doesn’t mean what Ace seems to think it means.
[…] McGehee uses it here: Maybe that’s what we need to do: hate the moderates, and let them know it. Maybe they’ll come crawling to us begging us to like them, like they’ve been doing to the Left for years. […]
[…] Let them fail (as they inevitably will), and the sooner the better. Less rubble to clean up. […]
[…] Let them fail (as they inevitably will), and the sooner the better. Less rubble to clean up.” […]