I get out of work typically about 9pm or so, and have XM radio. I used to listen to
The Majority Report at that hour, before it moved to mornings (as
The Sam Seder Show) with the recent Air America schedule changes. Now at that hour is something called
Eco Talk, which I just have not really been able to get into because I felt there wasn't a lot we could push on that front until we changed Congress. We've done that, so it will become more relevant, so we shall see.
Still, I've tended to look for something else to listen to in that slot for my hour's ride home.
Last night, due to recent events we're all buzzing about, I decided instead to see what right-wing talk was saying. It was only one channel difference between Air America and America Right (XM's home for Rush and folks like that) so I decided to give it a listen.
Follow me for the flip.
The show on at that hour is by a gentleman named Rusty Humphries, who opened his show saying he hadn't listened to much radio or watched much TV that day, so he didn't know what Rush had been saying or what Hannity had been saying. He then went on to say a lot of things that I found very interesting.
He said he wasn't going to blame Reid and Pelosi and the Democrats for what happened. Instead he was going to do something the Democrats don't do when they find themselves in a similar situation, he was going to look inside, use this as a learning too. (Sounds good so far, except for the dig that Dems don't do this...if they didn't, they'd not have been able to win despite Republican failings). What followed was an amazing list of 'facts' that sort of boggle the mind.
1) The Republicans lost because they were 'too Republican' instead of being 'conservative enough'. So what he's saying is the Republican party is not supposed to be conservative? Should it be renamed the Conservative party?
2) Democrats do nothing but whine about fraud and how evil Bush is when they lose elections because, as everyone knows, they will blame everyone but themselves for loss,
3) Democrats put out a LOT of people who are centrist Democrats ('like Zell Miller or JFK' he noted), so the crazy wacko San Francisco liberals aren't as important anymore -- hinting that Democrats won because they appealed more to the right (remember this later)
4) Bush is having troubles in Iraq because he didn't go in with enough troops -- because liberals convinced him to be wussy about going in with less troops than he would have wanted. Neat trick, I didn't realize we had so much power as a minority power. Bush listens to liberal Dems? Who knew?
5) Now that Democrats are in power, there are two paths: Bush can be Conservative and show strength by refusing to bend on his policies, or he can be a wuss like his dad and give in. To Rusty's dismay, Bush is giving up and giving in, just like his dad (which was dripping with disgust).
6) Bringing in Jim Bakker and now Robert Gates is letting daddy Bush take over the Presidency for him (I actually don't entirely disagree with this). This is not very popular in Rusty's circles.
7) He was glad that Rush and Hannity are coming over to his way of thinking (mind you, he started off saying he didn't know what Rush and Hannity had said earlier in the day), regarding the folks in office not being conservative, not wanting to carry water for them anymore, not having the correct agenda (which had something to do about building the fence, lowering taxes, making government smaller, and such) and instead paying attention to worthless fringe issues like anti-abortion laws and such. Interestingly, he didn't mention gay marriage at all.
8) He had a segment with a professor named Rufus something-or-other, with whom he discussed the previous night's events. This was perhaps my most astounding fact I never knew -- that this election was arranged BY THE PRESS. The reason Republicans marched to defeat the other night is because the Press published all kinds of bad information about the Republicans just before the election (I'm assuming everything that came out in the last year from Libby to Plame to Abramhoff to Foley to ...).
This one fascinated me. (I wasn't able to focus on it much because I took a break to buy Cars and Over the Hedge before the store closed) I thought about this for a bit...the reason that scandals were such a big deal is because the Press decided to report them, before an election. What, were they supposed to wait until after the election, as so many things HAVE been done, because the news would affect the election? What if the scandals were Democratic scandals -- would he still want them to judge that publishing before an election would be a bad idea?
No folks, the problem is not that the Press reported on them, but that your guys DID the bad things. THAT is the problem. No, they shouldn't just go unreported, or reported in the Friday news dump, or reported at some other convenient time. They will be reported whenever they are discovered.
In short, he's upset because the Press is starting to do their job. They're not perfect, but they're starting to get back to business. Honestly, I suspect they got tired of being the right's whipping boy while getting honest criticism from the left.
9) Pelosi is offering to be bipartisan, not to Impeach, but try to focus on the things that need to get done. Here Rusty doesn't believe a word, he thinks she will just do everything they were worried about. However...
10) When Bush took over in 2000, he tried to reach across the aisle ('I'll work with any Democrat who believes as I do', if I recall, was what it amounted to) and Dems spit in his face. Well, yeah. I was proud of them for that. He wasn't offering a compromise, he was offering amnesty for anyone that wanted to abandon their party's stance. No thank you.
Actually, it sounds like Lieberman took him up on that one.
As I got home, there were a few more points.
11) The election was not about the Iraq War (!) because there was a large percentage (3 of the 5 -- 60%!!) of anti-war Republicans not re-elected. (and how many pro-war Republicans not re-elected, Rusty? We were dumping the rubber-stamp party.) Also, because Lieberman, a 'centrist' Democrat, who supported the War, was re-elected (largely by REPUBLICANS, idiot), 'trouncing' Lamont who is anti-war.
(side note, we can't just be against THIS war, we must be 'anti-war', which allows them to bring up 'what if we hadn't stepped in to fight Hitler' and all that nonsense)
12) He had contacts in the military who told him that Rumsfeld's departure had them dancing in the halls -- which shocked and amazed him. He was told that the military has been trimmed so close to the bone that they can't get anything done -- to which Rusty asked if Pelosi could be expected to fund the military any better, laughable! Also, that Rumsfeld apparantly liked to dress people down for not having their information organized enough -- which Rusty said this is the military, he thought organization is what they do... ie, the Military's beef with Rumsfeld seems to be nonsensical and not based on fact.
At about this point I got home, but I thought it was a very interesting series of points that I had never realized!
At the same time, I think we need to be aware that it sounds like they are gearing up to punish the press for this. We should be aware, and make sure the press knows it's okay to tell the truth -- really. It's their job.
Also, for all Rusty's supposed 'introspection', he concluded that all the soul-searching about what went wrong and what he could learn had to do with the failings being -- you guessed it, everyone else's fault. The press, the 'too Republican' Republicans, the liberals for convincing Bush to use less troops, the military for whining about Rumsfeld...not anything wrong with their line of thought. Not the realization that since they agreed with the policies of so few in power, with what so few of the people of this country seem to want, that THEY are now the fringe, despite their blathering.
I hope they like it. It's where they'd forced us.