The definitive question is - Does Rush Limbaugh in fact call the shots for the GOP?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Are they in thrall to a radio talk show host with no particular expertise on any subject aside from his own inflated opinion of himself? If true, just another example of bad decision making on their part.

I listened a little bit today to Mr. Limbaugh. His talking points were that today is a similar situation to 1992 when Bill Clinton needed Republican support for his budget, didn't get it, the Republicans were able to distinguish themselves as the Democratic alternative and rolled into power in 1994 by not playing ball. Rush says this is what Republicans need to do now. If they go along with the stimulus, they will just be giving Democrats cover if it doesn't all work out as planned and they will have joint responsibility.

NOW, what was lacking in Rush's piercing insights was any recognition that the economic dangers today of a giant collapse were any different than politics as usual in 1992. HE DOESN'T GET IT. We ALL go down the tubes if the pols can't get together and work towards some kind of program that works. He would PREFER that they don't play ball. Once again, party before country and the advice of an ignoramus.

Now, if the Republicans do what he is suggesting, than we will know that in fact they are letting him make the calls, despite what is better for the country and their constituents. If they let Rush Limbaugh call their shots, then they should have an even greater decimation in the next elections. They are not worthy.

[NJmaverick]

1. It was a brilliant move on Obama's part, to tie Rush to the GOP

it makes any Republicans that oppose his efforts, look as out of touch and partisan and the drug addled blow hard.

[nxylas]

2. He's got his millions, screw the rest of us

What does it matter to him if the economy goes into freefall?

[BridgeTheGap]

3. In terms of his influence over their base, he probably does... :-( n.t

[mdmc]

4. He is nowhere near a leader of the GOP

he is hype.

I do agree that the GOP needs to stick and jab, not go along lock step, and fight to discredit Obama.
They have no other shot. Obama is re-elected if he does good. Obama has a fight on him if he gets all bogged down in Blagovich slime, IRS directors not payin taxes, bailouts for CEOs that destroyed our economy, robbing hunters of rights.

Bush has left Obama a perfect storm. Obama can be the greatest of the great. He can heal a nation split worse then during the civil war. He can be the first decent person that we have had in the White House since the great peanut farmer went on to bigger and better things.

So the GOP needs to fight, fight smart, and hope for the best. If Obama implodes they win. That is pretty much their only shot. Rush is right...

[Jackpine Radical]

5. I don't think Rush makes policy per se. He DOES get the same talking points

that all the RW media puppets get, and sometimes he puts out nonsense of his own, and if it "takes," i.e. if enough dittoheads badger their local wingnut politicians about Rush's latest stroke of genius, it may find its way into favor with those politicians.

[theoldman]

6. Remember when they were called ditto heads?

Nothing has changed. Rush is still a big fat idiot and his followers are much dumber than he is. Rush is not making the calls/shots. He speaks, the idiots listen and follow his advice. If you think that these people will change you are wrong.

[Cleita]

7. Rush and other RW talk hosts got their talking points directly from the Bush

White House for the eight years Bush was in power. It was a well known "secret". Before that he and they got them from think tanks like the Heritage Foundation that funneled them through the RNC and are no doubt doing so again. Rush once admitted that he was carrying water for them. His ideas are not his original thoughts. They do the thinking for him and he uses his verbal skills to put them on the air to the gullible.

Republicans, the party of the rich and big business, know that they are a minority, but they figured out ways during Reagan's administration to gain and keep power and that involved a variety of methods that Hitler would have approved of from controlling the message through media shills like Rush to the drastic means of election fraud, the only way that they can win.

[BridgeTheGap]

15. Who were they getting them from before Bush was selected?

They laid the groundwork (propaganda) through the 90s with their attacks on Clinton.
I don't think bush, himself, is capable of generating ideas that they could use. They just provided cover for neo-con high crimes & misdemeanors.

[Cleita]

16. The RNC who acted as a clearing house for think tanks like the PNAC, The

Heritage Foundation and various Richard Mellon Sciafe organizations (who also backed the Swift Boat Veterans).

[enki23]

8. both sides are playing with fire on this one, but ultimately the dems have to take charge

And it's going to come down, in the end, to who has the better PR. No matter how well the stimulus package works, we aren't going to be in boom times for a while. No matter what happens, republicans will be able to claim it didn't work. Some part of the voting public will believe, them. No matter what. The republicans know this. And their leadership wants this. They're reactionaries, and this is what they were born to do. They sure as hell don't have any capacity to actually govern. Being republican, especially now, means you never accept responsibility for *anything*. They will not accept responsibility to pass a reasonable plan. They will not accept any responsibility for whatever plan we finally do pass.

