Limbaugh, Hewitt relieved of water-carrying duties

November 9, 2006

I have to wonder if some of these leading conservative voices fully appreciate how foolish this makes them sound.

For example, responding to the Dems reclaiming the majority in Congress, Rush Limbaugh said:

“The way I feel is this: I feel liberated, and I’m going to tell you as plainly as I can why. I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don’t think deserve having their water carried. Now, you might say, ‘Well, why have you been doing it?’ Because the stakes are high! Even though the Republican Party let us down, to me they represent a far better future for my beliefs and therefore the country’s than the Democrat Party does and liberalism.”

Hugh Hewitt added his own telling perspective.

“[I]t is a wonderful day for new media, especially talk radio. For two years we have had to defend the Congressional gang that couldn’t shoot straight. Now we get to play offense.”

In other words, for guys like Limbaugh and Hewitt, they knew congressional Republicans were awful. They knew these lawmakers didn’t deserve their support, didn’t earn their trust, and didn’t perform as they promised. But they went out, day after day, and told their audience how great these Republicans are anyway, despite not believing it.

How these guys keep a sizable audience is beyond me.

These guys also don’t have any interest in good government and a good society. They just enjoy attacking, and now they can get back to what they like most–attacking the Democrat’s efforts to do the right things.

  • That’s true. But remember, these guys live to attack. They define themselves by what they hate, and what they hate is… us. Limbaugh’s peak moment had to be 1993-94, when Democrats controlled everything and he could be pure rage. I’m sure he and the others are raring to have at the Democratic majority.

    I’ve always thought that the real test of whether we can ever get our politics back to something like comity would come after our side regained a measure of power. I think we’re going to see. But I believe the best revenge will be governing well.

  • Ahhhh… so nice to hear the windbags admitting that the Republican Party is not Republican anymore.

    I mean, damn, even being a Democrat, I personally identify with many conservative values- such as fiscal responsibility.

    But this Republican Party is not the party which it used to be. This is a party devoted to evangelical extremists, and to Big Business. They have no morals, no qualms about anything.

    I mean, sheesh, 4 friggin’ Congressmen resigning from one session? And all from the same party? That’s pretty amazing (and doesn’t even count the ones who are still under investigation).

  • Reestablish the Fairness Doctrine. Put these bozos out of business. Or at least, force the radio stations that carry them to put up an equal amount of pro-Democrat programming.

  • This sort of confirms a suspicion I’ve always had, which is that even their followers know half of what they say is crap, but truth isn’t what they tune in for. It’s ammunition. They want to know how to spin the latest bad news, or what tack to use to harass the media about their “bias”. So pundits say what they know is crap, the water carriers run with the crap, the journalists print the crap to appease the water carriers to demonstrate their objectivity, and Democrats apologize for the crap to kill the story, the voters vote against them for being such pussies that they’ll admit to crap they didn’t do, and bloggers scream, “Why is everyone falling for this crap?” They aren’t. Everyone knows it’s crap. It’s just effective crap that the dittoheads fling because it sticks.

  • I love the logic behind this line of Limbaugh’s,

    “they represent a far better future for my beliefs and therefore the country’s”

    Because the country’s beliefs are SO closely tied with his. Right.

  • jimBob #4 has it exactly right.

    Wiki is interesting on this issue:
    The Doctrine was enforced throughout the entire history of the FCC (and its precursor, the Federal Radio Commission) until 1987, when the FCC repealed it in its Syracuse Peace Council decision which was upheld. The Republican-controlled commission claimed the doctrine had grown to inhibit rather than enhance debate and suggested that, due to the many media voices in the marketplace at the time, the doctrine was probably unconstitutional. Others, noting the subsequent rise of right-wing radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, suggest the repeal was more likely motivated by a desire to get partisans on the air.[citation needed]

    The two corollary rules, the personal attack rule and the political editorial rule, remained in practice until 2000. The personal attack rule was pertinent whenever a person or small group was subject to a character attack during a broadcast. Stations had to notify such persons or groups within a week of the attack, send them transcripts of what was said, and offer the opportunity to respond on the air. The political editorial rule applied when a station broadcasts editorials endorsing or opposing candidates for public office, and stipulated that the candidates not endorsed be notified and allowed a reasonable opportunity to respond.

    The U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, ordered the FCC to justify these corollary rules in light of the decision to axe the fairness doctrine. The commission did not do so promptly, and in 2000 it ordered their repeal. The collapse of the fairness doctrine and its corollary rules had significant political effects. One liberal Pennsylvania political leader, State Rep. Mark B. Cohen of Philadelphia, said “The fairness doctrine helped reinforce a politics of moderation and inclusiveness. The collapse of the fairness doctrine and its corollary rules blurred the distinctions between news, political advocacy, and political advertising, and helped lead to the polarizing cacophony of strident talking heads that we have today.”

    Conservatives, in contrast, see attempts to revive the Doctrine as an attempt to silence conservative voices, noting that sectors of the media they believe to have a liberal bias (major newspapers, newsmagazines, evening newscasts of the broadcast networks) would not be touched by the Doctrine.

  • “Ahhhh… so nice to hear the windbags admitting that the Republican Party is not Republican anymore.” – Castor Troy

    That would be that the Republican’ts aren’t Conservative anymore.

