[sanjuro]

When I first heard Obama mention the words "Rush Limbaugh", I was like, "Why give that jackass any legitimacy"?

Now after a week of backtracking by Republican heads, I realize that by anointing Limbaugh as the head of the conservative movement, two things have happened:

They put a nincompoop as the representative of Republican party, whose image and reputation turns off every moderate American.

He forces elected Republicans to defend their stances, since now they have to serve two masters, Limbaugh, with his own agenda, and their constituency.

 

[dante]

The backtracking by Steele was truly pathetic. If he'd stood up to Rush, came out as a moderate and said "we've got to all work together to get this country moving on the right track again" you would've seen a monumental rise in public opinion towards the Republicans. Maybe not back to 50/50, but this whole "party of no" mentality isn't going to win them any votes going into 2010, especially if the market/economy turns around. Just goes to show you why I'm not a Republican anymore...

 

[Cant Climb]

Happened to turn the radio on the other and Limbaugh was on.....was the beginning of his show. This was right before the stimulus vote.....the guy spewed 5 lies in 5 minutes....old tactics like that aren't going to help the GOP.

Not everyone is fat rich millionaire blabber-face like Rush.....people (more than usual anyway) want to know the facts now-a-days...

 

[Silver]

The backtracking by Steele was truly pathetic.

<Republican>Actually, that just proves what spineless losers black people are.</Republican>

 

[sanjuro]

<Republican>Actually, that just proves what spineless losers black people are.</Republican>

What do folks from the OC think of Rush?

 

[Silver]

What do folks from the OC think of Rush?

They love him. A rich white person addicted to prescription drugs? That describes of lot of people in south Orange County.

I don't live in the tony part of the county. I even have a black family on my street.

 

[sanjuro]

They love him. A rich white person addicted to prescription drugs? That describes of lot of people in south Orange County.

I don't live in the tony part of the county. I even have a black family on my street.

Let's say I didn't think you were one of organizers of the Palin rally in the OC, but I figured you would have a handle on Republicans.

I think they generally break down to social issue Republicans and financial conservatives, and I would imagine a lot of OC folk are into the money but more openminded about gays, church, etc, than Repubs around the country.

 

[Silver]

Let's say I didn't think you were one of organizers of the Palin rally in the OC, but I figured you would have a handle on Republicans.

I think they generally break down to social issue Republicans and financial conservatives, and I would imagine a lot of OC folk are into the money but more openminded about gays, church, etc, than Repubs around the country.

Yeah, not so much.

Remember, OC, and south OC especially is the home of Saddleback Church.

And Saddleback is essentially Dobson without the snarl. Not really gay friendly. Look at the prop 8 voting for Orange County:

http://projects.latimes.com/elections/orange-county-prop-8-results-by-city/

Northern OC votes for it hugely based on what I would guess is a large hispanic/retired population. And all those hispanics are nominal Catholics, along with the fact that latino culture is inherently homophobic.

Based off that map, I would say that Irvine is really the only place that have the Republicans you're describing. Costa Mesa is more artsy, and Laguna Beach is a well known for its gay population. The rest of South OC is god-thumper territory.

 

[X3pilot]

Steele's interview this morning on Today with Lauer was a joke. When questioned whether he wanted Obama to fail or not he could only side step and harumph a line that had obviously been written for him not to stray from.

If he wanted to give any, I mean any, semblance of credit to the RNC, his answer should have been:
"Of course we don't want the President's policies to fail. We, like all Americans right now, need the President to be highly sucessful and we feel he can be if he adopts more of our parties' viewpoints." and grinned while saying it.

And is it just me or is it painfully obvious how contrived it is that the new RNC chairman is, um, well, you know....




black?

 

[stevew]

republicans have never won anything being moderate....

 

[ohio]

I think they generally break down to social issue Republicans and financial conservatives, and I would imagine a lot of OC folk are into the money but more openminded about gays, church, etc, than Repubs around the country.

Silver's right about the OC, but unfortunately overly optimistic about Irvine. My GF's parents are in Irvine and when Prop 8 came up, it was pretty clear that not a single one of their friends were going to vote against it. These are people that like things to stay exactly the way they are (circa 1955).

 

[dante]

republicans have never won anything being moderate....

Oh, I don't know, this doesn't seem too frothing at the mouth conservative...

 

[sanjuro]

And is it just me or is it painfully obvious how contrived it is that the new RNC chairman is, um, well, you know....

,... Mike Tyson's ex-brother-in-law.

 

[stevew]

Oh, I don't know, this doesn't seem too frothing at the mouth conservative...

uhhh....so now newt gingrich and the contract with america is to be considered moderate?

from what i remember of the 90's....most liberals had a fvcking seizure that it was passed and bill went along with it.

 

[Defenestrated]

Newt Gingrich, lol.

 

[JohnE]

Silver's right about the OC, but unfortunately overly optimistic about Irvine. My GF's parents are in Irvine and when Prop 8 came up, it was pretty clear that not a single one of their friends were going to vote against it. These are people that like things to stay exactly the way they are (circa 1955).

My ex wife is from the OC...Irvine specifically. Someone find me a better reason to nuke the place...

 

[Austin Bike]

The GOP is screwed because they went from something to being "against everything".

If you ask a republican what they stand for, it is typically "lower taxes." Great. The last 8 years of republicans gave us massive deficits, and the best way out of that is lower taxes? Right.

When I ask my republican friends what they stand for, they have the whole list: no affirmative action, no gay marriage, no abortion, no this, no that, but they can't tell me what they actually are FOR, only against.

