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Inside the Dems' anti-Rush plan
The Politico ^

Posted on 03/04/2009 3:18:37 AM PST by Sub-Driver

Inside the Dems' anti-Rush plan By: Jonathan Martin March 4, 2009 04:04 AM EST

Top Democrats believe they have struck political gold by depicting Rush Limbaugh as the new face of the Republican Party, a full-scale effort first hatched by some of the most familiar names in politics and now being guided in part from inside the White House.

The strategy took shape after Democrats included Limbaugh’s name in an October poll and learned their longtime tormentor was deeply unpopular with many Americans. Then the conservative talk-radio host emerged as an unapologetic critic of Barack Obama shortly before his inauguration, when even many Republicans were showering him with praise.

Soon it clicked: Democrats realized they could roll out a new GOP bogeyman for the post-Bush era by turning to an old one in Limbaugh, a polarizing figure since he rose to prominence in the 1990s.

Limbaugh is embracing the line of attack, suggesting a certain symbiosis between him and his political adversaries.

"The Administration is enabling me,” he wrote in an email to POLITICO. “They are expanding my profile, expanding my audience and expanding my influence. An ever larger number of people are now being exposed to the antidote to Obamaism: conservatism, as articulated by me. An ever larger number of people are now exposed to substantive warnings, analysis and criticism of Obama's policies and intentions, a ‘story’ I own because the [mainstream media] is largely the Obama Press Office.”

The bigger, the better, agreed Democrat James Carville. “It’s great for us, great for him, great for the press,” he said of Limbaugh. “The only people he’s not good for are the actual Republicans in Congress.”

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bho2009; bho44; democrats; dncstategy; limbaugh; obama; obamabrownshirts; rush; talkradio; waronrush
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To: ComputerGuy
No problem there, Jimmy. There aren't any actual Republicans in Congress.
LOL!

That was my thought exactly.

Yeah, let's take the advice of our demonrat friends and muzzle Rush in order to save the congressional "Republicans".

Oh yeah. There's an idea.

NOT!

21 posted on 03/04/2009 3:39:12 AM PST by samtheman
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To: syriacus

Yes, think this will be ‘Rush’s outreach to Dems’ thanks to ‘rahmobama’.


22 posted on 03/04/2009 3:39:49 AM PST by cricket (January 20, 2009 - the day the music died)
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To: Tony in Hawaii

The exact quote I was thinking :-). Glad you made it available. This is exactly how I feel. When certain low people win they are cocky and if they get too cocky they inevitably take a punch that delivers back to them their fatal blow.


23 posted on 03/04/2009 3:40:35 AM PST by GOP Poet
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To: SolidWood

There have been some bone headed moves by Limbaugh in the past but this one is exponentially more dangerous.


24 posted on 03/04/2009 3:41:33 AM PST by Cedric
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To: Sub-Driver

Dems will never catch on. Rush is a conservative, not a Republican unless the GOP adopts and practices conservative principles. Clueless Dems. A conservative will rattle the cages of fellow conservatives if they get off track, not just march in lockstep with them.


25 posted on 03/04/2009 3:42:59 AM PST by brushcop (SFC Sallie, CPL Long, LTHarris, SSG Brown, PVT Simmons KIA OIF lll&V, they died for you, honor them)
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To: NoControllingLegalAuthority
" ... There is no room in this country for capitalism and communism to coexist."


That fact is about to come down on US like a ten ton weight.

Don't be caught looking down.

26 posted on 03/04/2009 3:43:10 AM PST by G.Mason
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To: samtheman
I didn't leave the Democrat Republican Party. The Democrat Republican Party left me.
Zell Miller ComputerGuy
27 posted on 03/04/2009 3:45:25 AM PST by ComputerGuy (not my real name)
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To: brushcop; SolidWood
Rush is a conservative, not a Republican

Precisely why he should never be labeled as the leader of the GOP.

28 posted on 03/04/2009 3:45:51 AM PST by Cedric
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To: Cedric
"There have been some bone headed moves by Limbaugh in the past but this one is exponentially more dangerous."


Hey Rodney ... Rodney King ... Is that you?

29 posted on 03/04/2009 3:46:43 AM PST by G.Mason
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To: Mr Ramsbotham
There are scads of people out there who have never listened to Rush and who take their opinion of him from the mainstream media.
I work in an office in NYC, full of liberals, of course. One of them is always playing AirAmerica/Pacifica/DemocracyNow crap on his computer, booming it out over big speakers.

The other day a couple of people said they'd like to hear Rush's CPAC speech so this Top Leftist dude keys up the program but before Rush even begins to speak, before the introduction of Rush is even over, Top Leftist dude says "I can't listen to this gas bag" and turns it off.

