I’m enjoying reading what “reasonable conservatives” say about the latest Rush Limbaugh episode. The always clueless Young Conor:
What confounds me most about it is that Rich Lowry and Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review, Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard, Matthew Continetti of the Washington Free Beacon, Glenn Kessler of The Claremont Review of Books, Arthur Brooks at the American Enterprise Institute, Edwin J. Feulner of the Heritage Foundation, fellow talk-radio host Bill Bennett — none of these people would ever dream of going before a national audience and calling a female law student half their age a slut and a prostitute. None of them would ever dream of joking that if she wants her health insurance to cover birth control she should put a sex tape on the Internet. If a deranged gunman held a loved one hostage and forced them to make those remarks, as if of their own volition, they’d feel deeply embarrassed and ashamed doing it.
Tebow Fucking Christ, Conor spends half his day reading what these douchebags write and he’s still “confounded”. It’s simple: sociopathic movement hack is sociopathic. Every last one of these fuckers would strangle a baby if they thought it would help the conservative cause. And then the others would defend the baby strangling.
Doug Mataconis is better:
It shouldn’t be hard at all, really, for any decent human being to say that Rush Limbaugh is a low-class jerk for calling a woman a slut because she takes a policy position different from one that he happens to take. It should be easy to say that any 61-year-old man that says that about a young woman doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously on any political matter. It should be simple to demand an apology from the man. How would these people react if Sandra Fluke was their daughter and the same thing was said about her? The fact that so many people are being so silent, and making so many excuses for what is perhaps one of the more disgusting things I’ve heard come out of the mouth of a public figure in a quite some time is a pretty sad indictment of what American conservatism has turned into thanks to the likes of Rush Limbaugh.
Read between the lines and he’s saying that “Rich Lowry and Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review, Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard, Matthew Continetti of the Washington Free Beacon, Glenn Kessler of The Claremont Review of Books, Arthur Brooks at the American Enterprise Institute, Edwin J. Feulner of the Heritage Foundation, fellow talk-radio host Bill Bennett” aren’t decent people.
And he’s right.
Felanius Kootea
What’s scary is the outraged comments defending Rush that those few Repubs who’ve tried to point out his obnoxious bullying in this instance are getting. Just ugly.
ETA: Oh and how did “my employer shouldn’t get to decide my health benefits” turn into “you’re asking the public to pay you to have sex?” WTF?
The Sheriff's A Ni-
I wonder if half of Mitt Romney’s human programming problem is that he’s caught trying to relate to normal people, and trying to pander to these schmucks.
See: John McCain, circa mid-to-late 2008.
scottinnj
Here is the list of advertisers on Rush’s show. We need to make our voices hears on this – that is a feature not a bug of the system.
http://malialitman.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/reporting-on-companies-who-still-advertise-on-the-rush-limbaugh-show/
MattF
What’s sad and characteristic is that wingers get their sexually transgressive kicks from the likes of Limbaugh. I’m not a huge fan of Sarah Silverman, but she is, at least, young, attractive, and–y’know–female.
me
Limbaugh cannot and will not apologize unless his ratings take a hit and they won’t. His listeners would leave if he did. He’ll just run ads from Goldline and such if it comes to that.
aimai
I am astounded by the “not reach” of this scandal. Had dinner last night with my conservative christianist sister in law and her ex jewish atheist husband (my husband’s brother). Educated, middle class, northeastern conservatives or conservadems (Depending). My BIL brought up the “compromise” about contraception and had totally bought into the “the employer’s money and morality should dominate what gets bought by the insurance plan” line of argument. Luckily, thanks to my 24/7 internet obsession I was able to break it down for him and explain it all to him but he had heard nothing (nothing!) about the transvaginal ultrasound bill and I know if I had brought up Limbaugh he would have said “but he’s an entertainer…” or “no one cares about that…”
These people are extremely well defended against knowledge that discomfits them.
aimai
Hill Dweller
@Felanius Kootea:
That is how the wingers frame everything. By saying you are having to pay for someone else’s behavior, it allows them to exploit the resentment, bitterness and anger so prevalent in their base.
c u n d gulag
Conservatives are also afraid of “The Round Mound of Sound!”
