Posted on 03/10/2012 7:40:05 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
On paper, it was a great week for the left.
On paper, Rush Limbaugh swallowed hard and finally did get that piece of humble pie to go down.
On paper -- and HBO -- the cool kids, it turns out, aren't finished piling on Sarah Palin.
On paper, Newt Gingrich is still in love with the sound of his own voice, Rick Santorum still sees delegate math as one of those things only college snobs care about, Ron Paul is still the crazy uncle you left up in the attic, and what's left of a torn and tattered Mitt Romney is still being asked to apologize for winning battleground states and collecting delegates, meaning the Great GOP Slog of 2012 goes on. And on. And on.
Yep, the left had themselves a good week.
On paper.
But, as the inhabitants of the blogosphere never tire of reminding us newsroom dinosaurs, paper is dead.
And, upon closer look, so is a little piece of the left.
The left sold a rather sizable portion of its soul last week -- leaving both sides coming up significantly short on that score. When it comes to the Washington, D.C., reality show of Selective Outrage, it was the left's turn to have its hypocrisy exposed. This past week, they were the ones left out in the cold, longingly staring through the window at the warm, sensible reasoning inside.
The Big Chill started with Limbaugh's apology for calling a law student arguing for contraception coverage in health plans "a slut" and "a prostitute." It ended with Limbaugh's detractors stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that their side has many times dabbled -- apology free -- in that kind of misogyny, and worse yet, spinning that their brand of vile was actually acceptable.
Back to Rush. As apologies go, it wasn't much. To listen carefully was to catch about as much actual sincerity as was intended. That would be none.
But at least Limbaugh mustered up enough humility -- with the considerable jump-start of a bevy of fleeing advertisers -- to at least go through the motions.
That's more than the roaming band of apologists for left-wing pundits Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann, Ed Schultz and Matt Taibbi have been able to deliver.
Olbermann has never been shy about scraping the bottom of his thesaurus for Rush-sized vitriol toward Sarah Palin, or right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin, whom he called "a mashed up bag of meat with lipstick on it." Schultz, meanwhile, has called pundit Laura Ingraham a "right-wing slut."
None, however, compare to Maher who, once you get past his persistent streak of religious bigotry, has quite the misogynist streak himself. But it's apparently OK -- funny, even -- because he saves the brunt of his ugliness, with words that a blowhard like Limbaugh hasn't even dared use on the air, for ... wait for it ... Sarah Palin.
Maher went so low as to call Palin "the c-word" -- let's just say it rhymes with the term of sacrificing the runner in baseball.
And the outcry? The calls for apologies? Boycotts? Firings?
Still.
Waiting.
Maher can't lose sponsors, because he's on HBO. But where is the boycott talk? We're not sure if Olbermann's 13 viewers on Current TV qualify him for sponsors, but we do know there's been no call for boycotts there.
Why, the White House is so steamed with Maher, there's talk of senior adviser David Axelrod appearing on Maher's show, where he'll be joined by the usual parade of other voices -- outrage free --from the left.
The calls for apologies from the left aren't piling up, but the questions for the rest of us are. If Limbaugh is still considered to be an actual wing of the Republican Party, shouldn't Maher's $1 million donation to an Obama SuperPac -- you know, the SuperPacs President Perfect was going to have no part of -- at least give the comedian a metaphorical corner office in the Democratic Party?
The double-standard on the reaction to Limbaugh's language and the shrug at the venom of Maher and the rest is, if nothing else, comical. It's the actual attempt at reasoning that's the painful part.
Palin and Ingraham, you see, are famous. Or they're asking for it. I forget which, but I know each attempt at excusing the language directed at them comes out strained, yet with a gallant attempt at a straight face.
Here's the thing with the reasoning. It's actually worse than it sounds. Selective outrage, puffed up anger with an agenda, never truly works. Never has, never will. Oh sure, it flies high and mighty on the sets of Fox and MSNBC, but for the rest of us? Nope.
Once you've strayed where Maher's apologists dared go last week, and you've gone about the absurd process of carefully explaining just how it's OK for your guy to use vile, misogynist language toward women, but not their guy, well, there's no coming back from that.
Limbaugh, a stale cliché of a windbag, may well lose more advertisers. He may even lose his job.
But the left? This was the week they lost their credibility.
Not ruddy likely!