And they want obama to fail, after all. They want us *all* to fail, so they can cover themselves in our ashes, rend their garments, and howl tax-cuts at the fucking moon.

[mwb970]

9. They will in fact be decimated in 2010.

The last two elections were merely previews. We've wised up to them now, finally.

[Andy823]

10. Rush can only

Rally the idiots that listen to him, and they have in turn called the republicans in office to complain to them. In the past it has worked pretty well, but I think many of his followers are getting the idea that party loyalty is not working so well. Many of them are out of jobs, and have been hurt by the last 8 years of Bush politics!

As has been said already, Obama did a great job of tying Rush to congress and they way they vote. If they do what Rush wants, it will look like they are zombies who blindly follow what that gasbag Rush tells them to do. Also if they do follow his advice, the democrats can use that in the next election. Someone on TV the other night said the Obama plan was to cut Rush away from the rest of the "herd", and it looks like that is what he is doing. Make the republicans denounce they follow the advice of that gasbag, and force them to vote on things. It could be a great way to diminish Rush. Sure there will always be those who can't think for themselves that continue to listen to Rush, but I think many more of his listeners will come to their senses and start thinking about their well being and the good of the country over the good of the "party"!

Obama and his people know what the are doing, and I really think it will work. Rush has a big mouth and the more he spews his hate and lies, the more he will cut his own throat. Americans want change and the want out of this economic mess Bush put us in.

[jobycom]

11. He's wrong about Clinton in '92, as well.

Clinton's economic plans were defeated early on when Clinton tried to ram them through Congress in one package, and Bob Dole and Sam Nunn blocked the package. But Clinton did get almost everything he wanted passed by breaking them into individual bills and manuevering them through. He got his tax alignments and his local spending projects (teachers, cops) and his Americorp and other job training packages.

And the economy flourished under his actions. By shifting the tax burden back towards the wealthy, Clinton undid Reaganomics and its destructive effects, and wages went up, poverty went down, yada yada yada. He managed to make the rich richer and the poor richer, too, while still growing the middle class.

Limbaugh's lying again. He's trying to create a meme that Clinton's success was because the Republican Congress stood up to him, to convince these Republicans and their dumbass voters that this Congress should oppose Obama. So he claims Clinton was thwarted in his efforts, and the Republicans in Congress fixed everything. That's not even close to true, and even the drug-addled brain of Limbaugh knows that.

[gratuitous]

12. I don't know if he calls the shots

But simply saying that he does damages the GOP and its "brand." Tying the GOP to Rush is a good verbal jiu jitsu move, using an opponent's perceived strength against him. The GOP likes to portray itself as the party of "Father Knows Best." If they're tied to Limbaugh, they look weaker. If they try to distance themselves from Limbaugh, Limbaugh loses clout. Every time they do whatever Limbaugh is advocating, tie them all the closer, and point out that Limbaugh's ideas are fatuous nonsense. Let the Republicans waste their time explaining how they're not really Limbots.

[sohndrsmith]

13. Shhh....! If what he spews is what his supporters truly stand for,

then they will self-implode.

The smart ones will finally wake up and realize he's wrong and go off and do reasonable things.

The others don't realize that HE likely doesn't even care how destructive he is, it's all about his ratings/greed/success. So he twists and ruins a few minds in the process with things even he privately finds outrageous and untrue - they shock people and that's more money for him.

It's just that simple, sadly enough, I think...

[NewJeffCT]

14. No, he is their highly paid mouthpiece

His show at noon starts the daily rundown of the day's GOP talking points. It then gets picked up by afternoon RW radio, then drive time RW radio and then Fox News in the evening has them, and any refinements.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

24. He was and is nothing but a glorified shock jock, manufactured to sell

crappy AM radio advertising. He's given way too much attention and presumption of power.

[MinM]

17. Steve Kangas: ABC and the rise of Rush Limbaugh

ABC and the rise of Rush Limbaugh

The following brief history of ABC offers a perfect snapshot of everything that has gone wrong with the media. This remarkable story includes ABC's takeover by a conservative parent corporation, the demise of the Fairness Doctrine, the rightward shift of the evening news, the rise of conservative talk radio, and the cozy relationship between a state and a press that are supposed to be separate...