Anyone who doesn’t openly chastise “Rushba the Hut,” and call for his resignation, is showing that, in essence, they don’t disagree with him.
Conservatives are ALL sociopaths. EACH AND EVERY SINGLE F*CKING ONE OF THEM!
Look up the word “sociopath” and tell me I’m wrong.
jheartney
As Rachel pointed out, Limbaugh isn’t just a jerkwad, he’s also clueless about how contraception works. He thinks you have to take a birth control pill every time you have sex. He doesn’t realize you take one every day whether you are active or not.
IOW he’s not just an asshole, he’s an ignorant asshole. Big news, I know.
barkleyg
Like Conservatism, Conservatives believe that it is not THEM or their BS theory that has failed,
, and don’t want the help of SAINT RONNIE OR Jesus
Spaghetti Lee
@Felanius Kootea:
Reread the Lee Atwater ‘nigger’ speech, and replace ‘nigger’ with ‘slut’. As far as I’m concerned it explains everything about this bullshit.
bleh
The really wonderful thing about this episode is that is busts wide open the myth of “polite” conservatism and “rude” liberals.
They’re really kinda stuck. Because even (allegedly) embarrassed silence doesn’t cut it. Either they condemn Rush or they’re tarred with the same brush.
I’m waiting for them to start complaining about how criticism of Rush is “shrill.”
Hill Dweller
@jheartney: Limbaugh’s only frame of reference is his own sex life, which is a nonstarter without pharmaceutical assistance.
barkleyg
@c u n d gulag:
I am insulted you would associate a term for Charles Barkley with RUSHBO, but it is pretty good, though!
LOL
barkleyg
@c u n d gulag:
I am insulted you would associate a term for Charles Barkley with RUSHBO, but it is pretty good, though!
LOL
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
Mataconis is clearly quite happy opinionating and not running for office ever. So he can say that stuff without consequences beyond a few angry dittohead emails. Limbaugh runs their party because he’s the Pied Piper of the ‘Base.’ Which is why the Romneybot just says he would’ve called her a harlot or a strumpet instead. And then gone out to shoot varmints to celebrate.
J. Michael Neal
You would think that one look at the man would have warned Republicans about the undesireability of getting into bed with Rush.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@J. Michael Neal: Bill Hicks said everything that needs to be said about Rush Limbaugh, and he said it almost 20 years ago.
Robert
I was just wondering how her dad feels about it. I know if Rushbo called my daughter a slut, I would be on Rushbo’s front porch calling him out, to explain to me what he meant by that remark. And If I couldn’t get him to respond, then I think a court order would be next. Then again, if he is so paranoid about a package………….
Nancy
@scottinnj: Do you know of a list for O’Reilly’s sponsors, because he is doubling down behind Rush? What did I just say? Ugh! Brain bleach needed!
Felanius Kootea
Meanwhile, Obama has decided to give the commencement address at my alma mater. Picking an all-women’s college at this point in time is definitely a shrewd move.
Felanius Kootea
@Spaghetti Lee: But Atwater later had numerous regrets about his actions. I guess no Republican was convinced by his post-cancer change of heart, so it’s full-speed ahead with the same strategies. Except I think they’ve made a grave miscalculation taking on women in this way. There are Republican women who won’t complain out loud but who will do so silently at the ballot box. You’d think they’d learn something from the personhood amendment failures in conservative states.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Dave Weigel also outwanked himself on this one. I have to say, I’m not a huge fan of his, pretty meh overall, but this surprised me
I can’t quite believe that anyone who isn’t a Catholic bishop or one of my 80 year old aunts is still trying to make that ‘religious freedom’ argument with a a straight face. I usually think I have a pretty good grasp on how I’m not like the great teeming bulk of the electorate, but I can’t quite wrap my brain around the fact that we’re even discussing this, much less that the political-media world has ground to a halt over it.
Jennifer
Not only do they not seem to know how birth control works, none of them seem to know who pays for insurance.
