Posted on 09/24/2013 11:59:23 AM PDT by cotton1706
On “The O’Reilly Factor” Monday night, Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume explained how conservative radio talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin can cause serious problems for the GOP.
“I’m not sure you’d say they’re calling the shots, but make no mistake about it, Bill — some of these radio talk show hosts have real influence,” Hume said. “They have a huge following particularly in very conservative areas where they are most popular and where the many members of Congress who inhabit those areas are not worried about getting reelected if they can get nominated. But that are worried about a primary challenge that could deny them the nomination. So they’ll go a long way to avoid it and keeping radio talk show hosts off their back is one way of doing that.”
Hume then linked the influence of radio talk show hosts to the rise of the “defund Obamacare” movement.
“It’s not controlling, but it’s a factor,” Hume said. “If you’re a pragmatic politician up for reelection, you are looking at the landscape and you don’t want to a lot of problems. And in many of these districts the Democrats can’t cause you any problems. There are just not enough of them. What there are enough of is conservative Republicans and conservative Republicans around the country today are very disappointed in their party and its leadership. And they think that the control of the House of Representatives should have been able to give them much more leverage than they have been able to demonstrate and they should have been able to do more with it.”
“And so if you are sitting over in the House of Representatives and some measures of defund Obamacare comes along and you think it’s a suicide mission because it might involve a government shutdown, you are going to be hesitant to oppose it anyway because you don’t want the most conservative — you don’t want the tea party and you don’t want the conservative radio talk show host on your back,” he continued. “That doesn’t mean they can defeat you but it means you don’t want it.”
They'd much rather have milquetoast David Brooks, Byron York, Paul Gigot and Charles Krauthammer be the types that spread the news and the punditry to the people.
Talk Radio is essentially a daily participatory town hall keeping an eye on those in power.
we need to cause problems for the Vichy Republicans
In other words “Don’t rock the boat! Embrace your inner Obama!”
So people who are theoretically Republicans running in conservative districts are worried about getting primaried if they don’t act like conservatives. Sorry, I don’t see that as a problem. Seems more like a solution.
When they see the problems we voters are going to cause them, they won’t have to worry about radio show hosts any more.
Dear Brit,
Is it possible that those guys are running to be at the head of the column?
The Brits could not find Tom Paine to silence him. They did not know who he was.
And they did not know it was Revere that did the Boston Massacre engraving that was so effective in uniting Americans.
Brit Hume is an al Qaeda-supporting
impostor who adores Obama
and socialized medicine,
and all things not conservative.
These talkers are only expressing the voices of millions of Conservatives & T.E.A. Partiers who the Republican Party ignore and disdain!
It's T.E.A Party Conservatives that will cause problems for Establishment RINOs in the House & Senate!
Oooh. I know the explanation for this one. They do it out of custom and habit.
me too
NSA will fix that.
Good for Rush and Levin and Company
we need to light a fire under the political asses
of
Quisling
republicans
“NSA will fix that.”
lol I’m reasonably sure that NSA can find Limbaugh without satellites and wiretaps!
You and me, too!
The radio talk show hosts are the echo, not the voice.
The GOP elite care about their money. Constitutional conservatives care about freedom. There is a world of difference. The GOP-e only want conservatives around to vote against the Democrats who want their cash. Conservatives get nothing from 90% of Republican politicians except criticism and name-calling. Why should conservatives vote for those who consider them unwashed religious hicks?
What happened to Hume? He used to be solid. What’s this BS about “pragmatic” politicians.
A “pragmatic” politician is a spineless coward that lies to his constituents to their face and stabs them in the back when they get back to the beltway.
Nothing but wishy-washy, finger in the wind liars.
Brit Hume, another mouthpiece for the GOP elite. Ever since he trahsed Newt over and over again last year I can’t stand to listen to thejerk.
That's how it's being marketed. But it's just marketing. The talk radio show people are the controlled opposition. They all answer to the establishment. The radio people have an end to their leashes, just like the tee vee people do. The same people are holding both leashes. This is all a show, just like professional wrestling.
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