Ted Koppel's incessant praise of Rush Limbaugh is also an attempt to bring him into the mainstream. The back cover of See, I Told You So blurbs: "As no less a liberal than Ted Koppel... said, 'You ignore him at your peril.'" On television, Koppel has laughed with admiration over Limbaugh, calling him "terribly articulate." But the anchor of Nightline is far from liberal; indeed, Rush Limbaugh had to publicly apologize to Koppel for calling him one. And researchers have criticized Nightline for featuring a highly disproportionate number of experts who are white male conservatives.

Rush Limbaugh explains his success as the result of his individualism, of his refusal to do it someone's else's way. But the fact is that his success has been orchestrated, financed and promoted by Capital Cities/ABC. He also seems extraordinarily well-connected to the Republican leadership in Washington, carrying out their campaign strategies so faithfully that it is difficult to distinguish his promotions from their campaign commercials. For example, when Rush's television show debuted nationally two months before the 92 election, his producer was Roger Ailes, who was Bush's media advisor throughout the campaign. Many of the themes that Ailes had inspired earlier in the campaign showed up in identical form on Rush's show, which resembled a program-length commercial for the Bush campaign. When asked to give equal time to his opponents, Rush responded "I am equal time!"

In 1994, not only the Rush Limbaugh Show, but hundreds of other conservative talk shows dutifully raised the issues that Newt Gingrich's Contract Information Center faxed to them each morning about the Contract With America. Many went so far as to read them verbatim over the air. And when the Republicans captured Congress in 1994, they held a ceremony in honor of Limbaugh, naming him "an honorary member of Congress" and "the Majority Maker." That night, the conservative propaganda machine had reached its full potential.
http://rigorousintuition.ca/board/viewtopic.php?t=16875

[MinM]

19. K & R nt

:kick: & R

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

18. Pat Buchanan JUST said that Rush is the de facto leader on the stimulus for the Republican party!

On Hardball 2 minutes ago.

[KharmaTrain]

20. A Symbiotic Relationship...

Right now there's a big void in GOOP leadership. Who heads this imploding party? McConnell? Boner? McCain? Palin? It's rudderless and the natives are restless. President Obama has exploited this weakness and we're seeing it opening up wider.

Here's the deal...Rushbo has a loyal, vocal audience. They always were a small minority, but one that made a lot of noise within the GOOP party. In times when the Repugnicans were in power, Rushbo was a "partner"...a foot soldier for the "cause". In the opposition, Rushbo is in attack mode. It's a formula that worked for many years, but that was before the booosh regime. Now he's become a liability as his bile is no longer amusing but seen as mean-spirited by a majority...including within his own corrupt party.

We saw a similar game on our side...how Democrats would squirm when they were associated with an Al Franken or MoveOn. The problem with repugnicans is that their hate radio spewers represent the biggest dead-enders in their party and if they continue to cater to that shinking group, the more elections they will lose.

Rushbo could get away with his shit against Clinton, but he's met his match in President Obama.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

21. You make good points, but I have to say I don't have any problem with Al Franken

being associated with Democrats - I'm proud that he is a Democrat and I can't wait until he is seated.

Unlike other bloviators and talking heads, he put himself, his time and his money into actually entering the political arena. He is smarter than the average bear and his books are well written, thoughtful and well-researched. He also is not afraid to take on the puny dogmatic brains of people like Limbaugh, Hannity and O'Reilly.

[KharmaTrain]

22. I'm Refering To Al's Air America Days...

I've always been a big fan and supporter of Al. Here's hoping he's seated sooner rather than later...I'm also proud he's a Democrat and look forward to him taking over the Wellstone seat he so richly deserves.

I was refering to his radio daze...when he was billed as the Rushbo of the left. The difference, of course, was Al did his homework...those damn pesky facts always seem to have a "liberal bias".

Rushbo knows he's political box office poison. Look how his inept party was so fractured that he had little effect on who was their nominee. In fact, McCain was the last person he wanted to see run. As I say, the more he talks, the bigger a liability he becomes.

Cheers...

[treestar]

23. Rushbo trying to relive his glory days

Major difference: Clinton was elected by a minority, with Perot getting a lot of the vote.