We do. There may be some companies out there who still just pay the whole premium for each employee, but they are few and far between. For everyone else, it’s an opt-in system; the employer has X plan available, and if you want the insurance, then X amount will be deducted from each paycheck. And then you get a check, and right there on the detail stub it shows where your insurance premium cost was deducted from YOUR money – not the employer’s, but YOURS. In some businesses, the business pays part of the full cost of premiums; in others, the employees are having the full cost of the premiums deducted from their pay. THEIR pay. THEIR money. Not the employer’s. Not Rush Limbaugh’s. Not Bill O’Reilly’s. THEIRS.
The way to make this go away is to continue reminding people that they do pay for their insurance, whether it’s via a paycheck deduction or a lower wage – often a combination of both. So here’s the bloviating leaders of the Republican Party dictating that your employer should be able to determine what insurance you can buy with YOUR money. Not theirs. YOURS. You are being mandated to buy a product that doesn’t meet your needs, simply because some employers and the bloviating leadership of the Republican Party – Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity – don’t want you to be able to buy what you really need with YOUR own money.
The Dangerman
@jheartney:
I don’t think he’s ignorant; I think he, like many of the other shitstains permeating our national discourse, makes shit up to get to his desired conclusion (she’s a slut or a prostitute). Gotta get to the lure phrase that hooks his listeners like a fish on a line.
kdaug
The growing wedges between the evangelical, corporate, and moderate wings of the Republican Party is as predictable as the Hillary/Obama tirades in 2008.
Just more fun to watch.
Anoniminous
Rush Limbaugh is politically important because he brings (roughly & minimally) 10 million votes to the table.
If this contretemps gets the under 30s politically to bestir themselves to vote this November AND in November 2014 … all well and good.
Otherwise, it’s “sound and fury, signifying nothing” since Rush Limbaugh (roughly & minimally) brings 10 million votes to the table in 2012 and 2014 and 2016 and, most likely, 2020 and, possibly 2022.
David Hunt
I have two problems with that characterization. 1). They’d want to have some sort of assurance that the baby was likely to grow up into a Liberal or some other form of defined non-human. 2). They wouldn’t want to do it themselves and would relegate the task to some minion…unless they thought they’d get good media coverage out of it.
kdaug
@Felanius Kootea:
Yep. They just won’t tell their husbands.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jennifer:
I wonder how much of the ignorance is sincere, or whether they’re just ginning up the base they despise, like when the Fox Morning Zoo Blonde with degrees from Stanford and Oxford pretended she was “shocked” when she looked up the word “czar” and learned it means “king”!
bvac
Comments: http://www.election2012newsblog.com/2012/03/03/sandra-flukes-claim-of-1000-yearly-contraception-expenses-among-georgetown-students-accounts-for-5-sexual-encounters-per-days-for/
It’s not even about helping the conservative cause. It’s just how these people think.
Peter
It’s not just Rush being an asshole, though. It’s also a warning shot to any private citizen who might consider testifying to the truth in Congress. That’s why there isn’t much pushback from the right about Limbaugh’s slime. If the countertop obsession weren’t enough of a deterrent, they stand ready to have the attack dogs do much worse.
Gretchen
Thank you, Jennifer. This is the first time I’ve seen this brought up, and I’ve been wondering why. Conservatives pretend it’s coming out of tax dollars (how?) and everybody else is saying it’s the employer paying. My husband pays over $400 a month, out of pocket, for our family insurance. His employer probably kicks in too, but he pays the bulk of it, and we ought to get a say in what that $400 buys.
Ira-NY
Is this about their being:
1) stupid;
2) out of touch;
3) unconcerned with the 12 election; and/or,
4) aware of something we aren’t?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I actually heard LImbaugh’s rant for the first time last night on TRMS. When was the last time the word “co-ed” was actually used? late 70s?
Frank
@Gretchen:
It is almost comical when you look at the big picture. Women in other countries have this coverage. But apparently the government hating Republicans want the government to decide that women in our country can’t have this coverage. Apparently they want women in other countries to have more freedom than they have here.