You’re right about Clear Channel, the bigger risk (which isn’t much of one) is that other major radio companies, namely Cumulus, get tired of putting money into the coffers of their rival CC by paying for Rush, and drop him and the other Premiere programs. In which case another station would snap them right up, so it would be a small ripple.
Just a little inside baseball ;-)
Hubby said Rush would make great "Pirate Radio".
Funniest line of the whole piece.
The Left is soulless. Its minions will soon be burning in a place which they do not believe even exists.
Screw them.
Ms. Fluke herself came to Marher’s defense and said his comments were “nuanced”.
Rush Limbaugh did not label ALL women who are single and take birth control “sluts” or “prostitutes”. He was being absurd and said that a woman, by his calculation who is spending $3 a day on condoms and pills, must be having sex 2-3 times a day for 3 solid years. And that she wanted people to “pay” for her to do this.
She IS a publicity whore and someone who TARGETED a Catholic university for her political activism.
It’s possible she is not even active in a heterosexual relationship. But then she gave commentary (NOT SWORN TESTIMONY) that her case study subjects needed “birth control” for reasons other than preventing pregnancy (like cysts, etc.).
So why shouldn’t diabetics get FREE medicine? Why should they have a co-pay?
What credibility?
“This was the week they lost their credibility.”
Good piece, nice writing, but sorry, they lost their credibility on the sexual politics issues back in the Clinton/Lewinsky days.
Right around the time Nina Burleigh (thank you google!) expressed her willingness to give President Clinton the full Monica for (let’s not forget THIS part) KEEPING ABORTION LEGAL.
It’s all abortion, all the time for these folks.
We can’t stand it, they revere it above all things.
Abortion is the line in the sand.
So, sorry Mitch Daniels (very popular wish you’d run for president guy) there won’t be any truce on social issues. Not as long as the Left reveres baby killing and want you, you mother and your priest to pay for it.
“Ms. Fluke herself came to Marher’s defense and said his comments were “nuanced”.
Now that is rich. It is impossible to use the word c*nt with nuance.
You’d think any slut at Georgetown would know that.
Did you just agree with the Author of the piece that Rush's Apology was not heart felt and sincere?
Rush apologized in print and then again on his Radio Show after the weekend feeding frenzy. His apology was not empty.
He explained that he chose the wrong words, apologized to Ms. Fluke, who unlike Laura Ingraham, did not accept the apology (surprise - surprise) and made a point that he did not attach those same words to her personally.
Because he didn't send a Campaign Contribution to Barack Obama to make up for making Ms. Fluke an instant celebrity, does not infer that his apology was any less than sincere.
Is mind reading a hobby for you, or are you are actually The Amazing Kreskin using an anonymous FR pen name?
Limbaugh's detractors stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that their side has many times dabbled -- apology free -- in that kind of misogyny, and worse yet, spinning that their brand of vile was actually acceptable.Thanks 2ndDivisionVet. Sidebars:
Identity politics only matter when you serve The Party. Otherwise you are a pariah and a race traitor.
Someone wondered if there are photos of Ms. Fluke at last year’s Georgetown “slut walk” feminist protest.
“Someone wondered if there are photos of Ms. Fluke at last year’s Georgetown “slut walk” feminist protest.”
LOL, I have no doubt she was there.
I’ve always wanted to write a novel and have old-fashioned sub-titles for chapters just so I could have a chapter with the subheading: In which the shoe fits on the other foot and therefore is to be worn.
Just to squinch the toes of dopes like Sandra Fluke, et al., et al., et so many al.
The left has a soul?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL-XO0wHG_4
I wish FR had a “like” button! LMBO!!!
The media conspired with the DNC on this story as they did in the forged Bush memos story and the 2006 October Surprise of the emails between the homosexual Republican and an aide (the media and DNC knew more earlier and “did nothing”).
I got rid of my television in 2008 when the bullstalin got too high to tolerate anymore.
The State Media pushes the daily DNC talking points around the clock.
“Identity politics only matter when you serve The Party. “
“The Issue is never the real issue - the real issue is always the Revolution.”
They are going to get nailed on their diversity racism, too. As soon as the racists come out to defend Bell and people hear and see them... O’Brien on CNN was a warm up.
Louis Farrahkan spoke at Harvard. They are coming out of Obama’s closet.
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