I saw the look on his face when he did it. It was pure fear. Fear of actually having to THINK.

And he was having none of it.

It was a very revealing moment.

30 posted on 03/04/2009 3:47:07 AM PST by samtheman
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To: ComputerGuy
You are why Carville, et al, are doing this.

And you're playing right into their hands.

31 posted on 03/04/2009 3:47:59 AM PST by Cedric
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To: Cedric

And just what would those boneheaded moves be by Rush in the past?

You mean, like fighting back when President Clinton blamed him for the Oklahoma City bombing?

You mean, like fighting the bogus charges of drug shopping by the Palm Beach DA?

You mean, like exposing the Democrat communist agenda for the last 16 years?

You mean, by fighting back when the President of the United States tries attack you and undermine your work of 20 years by telling people not to listen to him?

Yeah, that’s real dangerous of the man.

Rush speaks for millions when he articulates what Conservatism is, something the GOP can even talk about without rank hypocrisy.

And just how big is your radio audience, Cedric?

When was the last time you put your neck on the line for anything?


32 posted on 03/04/2009 3:50:37 AM PST by exit82 (The Obama Cabinet: There was more brainpower on Gilligan's Island.)
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To: ComputerGuy

I’m not ready to say the Republican Party is dead or dying. I’m not ready to say we need a new party.

I do know we need a new Republican Party.

It’s time for all of us to only vote for Republicans who are actual Republicans and if none are running in an election we should all definitely vote 3rd party, to show the cruds who run the RNC that our votes are out there, and that we are ready to come “home” if there’s ever a home to return to.

Right now, in many jurisdictions, there simply isn’t.


33 posted on 03/04/2009 3:52:59 AM PST by samtheman
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To: Sub-Driver
alinsky Rule Number 12

Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.

The thing about Marxists is, while they are fierce and ruthless in their attacks, they never deviate from the playbook, whether Mao's Little Red Book or Alinsky's rules for radicals. Read their books, and you got them beat.

34 posted on 03/04/2009 3:55:09 AM PST by MuttTheHoople
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To: exit82; All
Rush is risking nothing here.

He jumps back and forth from “My first address to the nation” wisecracks to “I don't want to lead the GOP.”

The last damn thing any organization needs is a defacto leader who has no operational responsibility.

Wake-up!

35 posted on 03/04/2009 3:56:08 AM PST by Cedric
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To: Cedric; ComputerGuy

Cedric: if you quit being nervous in the service for a second you’d realize that this is an opportunity to really settle what the GOP stands for.

Are we milquetoast RINOs?
Or rock-ribbed conservatives?

One answer has the opportunity to save this country, and we’d better get off the fence before it splits us.


36 posted on 03/04/2009 3:56:53 AM PST by VictoryGal (Never give up, never surrender!)
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To: Sub-Driver
What Zero fails to realize is that this is not all about Rush Limbaugh, it's all about him. He's the president. He's in charge. It's by his policies that we'll inevitably sink or swim. All he is trying to do is deflect criticism away from himself by attacking his chief tormentor. As I've stated before, this will become increasingly harder and harder to do when people come to the realization that Obama’s policies have made things worse. All Rush is doing is stating an obvious fact: socialism has been tried in every corner of the globe and has failed each time. What Zero is doing is nothing more than a naked power grab which will do nothing to stimulate the economy. This will become abundantly clear to most Americans in the months ahead.
37 posted on 03/04/2009 3:57:49 AM PST by RU88 (The false messiah can not change water into wine any more than he can get unity from diversity.)
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To: Cedric
There have been some bone headed moves by Limbaugh in the past but this one is exponentially more dangerous.

If the GOP had the same ratio of "boneheaded moves" to successes that Rush has, you'd be having less trouble going from thread to thread trying to stamp out the resentment that is smoldering amongst many of us former (and current) Republicans.

Mr. niteowl77

38 posted on 03/04/2009 3:59:25 AM PST by niteowl77 (You wanted him, and now you have got him. I say, "Good day to you," America.)
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To: samtheman

If the GOP does not make huge gains in 2010, they are done as a political party.

That’s the cold hard truth.

They will be forever in the minority after that.

Obama and his crowd are seeing to that, and the American taxpayer is paying for it to happen.

We can see that byt ehir actions, from Steele on down, that they don’t get it—they are in the fight for their survival.

If the GOP does not reverse the trend by next year’s election, they will got the way of the Whig Party they replaced in the 1850s.

Conservatives will desert in droves and start a new party.

We don’t stick with losers.


39 posted on 03/04/2009 3:59:41 AM PST by exit82 (The Obama Cabinet: There was more brainpower on Gilligan's Island.)
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To: Cedric

Get real.


40 posted on 03/04/2009 4:01:12 AM PST by ComputerGuy (not my real name)
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