And why in the world do they find it acceptable that Viagra is included? Why do Republican women find it acceptable when female contraception is not?
kuvasz
Call limbaugh what he is; a young boy fucker.
gnomedad
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
Sorry, cultural illiterate here. Could you tell me what he said or link, please?
geg6
Wow. I despise Mataconis, but I gotta give him props on this one.
As for women, especially conservative women, keeping how they vote this fall a secret from their worse half, I have had two co-workers who follow their husband’s political leads tell me that they won’t be voting Republican like their husbands this fall and just not telling them. It’s good to know this, but I am truly embarrassed that professional women with graduate degrees would even find themselves in a situation to have to do this.
Soonergrunt
You know whose silence I find most interesting? Not the conservative “intelligentsia”. Their silence was a foregone conclusion, as was that of the Republican candidates. Rush Limbaugh is the godfather of modern conservative ideology, such as it is. And while many of them are as dumb as Fredo Corleone, none of them has the balls he had to cross his brother.
No. The people whose silence I find most interesting are the women to whom Rush Limbaugh was previously married or had relationships. Someone needs to ask Daryn Kagan what she thinks about this.
Rafer Janders
@jheartney:
As Rachel pointed out, Limbaugh isn’t just a jerkwad, he’s also clueless about how contraception works. He thinks you have to take a birth control pill every time you have sex. He doesn’t realize you take one every day whether you are active or not.
Look, cut him some slack. He doesn’t have a lot of sex with women.
Linnaeus
@Peter:
Right. It’s more than just the substance of what Limbaugh said; this whole brouhaha is an intimidation move meant to keep others – especially women – from speaking out.
gnomedad
@me:
Rush can’t apologize; it would be brand suicide. Being an asshole is what he’s all about.
scav
@geg6: There those nasty, nasty Democrats go again, subverting the Natural Order of the Universe and enticing True Ladies away from their Sanctified Submission To Their Husbands and all for Political Gain. TutTutTutSwoon.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Just like racism, I’m not caring about the difference. And just like racism, we should eliminate the difference between being ignorant, and being someone that uses ignorance for their own advantage.
cmorenc
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis:
um…the (mostly) “always” clueless young Conor DOES seem in this instance, for once, to have a big clue just how disastrously, offensively wrong Limbaugh is, and why for all the right reasons personal to all people beyond simply that it’s bad strategy for the GOP. I’m not sure why you’re pissing on an epiphany which, for young Conor and perhaps many other Republicans besides, grow over time into a broader understanding of what’s wrong with their overall mode of thinking. For exhibit #A, look at the (formerly) always-clueless Mr. John Cole.
Yeah, and I took the trouble to read Conor’s entire article you linked to, and fail to see where (in this one instance at least) he follows the clue to the utterly wrong conclusion. For once, let’s allow and be happy that he’s got it right and hope it flowers over time into more than a withered sprout.
eric
Peter is one effing hundred effing percent effing right. This is to stop people from speaking up during the general election. This is not about women per se but intinidating public speech.
The Other Chuck
@Jennifer:
Sure they do. That or they don’t care. You seem to be confusing the sounds emanating from their mouths as something related to logic or reason or actual language as we know it. All they are about is tone, making outraged sounds and simple insults.
Now it’s not to say that you shouldn’t go putting the logical argument out there, but it’s purely for the onlookers; when it comes to the noise machine, there’s no actual arguing with these people.
marcopolo
@Jennifer: This. I have explained this to I don’t know how many folks–that most often, the employee is contributing to her health insurance payments and that if they are paying then no one should be telling them what they can or cannot have covered.
pseudonymous in nc
Hicks on Limbaugh.
pseudonymous in nc
And the internet response on the wingnut side is magnified by including the standard Internet Fuckwad demographic of hateful young men whose personalities are the ultimate contraceptive.
Joey Maloney
Ace O Spades was feeling left out.
Jennifer
@marcopolo: Well, but even more…whether it shows up as a deduction on your paycheck or not, you’re still paying for ALL of it; there’s a reason that insurance is referred to as part of a “compensation” package. It’s part of what the company pays you.