Let's just say that it makes for great sound bites, but not solutions. That is why the country said no. They don't necessarily want democrats, they just don't want republicans.

 

[Silver]

My ex wife is from the OC...Irvine specifically. Someone find me a better reason to nuke the place...

If you nuke Irvine, maybe we can ride down from the Santa Ana mountains into the crater? More vertical is always good.

If you like nerdy Asian pussy though, you best keep Irvine around...

 

[ohio]

If you like nerdy Asian pussy though, you best keep Irvine around...

While UC Berkeley is still around, we can afford the casualties. It's a worthwhile tradeoff.

 

[dante]

uhhh....so now newt gingrich and the contract with america is to be considered moderate?

from what i remember of the 90's....most liberals had a fvcking seizure that it was passed and bill went along with it.

Compared to the last administration? Hell yes. I don't see hysterical ranting about gay marriage, abortion, invading other countries, massive tax cuts for the rich, immigration, guns or any of the other issues that the right has been hammering away at for the past 8 years. Go back and reread it, and think about how most of the points are distinctly moderate: balanced budget. line item veto (interesting, since the Pres was a democrat at the time). term limits. eliminating the marriage penalty. military isolationism (funny, going back to read that). reforming welfare.

Compare that document to anything the Republicans have pitched recently and you'll see why the Republicans are in the minority right now. Until they get back to something similar, they're definitely going to be staying in the minority for quite some time...

 

[$tinkle]

Happened to turn the radio on the other and Limbaugh was on.....was the beginning of his show. This was right before the stimulus vote.....the guy spewed 5 lies in 5 minutes.

missed it. care to re-cap?

I even have a black family on my street.

did they come with papers? otherwise they're probably Sicilian

When I ask my republican friends what they stand for, they have the whole list: no affirmative action, no gay marriage, no abortion, no this, no that, but they can't tell me what they actually are FOR, only against.

put another way, they should say they are for equal opportunity, traditional marriage, pro-life, for deregulation, for free speech, for open debate, for diversity of thought, for this, for that.

 

[thcrob]

missed it. care to re-cap?
did they come with papers? otherwise they're probably Sicilian
put another way, they should say they are for equal opportunity, traditional marriage, pro-life, for deregulation, for free speech, for open debate, for diversity of thought, for this, for that.[/QUOTE]

 

[blue]

While UC Berkeley is still around, we can afford the casualties. It's a worthwhile tradeoff.

Ucla?!

 

[Toshi]

david frum: the limbaugh schism

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.

Rush knows what he is doing. The worse conservatives do, the more important Rush becomes as leader of the ardent remnant. The better conservatives succeed, the more we become a broad national governing coalition, the more Rush will be sidelined.

But do the rest of us understand what we are doing to ourselves by accepting this leadership? Rush is to the Republicanism of the 2000s what Jesse Jackson was to the Democratic Party in the 1980s. He plays an important role in our coalition, and of course he and his supporters have to be treated with respect. But he cannot be allowed to be the public face of the enterprise—and we have to find ways of assuring the public that he is just one Republican voice among many, and very far from the most important.

Well, that put the cat among the pigeons! The reaction from my conservative friends has been ferocious. Here’s my one-time editor, Rich Lowry of National Review: “I find the attacks on Rush from the right mostly stupid, cringe-inducing, and wrong.” For good measure, he explicitly described my words as “particularly nasty and personal.”

But personal is the one thing this dispute is not. What we are arguing about is the kind of party the GOP will be. [...]

 

[$tinkle]

how short a memory some have.

i recall 8 yrs of bush == hitler & even more vile things said about him & his ilk from many on the left. and said with "passion" no less.

the dems dodged a bullet by nearly being co-opted by moveon.org, but the left will not be pushed aside. they have what they perceive to be moral clarity mixed with righteous indignation. anyone who's been paying attention knows this.

 

[Silver]

how short a memory some have.

i recall 8 yrs of bush == hitler & even more vile things said about him & his ilk from many on the left. and said with "passion" no less.

the dems dodged a bullet by nearly being co-opted by moveon.org, but the left will not be pushed aside. they have what they perceive to be moral clarity mixed with righteous indignation. anyone who's been paying attention knows this.

And, of course, those comments you remember were said by people who had Democratic party officials kowtowing to them and apologizing to them at every turn, which is why Bush and Cheney were indeed indicted for war crimes by the House in 2007.

You know, Jesus said something about lying...

 

[$tinkle]

And, of course, those comments you remember were said by people who had Democratic party officials kowtowing to them and apologizing to them at every turn, which is why Bush and Cheney were indeed indicted for war crimes by the House in 2007.

it's kind of hard to try someone for murder if you give them the gun, ammo, and target

 

[Westy]

it's kind of hard to try someone for murder if you give them the gun, ammo, and target

So the second ammendment makes it legal to shoot people? Great, I'm going to go shoot the guy at the gunshop in his face.

 

[$tinkle]

not just legal, but an inalienable right! git ur done!

 

[Westy]

not just legal, but an inalienable right! git ur done!

Boy are they going to be pissed when I try returning the gun after the face shooting.

 

[sanjuro]

btw, about Rush's "invitation" for Obama to debate him. I'd love it if Gibbs talked with Rush. Remember when he btichslapped Hannity?

 

[$tinkle]

Remember when he btichslapped Hannity?

no way you can make me watch/listen to hannity

i got off that junk the same day he proclaimed "we have found WMDs in iraq", referring to a handful of vials of spoiled chickpea resin

 

[dante]

btw, about Rush's "invitation" for Obama to debate him.

Yup, just like GWB went on Olbermann all those times...