Limbaugh

Notwithstanding my criticisms of Rush Limbaugh, he has his moments, and they are the reason he still has the following he has. From his reply to Michael Steele today:

Now, Mr. Steele, if it is your position as the chairman of the Republican National Committee that you want a left wing Democrat president and a left wing Democrat Congress to succeed in advancing their agenda, if it’s your position that you want President Obama and Speaker Pelosi and Senate Leader Harry Reid to succeed with their massive spending and taxing and nationalization plans, I think you have some explaining to do. Why are you running the Republican Party? Why do you claim you lead the Republican Party when you seem obsessed with seeing to it that President Obama succeeds? I frankly am stunned that the chairman of the Republican National Committee endorses such an agenda. I have to conclude that he does because he attacks me for wanting it to fail.

This isn’t complicated stuff here, folks. It’s difficult to organize the defeat of Obama and the Democrat Congress in 2012, if we want to. It’s going to be difficult enough, but on one hand it shouldn’t be difficult at all. But it’s going to be really hard, Mr. Steele, if you, as the chairman of the RNC, want Obama to succeed….

If we don’t want Obama and Reid and Pelosi to fail, then why does the RNC exist, Mr. Steele? Why are you even raising money? What do you want from us? If I want Obama and Democrats to succeed, I suppose we should be sending the RNC donations?…

The truth is, the president of the United States and Rahm Emanuel, who, remember, said, “Crisis is too great a thing to waste.” What does that mean? They want you suffering, they want you miserable, they want it worse, they want you rejecting conservatism. They want you rejecting capitalism. They want you turning to them in fear and desperation and angst for an immediate fix to the problem. They want you thinking you have no ability to fix your own problems. They think you have and they want you to have no ability to take care of yourself….

We don’t care, first and foremost, about the success of the Republican Party. We care about the United States of America and its future, because we cherish it and love it, and we know what it is that made it the greatest nation on earth, and we don’t hear you articulating that you understand that, not just you, Mr. Steele, but hardly anybody else in Washington, DC. So send those fundraising requests out, and, by the way, when you send those fundraising requests out, Mr. Steele, make sure you say, “We want Obama to succeed.” So people understand your compassion. Republicans, conservatives, are sick and tired of being talked down to, sick and tired of being lectured to, and until you show some understanding and respect for who they are, you’re going to have a tough time rebuilding your party.

That’s good stuff. I never denied the man has talent.

But then he says something like this:

By the same token, I’m not in charge of the Republican Party, and I don’t want to be. I would be embarrassed to say that I’m in charge of the Republican Party in the sad-sack state that it’s in. If I were chairman of the Republican Party, given the state that it’s in, I would quit. I might get out the hara-kari knife because I would have presided over a failure that is embarrassing to the Republicans and conservatives who have supported it and invested in it all these years. I certainly couldn’t say I am proud of the Republican Party, as I am leading the Republican Party. Right now the Republican Party needs to be led, and it will be. The next Republican president is going to be the head of the party. Last time I checked, I don’t think Mr. Steele is running.

For the last eight years, Limbaugh was married heart and soul to George W. Bush, the man who caused more harm to the Republican party and conservatism than anyone in modern times. And now Limbaugh dares lecture the Republican party on its parlous state? This is why I can’t take Limbaugh seriously. Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad he’s out there, I’m glad he’s now rallying the troops against the Democrats. But personally I can’t take him seriously. And he’s not the only one. There is this vast cohort of Republican pundits—your Horowitzes, your Hansons, your Bauers, their name is legion—who have hopelessly compromised and tainted themselves with their love for Bush, their helpless, serf-like, forelock-pulling love for Bush, and the only way they can regain their intellectual integrity is through a full confession and renunciation. Which they can’t do, because they put so much of their lives into serving this unworthy man.

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Mark Jaws writes:

You are right, Rush does indeed have his moments, and I was glad he bombarded that boisterous buffoon with a barrage of blistering buckshot. Rush is also making progress—albeit glacially—when telling the truth about illegal aliens. But today, true to form, Rush once again descended into his silly “This is America and by golly, anyone can make it here” ramble.

Preaching to blacks that they can achieve the American dream if only they abandon their dependency on government and race hustling leaders and work hard is like telling a 5’7” Vietnamese immigrant boy that if he practices long enough and hard enough then he can be a pulling nose tackle for the Green Bay Packers. Ain’t gonna happen, and blacks will never achieve parity with whites unless the government keeps whites in perpetual poverty a la Castro’s Cuba. When it comes to blacks, Rush needs to quit with the “You’re just as good as we are” nonsense and hold them accountable for attending churches and colleges where infitada against whitey is preached and practiced.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 02, 2009 09:22 PM | Send