Remember the thing a few years ago – Republicans were calling for taxing the value of employer-provided health insurance? They’ve already argued that insurance = part of employee wages; otherwise you can’t tax it. So if it’s part of our wages – and it is – whether it shows up as a paycheck deduction or not, then it’s OUR money, not the employer’s.
dr. luba
@kdaug:
Sounds like my sister-in-law. Brother is a right winger (white male thing), supported McCain/Palin in 2008. His wife voted for Obama (and swore me to secrecy on this point). Why? My nephew, her son, has Crohn’s disease, and she understands the importance of the availability of medical insurance.
Origuy
@gnomedad:
Definitely not safe for work.
BC
The main problem with Limbaugh v Fluke is that Limbaugh just makes up out of whole cloth what Fluke was saying. Fluke’s testimony was NOT about some “co-ed” who had to give up sex because she couldn’t pay for contraception, it was about a Georgetown student who had a serious disease with a recommended treatment that the university insurance would not pay for because said treatment is contraception. Jeesh, these guys go off half-cocked and avoid the issue completely.
burnspbesq
@DougJ:
“Every last one of these fuckers would strangle a baby if they thought it would help the conservative cause. ”
Explain why this statement is any less despicable than what Limbaugh said about Ms. Fluke.
You can’t have it both ways.
Pillsy
@Joey Maloney:
Who would have thought Mr Playdough’n’Bacon might have issues with women?
piratedan
@burnspbesq: but Burnsy, Politifact rated Doug’s statement as “mostly true”…..
JordanRules
@burnspbesq:
1- Power
2- Reach
3- Intent
aimai
@burnspbesq:
Truth is a defense.
aimai
scav
@burnspbesq: you often have a point but you’re really straining it here. Not your best effort.
kay
Jim, Weigel is wrong.
Conservatives DO want to limit birth control access.
They cut Title X funding in the Tea Party House, and both Romney and Santorum have promised the lunatics they’ll gut it.
Title X has been funded since Nixon. It’s access to birth control for poor people.
It isn’t existential, and Obama knows it.
Frank
@burnspbesq:
Apples and oranges. One was aimed at a group at large, while Rush Limbaugh’s comment was specifically aimed at a poor student in college. Can you even imagine what this poor woman’s life is like now because of Rush’s name calling and his minions now egging him on?
Citizen Alan
@burnspbesq:
Horseshit. Unlike the slanderous lies that Child Molester Limbaugh has been spreading about Ms. Fluke, I happen to believe the first statement is 100% factual. I really do believe that most movement conservatives would murder a child if doing so was somehow political advantageous, just as I believe that most corporations would murder children by the ten-thousand if doing so were sufficiently profitable. This is because they’re all fucking evil! Filthy, degenerate, soulless animals! What?!? Have you been asleep for the last twenty years?!?
JordanRules
@Frank: Fluke is considering a lawsuit. Does the prostitute part give her a case?
Villago Delenda Est
@aimai:
Just this.
JP
Everyone has missed this. Sandra Fluke is not employed. She is a student at Georgetown law. Thus, she and her fellow students pay all of the premium for their health insurance, just like my two kids in graduate school.
Ash Can
@Soonergrunt: I recall hearing somewhere that Limbaugh’s ex-wives are all under contractual gag orders regarding their marriages to him.
Yutsano
@Ash Can: And paid quite well to keep their silence. A legal order usually isn’t enough to stop most folks. Put sweet cash with it and they go silent as church mice.
Jay in Oregon
@bleh:
Give it about another week. Then it will be “Liberals are turning this incident into an excuse to persecute Limbaugh for his political beliefs.” WOLVERINES!
And while I’m glad that this is starting to hit Limbaugh in the only thing he cares about—his bank balance—the advertisers that are pulling their ads after this are chickenshits, pure and simple.
They had NO problem giving him money until now. It’s not like Limbaugh is subtle about his style or his politics; “Feminazi” has been a staple of his act for going on twenty years.
Raven
@Ash Can: Gag, on that shrimp-dick motherfucker? Not likely.
WereBear (itouch)
57 @ burnspbesq: He’s already pointed out WHO they are. Now we’re just haggling price.
