I'm telling you if you've never listened to Rush a day in your life, now's the time! After my last diary folks were thanking me for going "over there" and reading this stuff so you don't have to. Guys, this is the most fun you are likely to have listening to a right-wing pundit EVER!
What I learned from my previous diary is how much fun it is to use one of Rush's favorite rhetorical tricks against him. Rush loves to interrupt audio clips of Democrats to insert his own commentary or to explain what they "really" mean. For example, Nancy Pelosi saying that she's going to work on getting rid of the middle-class AMT penalty would be interrupted by Rush saying something like...
Stop the tape! My friends...I'm laughing...it's not funny, but you've just got to laugh at this. Here's what she means. If you're making more than $50,000 a year then grab your wallets, because here come the Democrats! They're going to raise taxes. They're going to create new entitlement programs. They're going to do everything that they can to stick it to the achievers in this country because that's what they do! Democrats hate success because they think all successes in life come at someone else's expense. Okay, back to the audio....
Please note, that's not an actual quote or anything. Just my approximation of how Rush operates on his show. Learning as I did at the feet of the master, it is now my distinct pleasure to present to you...
Stop The Tape!: A Former Dittohead's Look At The Collapse of Rush Limbaugh
In today's installment we look at the fallout of `I Feel Liberated', Day 2!
No surprise that lots of people noticed when Rush's reaction to the landslide Democratic victory was to say (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Thank God, because now I don't have to lie to you anymore." I emphasize that I'm paraphrasing because Rush naturally takes great umbrage to the idea that he was lying to his audience. Sadly, there's no good way to take what Rush said the other day. From the Republican perspective he said at best that for the last 4 years he's been holding back, or at worst he's been telling his audience what he thought they needed to hear more than telling them what he actually thought to keep Republicans in power. The rest of us heard his comments as, put simply, "I don't have to lie anymore." No matter how you slice it, Rush's admission is that he is just as guilty as the RINOs he criticizes of putting the party ahead of the conservative ideology.
Rush would do well to let it go. Fortunately, he didn't. Now, like Lucy, he's got some `splainin' to do...
Let's go to the audio tape.
What's that?...oh, right...this is a blog, not a podcast. Okay, fine. Then let's go to the transcript! From the November 9th edition of the Rush Limbaugh Radio Program:
RUSH: I'm probably going to make a mistake trying this because there's not a whole lot of time in this segment. Sometimes even I am amazed. Yesterday I said on this program, in response to a question, "How are you feeling?"
[snip]
I said, "I'm tired of carrying the water for people who don't deserve having their water carried," and from that, hell has broken loose.
Stop the transcript! From here you just have to wonder where Rush will go. Will he say he misspoke? Will he say he's being misquoted? Will he blame the liberal media? Actually...strike that last one. That's a stupid question. Of COURSE he's going to blame the liberal media. But you don't need to read a word after "broken loose" to know what he's going to do next.
Everyone...say hello to the indefatigable right-wing straw man...
I somehow admitted that I'm no longer going to read the White House talking points when I never, ever get the White House talking points. Some twerp on television last night said, "A-ha! See? The White House had this big meeting with conservative talk show hosts. They got in there and they got their marching orders and they went..." I wasn't invited to that! I wasn't invited because they knew I wouldn't go. I don't do group things, number one. Number two: they know they can't influence me that way...
Okay, this isn't about where the information comes from, it's about the information itself. At face value it's about the fact that Rush was willing to conceal his contempt of certain Republicans for the sake of keeping Republicans in power. Deeper than that it's about Rush lying to his audience. Nowhere does it matter from whence the information came. Back to the transcript...
Okay, so we may have some Republicans who are not conservatives, are not very good at articulating it, and they get slammed and they get criticized all over the place -- and guess who rides to the rescue? Those of us on talk radio. We defend 'em, we say what they really think when they can't say it or don't want to say it or don't have the guts to say it, and bail 'em out. Then it comes election time, and they still won't say what they are. They still won't be conservative because they're afraid of it, and so I'm simply -- if they're not going to go out and articulate their conservatism, I'm not going to let 'em depend on me to get them over the hump.
I would really love to hear Rush name names. Who is he talking about? What right-winger ran away from conservatism during this election? Other than Chafee, I think pretty much every Republican running ran as a conservative. Santorum certainly ran as an uber-conservative, and what did that get him? An early retirement, that's what. So who are you talking about, Rush?
Now, plenty of people ran away from the PRESIDENT, but that's been the right-wing talking head narrative all year. I said back in May or June of this year that if the 2006 midterm elections were a dance, the theme would've been "Throwing Bush Under The Bus." "He's not a real conservative! And even though we've given him absolutely everything he ever wanted, we're gonna be different this time!" It reminded me of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Anyone remember this exchange between gubernatorial incumbent Pappy O'Daniel and his son, Junior?
Pappy O"Daniel: "We need a shot in the arm. You hear me boys? In the Goddamn arm! Election held tomorrw, that sum bitch Stokes would win it in a walk!"
Junior O'Daniel: "Well' he's the reform candidate, Daddy."
Pappy O"Daniel: "Yeah."
Junior O'Daniel: "A lot of people like that reform. Maybe we should get us some."
Pappy O"Daniel: "I'll reform you, you soft-headed sum bitch. How we gonna run reform when we're the damn incumbent?
Fortunately for us, the right couldn't get it's hands on the Soggy Bottom Boys on election night. Back to Rush...
They're the ones running for office. I'm not. I'm a radio guy. If they can't make the case, if they can't carry the banner, then it's their problem -- and I'm not abandoning the Republican Party and I'm not joining the Democrat Party. I'm not doing anything of the sort.
Whew...we dodged a bullet there, folks! I know I'll sleep better tonight! For a minute there that was scarier than the thought of waking up with that giant-headed Burger King guy in your bed.
(sigh) Sighs of frustration. Carry the water. How complicated can something like that be made? Far more complicated than I ever thought. I actually believe, folks, that when you utter as many words as I do -- I don't have guests; I take some phone calls -- it might be impossible to be taken accurately and in context, because so few people want to make the effort.
So tell me if I'm being unfair. Rush has said, repeatedly now, that the "stakes were high" in this election. That in his mind Republicans are better than Democrats at advancing the `conservative agenda,' and as such for the last 4 years he's bit his tongue rather than criticize these so-called RINOs. There's no shame in admitting it! Being honest is hard work sometimes. But now that Rush has said it, my question remains--how can he have any credibility with the dittohead nation? How will people be able to tell in the future when he's being honest and when he's `carrying water?'
All I'm telling you is if a conservative wants to be conservative and is a conservative and says he's conservative, he's going to have to be on his own from now on. I am not going to make sure it is understood that these people are what they are. If they can't learn to express it, if they can't overcome the fear and be who they are, then it's their problem, not mine. It's all I'm saying.
The problem you have when you tell people you've been lying to them is that it's extremely difficult to inspire any trust when you follow it with the phrase "but I won't anymore." One of Rush's caller's apparently agrees with me...
But that deconstruction will have to wait until Monday. Otherwise this'll end up being a 20 page diary, and I'm just trying to have some fun here, not write another book.
Enjoy this particular death-spasm of the conservative movement, and we'll pick this back up next week!