    Poor Rush. Oh how he must have had to swallow his rage all these years of Republican’t corruption.

    You know, like having illegal prescription ED drugs on you on a sex tourism trip 😉

  • Fairness doctrine. Fairness doctrine. Fairness doctrine.

    All those Americans who can’t get it up, who believe in their God-given right to take Viagra tours to Santo Domingo to screw little boys and girls, can have Mr. Limpdick and his version of Hillbilly Heroin-fueled “morality.”

  • These guys keep a sizable audience because they’ve mastered the perpetually slighted anger machine. Outrage OUTRAGE!!!

    Everything is an insult to them. Same goes for their viewers. They are a very unhappy bunch, and they like it that way.

  • ***a far better future for my beliefs and therefore the country’s***

    ————–a fat, out-of-touch-with-reality dope fiend.

    I’ve come to the conclusion that the only difference between Rush Limbaugh and a can of Crisco shortening—is that the Crisco knows when to shut up.

    How can this abominable genetic blend between a lobotomized human and a can of Spam with a defective seal actually believe that the United States of America adheres to his beliefs? Is this the medical result of taking huge quantities of Viagra to “get it up” when there’s obviously nothing to “get up” in the first place?

    Rush—crawl back in the frying pan, for crying out loud! Tomorrows Friday—and you’re gonna be late for the fish fry!!!

    Let’s see if the Reichsters can figure THIS insult out….

  • Limbaugh, Hannity, et al are going to do better in the next few years because it is a lot easier to attack people in power that you dislike than to attack people out of power that you dislike.

    Of course, as hard as Limbaugh tries to help the Republicans you need to remember that his primary goal is to help Limbaugh.

    Think about it. If he really wanted to help the Republicans then he could cut some commercials off his program and get more listeners. However, he wants money more than he wants to help Republicans.

  • Savage was blaming Bush for the loss directly. He claimed Bush threw the election because he wanted to pass immigration reform as a legacy.

    Looks like Clinton might finally be off the hook!

  • Charles Pierce puts it exactly right over at Tapped,with this late 1864 quote from Jefferson Davis:

    Relieved from the necessity of guarding cities and particular points, important but not vital to our defense, with an army free to move from point to point and strike in detail the detachments and garrisons of the enemy, operating on the interior of our own country, where supplies are more accessible, and where the foe will be far removed from his own base and cut off from all succor in case of reverse, nothing is now needed to render our triumph certain but the exhibition of our own unquenchable resolve. Let us but will it, and we are free; and who, in the light of the past, dare doubt your purpose in the future?”

  • Two things I do admire about Republicans.

    1. Bush’s 46 resting pulse rate
    2. Limbaugh’s ability to extemporize at length–even if it is all bullshit. That ain’t easy.

  • The Fairness Doctrine is important. More important to organize and support progressive media and influence mainstream media. Money, organization, commitment.

  • Water carrying? Shouldn’t that be piss taking?

    Jon Karak nails it. The ditto heads love to hate. Hearing their narrow minded views echoed on the airwaves validates their pathetic little lives.

  • CB
    “How these guys keep a sizable audience is beyond me.”

    I think I can explain it. When I was starting out my professional (snicker) career (ha!), I paid the bills doing a lot of dirt jobs and warehouse work. I used to listen to a lot of rightwing radio (because it was always on) and observe the audience. Guys like Rush use anger and resentment the way Pam Anderson uses silicone and collegen to attract an audience. They appeal to the base emotions (anger, lust, greed etc) in this case, it is the anger of those who are left behind, the unlucky, the greedy, the resentful, the too stupid to realize they’re stupid (which includes many who think they are “eduKated”), and the uneducated.

    It’s easy to do when the human brain is hardwired to be three times more responsive to emotion than logic. The only way that differential can be changed is thru a combination of experience and education.

    I did alright working there even though I was picked on from time to time because I was university educated, but they stopped when I run rings around them (in the land of the dull, the half wit is king)

  • “Savage was blaming Bush for the loss directly. He claimed Bush threw the election because he wanted to pass immigration reform as a legacy.” – doubtful

    So the Republican’t Congress bucks the President on immigration reform and he lets them go down like a burning Zepelin 😉

    Now there’s a nice little theory.

  • Wow … never heard about the Fairness Doctrine before. Very enlightening.

    Seems to me that, instead of silencing anyone, it would actually give MORE peopel the chance to air an opinion. Which is probably why the right wanted it gone.

  • “How these guys keep a sizable audience is beyond me.”

    There is a dwindling class of Americans who just love that drug-addled gasbag (to use Stephanie Miller’s appropriate label). They also love lynchings, smack-downs, extreme sports, NASCAR competitions, demolition derbies, tractor pulls, cockfights, dogfights, bear-baiting, torture, 64 oz. steaks, loud music, SUVs, Ann Coulter and terrifying little children.

  • So, Ed, what’s the difference between the Hindenburg and Rush Limbaugh? …………….. One’s a Nazi gasbag, and the other is merely a dirigible.

  • They should start with taking the Oxycontin Kid off of Armed Forces Radio for an hour a day. Even before they put the Fairness Doctrine back in place.

    Plus, to be really fair, they should play the Al Franken Show on AFR for as long as Limpdick has been broadcast to the troops.

    Just sayin’

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