MattF
@JordanRules: Well, IANAL, but there is something called ‘de facto libel’. But I also think suing Limbaugh is a not a great idea– he is, after all, personally wealthy and ruthless.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@kay: Hell, a good chunk of them, Santorum the most prominent but not alone, would ban it if they could. A lot of others would like to restrict access, but I think most of this is about being able to run commercials/editorials about Obama’s (and McCaskill’s, Kaine’s, Warren’s Whoever’s) radical anti-reliigious agenda. I think they’ve conjured up chaos that will get out of their control like the sorcerer’s apprentice. Time will tell.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ash Can: Wasn’t he twice divorced when he hit it big? It would’ve been a retroactive pay off to the first two then, no? I can’t believe he hasn’t arranged for number four to be implanted with Rush IV.
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@burnspbesq:
You are an idiot.
TuiMel
@Soonergrunt:
Whatever for? Why should I care what she thinks about anything?
pseudonymous in nc
@burnspbesq:
I’d revise it: each of those fuckers would have an enlisted member of the military shoot a baby if it helped their cause.
You have a decade of evidence on record, counsel.
Anna Nova
Oh, the true conservative mindset is coming right to the fore here. Take a look at the comments here, such as this one from a cretin who prides himself as an exempler “Christian”:
—-
John Hitchcock says:
March 3, 2012 at 14:32
Sandra Fluck (phonetic spelling) has made it known that she is promiscuous in her Flucking habits. That makes her, at best, a slut. The fact that she wants me to pay for her Flucking habits makes her, at best, a slut who wants to become a whore. And what is a whore? That is a person who makes others pay for his/her flucking, which is exactly what Sandra Fluck (phonetic spelling) is attempting to do. She is a slut attempting to become a whore. And she wants the whole nation to pay for her whorring around.
“Tough titty” said the kitty when the milk ran dry.
Sandra Fluck (phonetic spelling) made her bed.
Sandra Fluck (phonetic spelling) slept in her bed with who knows how many others.
Sandra Fluck (phonetic spelling) needs to clean her own encrusted sheets and not demand others do it for her.
She wants to be a slut? It’s a free country (but becoming less free day by day as Leftists trash the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution). She can be a slut if she wants to. But since she is trying to become a whore, I say no! I will not pay for her whore services!
Besides, I seriously doubt her family is proud of her. I seriously doubt they would call her a good Fluck (phonetic spelling) with all her sleeping around and trying to get paid for it.
—-
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@burnspbesq:
Did I say it would be okay for them to strangle babies as long as they make snuff tapes?
No, I did not. So your comparison is silly.
I hope you don’t practice law in a courtroom.
Mark B
I remember a time when it was possible to believe that Republicans were well-meaning people who simply had a different philosophy on the role of government in society. I think that time has passed. As long as they embrace horrible people like Limbaugh they deserved nothing but excoriation in public.
Jon
@Mark B: When was that, exactly? When they fiddled while the country fell into the Great Depression? When they waited for the troops to get home for two full years before passing the Taft-Hartley Act to fuck over unions? While they worshipped Ike while he ignored civil rights? Goldwater? Nixon? Reagan? Gingrich? Impeaching the President? Stealing the 2000 election?
debit
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis:
Oh, snap!
Jon
The American public is, as they always are, slowly, very very very fucking slowly, coming to see that the extremists, the radicals, the ones who really want to uproot and change everything are no longer the long-hair n—loving hippies. For my generation at least, the radical have always been the Limbaugh and seditious bumper sticker crowd.
bk
@efgoldman:
I believe it was John Mitchell, Nixon’s AG. I could be wrong though
Maude
@Mark B:
No, to be honest, I never thought Republicans were anything other than what we are seeing today.
Jon
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis: You must hold jurors in a higher esteem than I do.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@debit: Beat me to it! Exactly what I was going to post.
gocart mozart
@pseudonymous in nc:
Carlin on Rush
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzrxy9A7Ja4&feature=related
dance around in your bones
I have a good friend who works for Citrix Online (GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, etc) and he told me Citrix dropped their adverts from Rush’s show yesterday. I had to explain to him what the whole uproar was about, but told him ‘good on your company, and may many more follow suit!’
