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 ...
Eighteen posts before I found this final bit of sanity. Not good news.
Obama and the DNC are running the GOP in circles over this issue. If this keeps up, the GOP will be lucky to have 30 seats in the Senate and 120 in the house.
Good grief this is depressing.
There's a word for conservative movement without the GOP...
Immaterial.
Sounds like you bought a tee shirt.
In any organization: Never allow authority and responsibility to reside in two different people!
Big time backfire.
“Obama and the DNC are running the GOP in circles over this issue.”
Actually, Obama and the DNC are more likely to be running in circles over this issue. Focusing their energy in trying to demonize Rush(a private citizen by the way) will only lead to EPIC FAIL on their part.
Cedric, this is rather exasperating. Rush isn't the duly elected official of the GOP. That is the claim the DEMOCRATS are making. When I say we must fight back, I'm saying we must fight back this charge by them. It is patently false and ridiculous.
Rush is a private individual who likes to express his opinion and has a very popular radio show that millions of Americans like to listen to. Those Americans have a right to listen to him and he has a right to express his opinion. Do the democrats not acknowledge this? That is the question we use to FIGHT BACK.
Limbaugh is not in charge of anything nor elected--he says this and acknowledges as well. His listeners also know this. Are the democrats claiming that Limbaugh's audience can't understand this? We should ask the democrats if they really think we're that stupid and why are they insulting us?
This is actually not about the GOP at all. It is about our rights as Americans to have a political opinion that differs from other peoples and the government, and the right for someone to express that opinion on a radio program, and finally the right of Americans to listen to said radio program.
OR--you could agree with the democrats that this is about Rush Limbaugh and the GOP that he "runs", and fall and stay very neatly in their trap.
Is there a third choice? Does that third choice include throwing Rush under the bus and tacitly agree with the dems that they can smear someones political speech right off the air? That is their goal. Keep your eye on THEIR prize.
“Don’t confuse the GOP with conservative Americans.”
There’s a word for conservative movement without the GOP...
Immaterial.........”
That is exactly why there needs to be purge of the RINOs. There is framework in place in the form of the GOP for conservatives to work.
The Specter’s, Snowe’s, and Collin’s need to be booted.
Her track record isn’t much better and the party would be way better off without her advice.
The GOP has allowed the (Rush speaks for the GOP) notion to “burn in”.
The Dems are attempting to capitalize on it.
Both Rush and the GOP must separate from each other in this matter, publicly, completely and permanently.
(Again) In any organization: Never allow authority and responsibility to reside in two different people!
Perhaps Cedric just wants us all to just... just... get along.
Holy moses, Cedric, Rush Derangement Syndrome much?
>Government shutdown.
You mean, during *Clintoon’s* reign? in the *90s*?
>Operation Chaos.
You keep mentioning this, it’s your favorite Rush boogeyman. To me, it was a wash — no net positive or negative. What was so awful about it?
I suppose I might agree if I had swilled enough RINO kool-aid to stagger around blaming everyone except the incompetent boobs that have controlled the GOP since Reagan left the White House. Oh, that's right... Tim Pawlenty (et al) says that Reagan is dead. Never mind.
Mr. niteowl77
Here’s another “brilliantly conceived, flawlessly executed” Rush stratagem:
“We’re gonna drag Yosemite Sam (McCain), kicking and screaming, across the finish line.”
{Ya, I know, that’s ancient history!}
First, Rush isn't deeply unpopular - 20 million listeners can't be wrong. Secondly, Rush was against Oh-Man from the beginning of his campaign, not "shortly before his inauguration". Of course, Politico seldom gets facts straight.
Isn’t he great?! I love it! Finally - a Conservative who will not back off - and has a backbone to stand up for what is right!
I don’t mind if he is the “leader” of the GOP! I just hope this will inspire more conservatives to be loud and vocal! Instead of wimps!
OK. I understand you now.
I never thought that Limbaugh was the GOP. Even when it, in your eyes, suited him to pretend so, it never was something I believed. Having said this, now IS the time to challenge this and strongly state it ain’t so.
The whole premise of Rush’s ditto-heads was sometihng the dems took out of context and Rush has repeatedly fought this conceptualization. Now is the time to get this out into the public again.
When someone called Rush and said “Dittos”, it was not that they agreed with Rush or the previous caller, it was that Rush or the previous caller agreed with THEM.
Of course, the Left wants people to believe, or more likely THEY believe, that people say “Dittos” to Rush because they (blindly) agree with Rush.
Sadly, they have suceeded in this, in my opinion, because if you, Cedric, believe it—being a fine upstanding conservative—then most non-conservatives probably do as well.
So now we use this opportunity to emphasize that millions of Americans listen to Rush daily—not to take marching orders— but to see if the opinions he expresses matches their own. A tall order, but not impossible.
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