2 posts tagged “rush”

I made a point of tuning in Rush today because of the Dole Letter, and at first, I was surprised at what I was hearing. I didn't think the letter would cause Limbaugh to do an about-face, but I didn't expect him to step up hostilities.

Lambasting McCain for most of the first hour, Limbaugh brought up everything including the kitchen sink to use against the Senator, and I'm happy to report that the majority of it was accurate... which is to say, much of what Limbaugh was accusing McCain of was either not accurate or not the whole story.

It seems to me that a lot of conservatives can only see things from their perspective. They can't fathom that something may appear one way and be another. For example, Dole said in his letter that John McCain has supported conservative issues on every important vote. I've heard that flatly denied by Hannity and Limbaugh  The problem is, they didn't hear what Dole was writing. Either that or they didn't read what Dole was saying.

For example, and this is something everyone can understand, McCain is accused of not supporting the Bush tax cuts, which he didn't. But what's overlooked is his support wasn't critical. So Bush got his cuts, and McCain bolstered his reputation as fiscally responsible. But conservatives only see McCain as a traitor. Dole was saying that he remembered McCain as being supporting of Republicans whenever his vote was critical.

Now it's the second hour and Limbaugh is still droning on. Does Rush know how off-putting he is if you're not a blind conservative? And how well it plays to moderates, independents and even some liberals as far as setting McCain apart from those horrible Republicans?

So while it's hard to listen to Rush, much less the idiot callers (which, thankfully, he hasn't had yet today) I hope he keeps it up. If it's real and McCain wins, he will not be beholden to many conservatives, and certainly not to any of the big yappers. And if it's all a ploy to increase McCain's viability with the middle-left, then it's brilliant.

But as I was looking to wrap this up, Limbaugh went off again on McCain and amnesty saying that McCain would still sign McCain-Kennedy if he were President. That, of course ignores two very important facts:

1) If McCain-Kennedy had actually passed, you couldn't contain George Bush's delight at signing it, and...

B) If McCain were President, it would ever so slightly reduce the chance of seeing McCain-Kennedy II.

A very sincere gentleman by the name of Kevin just called into Rush Limbaugh, and identified himself as a veteran who served in Lebanon.

From the beginning and throughout the course of the conversation, Kevin expressed his contempt and disgust for the Democrats but the whole thing really started to build to a crescendo when he said that by his own private poll which he made up because that's what the major media do and he is, at least, close to the people he's "polling," he said that by his estimate, 99% of veterans support Republicans.

But Kevin's grand finale had just started. Rush then asked him what he thought of Harry Reid, and Kevin said that Reid was "the dirtiest of the dirty" and that he couldn't understand how such a great city and a great State like Nevada could elect such a dirty person.

Then Limbaugh asked Kevin what he thought of Nancy Pelosi...

Kevin (approximate): "She's the dirtiest of the dirty too. She and Dirty Harry ought to get married and have a dirty baby!"

Rush then thanked Kevin for his passionate comments, and this wonderful veteran left after one final plea to Rush not to let Hillary, whom he called the anti-Christ, be elected, and Rush assured him he would see that she wasn't.

Now you and I know that Rush can't really make that guarantee, but I wish you could have heard Kevin speak. He was intensely earnest, but not nasty. He was forceful, but he sounded gentle. He was, in short, what you picture one of America's finest to be.