That old toxic bastard has gotta go; and I hope his vaunted golden microphone hits him in the ass on his way out.
Chris
@Jon:
Mid-nineteenth century. Abolitionism, the Civil War, Reconstruction.
Yeah… that was pretty much it. The party started going downhill at the end of Reconstruction, and hasn’t recovered since. I’ve said several times that as far as I’m concerned, the party’s far beyond saving.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@bk: It was John Mitchell, to the press: Watch what we do, not what we say.
gocart mozart
@JordanRules:
Yes.
Chris
@Jon:
Not that they ever were. The glory days of the hippies was also the glory days of enraged (and murderous) Dixiecrats and lunatic John Birchers.
Mark B
@Jon: I agree, it’s mostly a matter of degree, rather than substance, but there used to be a wing of the party composed of people who weren’t slash and burn tribalists. I think that’s been pretty much dead since Reagan, who proved that you could rob the rank and file blind so long as you waved the flag while doing it.
Mark B
@Mark B: And to expand …
My original post wasn’t exactly right. There was a time when some of the republicans were well-meaning people who could be thought of as reasonable people who had a different philosophy. Those people weren’t a majority, and weren’t the leaders, but there used to be a moderate wing of the party. Those people have been kicked out.
rpl
Who expects better from Limbaugh? Ms. Fluke is unlikely to be intimidated by his asshattery, I am not worried for her because the women I know are strong people plus lots of people are supporting her. Meanwhile the Republican claim that since Corporations are people, the issue is one of “constitutional religious freedom” is being undermined daily by Rush, who is revealing that their true motives are rooted in misogyny. Republican leaders and presidential candidates are too scared/dumb to repudiate him. Let Limbaugh continue his ugly ranting and let voters come to see the truth.
gocart mozart
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2012/03/more-rush
Original Rush/oxycotin song. +1
Nancy
This paragraph from Kathleen Parker made me smile.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rush-limbaugh-should-apologize-to-sandra-fluke/2012/03/02/gIQAo9gqmR_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop&socialreader_check=0&denied=1
Nancy
Block quote fail. The second paragraph should have been included.
sophronia
As much as I hate Kathleen Parker, this needs to be said, frequently and publicly, wherever the “just shut your legs” crowd shows up.
Ash Can
According to a commenter at LGF, Limbaugh has posted an apology of sorts on his web site (sorry, I’m not furnishing the link). You’ll all be shocked, shocked to know that it’s basically horse shit.
Stan
I can’t imagine why they say “both sides do it.” Nope. Not at all.
Joey Maloney
@JordanRules:
Make a heck of a senior project.
Soonergrunt
And the person you’re responding to has a nationally syndicated radio show and reaches millions of listeners daily and sets the tone for the Liberal movement and…oh, wait a minute.
me
@Ash Can: Here’s a TPM link. I guess the advertisers bailing scared him more then I thought it would. Now to see if he repeats the apology on his radio show.
Linda
No, no, no. they would not do this. They hire unwashed underlings like Limbaugh to do and say disgusting things, implant the idea in the minds of the peasants, and hold themselves above it all.
cckids
@Nancy:
So awesome. See also: “Limbaugh’s personality is probably all the contraception he’s ever needed.”
Southern Beale
Please, I’ve seen several “movement conservatives” — including the News Editor for National Review Online — make the silly claim that they thought the word “slut” had been “reclaimed.” So it’s okay to use … like the N word of course.
Idiots.
PIGL
@Stan: Oh, go clutch your pearls. And elsewhere, if you please.
DanielX
Right. We’re back in 2005.
Bush Eats Baby, Republicans Defend President
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/bush-eats-baby-republican_b_7137.html
As with the Preznit then, so with Rush now. That fat fuck could be found sodomizing a twelve year old boy in a shopping mall restroom (and for all I know has been*) and it would be defended as stress relief due to the tremendous burden he carries in supporting the conservative cause.
*Is it irresponsible to speculate? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.