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Bull Rush
Swampland —
... David Frum has been a voice of Republican sanity--calling Palin for the extreme liability she was during the general election--and here describing Rush Limbaugh's dire impact on the GOP. I swear, I haven't seen anything as diabolically funny in politics as Rahm Emanuel's anointment of Limbaugh as uncrowned leader of the Republican Party...since Fox News chose Alan Colmes to represent liberalism against the visigoth Hannity. ...
Winner of the Canadian Media Incest Lottery likes Obama better than Rush cuz Rush is fat
All —
You think I'm
kidding:
On the one side, the president of the United States: soft-spoken and conciliatory, never angry, always invoking the
recession and its victims. This president invokes the language of “responsibility,” and in his own life seems to epitomize
that ideal: He is physically honed and disciplined, his worst vice an occasional cigarette. He is at the same time an
apparently devoted husband and father. Unsurprisingly, women voters trust and admire him.
And for the leader of the ...
Arianna Huffington: Memo to The Media: Having Rove on to Pontificate on the Economy is like Having Madoff on to Pontificate on Investing
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
Yesterday, on Face the Nation, Rahm Emanuel declared that Rush Limbaugh is "the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party."
This is a useful stance for the Obama administration. As David Frum puts it: "With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence -- exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix" to the GOP.
But, in truth, Rush is just a massive shiny object that distracts our attention from the real intellectual force and energy behind the Republican ...
What To Do About Rush
Opinionator —
... Happy Meal conservatism: cheap, childish, familiar. Gone are the internal tensions, the thought-provoking paradoxes, the ideological uneasiness that marked the early Right. But however much this dumbing down has damaged the conservative brand, it appeals to millions of Americans. McDonald’s profits rose 80 percent last year. Other conservative commentators who want the party to open up, explore different ideas and reach out to new constituents see Limbaugh as blocking that process. David Frum says that Limbaugh “knows exactly what he is doing” by positioning himself as the ...
ATTN: David Frum; Update
doubleplusundead —
ATTN: David Frum; Update You can eat me . Seriously. I find it telling that Frum and his ilk can only decry conservatism, while offering no real solutions other than "be more like the Democrats." Note, they don't directly say that, but it's what they mean. Democrats are the ones who divide people into groups (i.e. Hispanic voters, Wal-Mart voters, etc.). We don't. Why? Because that's what Saul Alinsky would do. Democrats are the ones who believe in spending a trillion dollars, not us. The only way Frum doesn't want us to be like Democrats is when it comes to ...
The Rush War Deepens
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
Frum has a must-read. Money quote: A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who
dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as
“losers.” With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug
dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital
history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence – exactly the
image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our
party. And we’re cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers
cheering Rush’s every rancorous word – we’ll be seeing them rebroadcast
for a long time.
Rush knows what he is doing. The worse ...
Quotes of the day
Hot Air » Top Picks —
... But do the rest of us understand what we are doing to ourselves by accepting this leadership? Rush is to the Republicanism of the 2000s what Jesse Jackson was to the Democratic party in the 1980s. He plays an important role in our coalition, and of course he and his supporters have to be treated with respect. But he cannot be allowed to be the public face of the enterprise – and we have to find ways of assuring the public that he is just one Republican voice among many, and very far from the most important .”
A note to David Frum, Ross Douthat, David Brooks and every other self-important, self-designated savior of the Republican Party… PLEASE STOP.
RedState: Conservative News and Community —
... p.s. If you are wondering what triggered this particular reaction, it was this post by David Frum, but it was only because it was the most recent… it could have been any one of hundreds of others… ...
David Frum on Limbaugh
Patterico's Pontifications —
[Language warning. I can't think of an effective way to say this without the profanity. -- P]
David Frum, in the very same piece — only sentences apart, actually! — says this:
With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence – exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. . . .
and this:
He ...
Just One Little Problem Here
Riehl World View —
Rod Dreher, David Frum and over at AmCon, John Derbyshire, are all busy either running down talk radio, Rush Limbaugh, or flat-out gleefully piling on Michael Steele for making up with Rush.
The problem is any one of those three would be lucky to get either of the last two on the phone. And assuming Steele remains at the RNC for two years, he and Rush will be playing a substantive roll in future GOP wins and losses, while those first three will still be sitting on their arses writing about that, or something else.
So who really ...
Talking Talk
The Corner on National Review Online —
... ] I m disappointed in a number of friends and fellow-travellers who have taken the opportunity to pile onto talk-radio of late. First of all, in a quick note on Derb s previously mentioned piece, the miles between Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh are more than I m equipped to travel in this lifetime. And, David Frum writes : Rush knows what he is doing. The worse conservatives do, the more important Rush becomes as leader of the ardent remnant. The better conservatives succeed, the more we become a broad national governing coalition, the more Rush will be sidelined. First of ...
'Limbaughism Sounds A Lot Like Leninism'?
NewsBusters.org - Exposing Liberal Media Bias —
The religion site Beliefnet – now owned by Fox Entertainment Group – has a variety of bloggers, including a few conservatives. Rod Dreher drew some network attention last year for attacking Sarah Palin as an unserious choice for vice president. On Sunday, Dreher started lobbing bombs at Rush Limbaugh and his fans. He titled his article "CPAC: White kids on dope," with the subheadline "Ah, to be an anthropologist at CPAC, where the kids was smokin' th' political crack." Dreher was very unhappy that a boisterous crowd cheered Limbaugh’s message to the conference, and saw some kind of creepy censorship emerging when Limbaugh warned: "beware ...
The War Over Rush
The Corner on National Review Online —
Tuesday, March 03, 2009 [image] The War Over Rush [ Rich Lowry ] I find the attacks on Rush from the right mostly stupid, cringe-inducing, and wrong. (Andy flagged this particularly nasty and personal post by David Frum.) Rush is a huge benefit to the Right, and if we didn't have him, we'd have to try to invent him (and probably fail, because so much of his success is a product of his natural, can t-be-reproduced talent.) That said, I disagree with this line in his CPAC speech about not needing better policy ideas right now. I disagree with this as a matter of short-term tactics (as Rush seems to have meant it from the context) and long-term strategy. In ...
Does Rush Matter?
Ross Douthat —
Jay Cost, responding this column from Reihan among other things, doesn't think any of the sturm und drang over Limbaugh makes a difference: When appealing to a political audience as broad as the
voting public, you are confronting a large majority of voters who pay
relatively little attention and are essentially non-ideological in
their political orientation. That means the idea of converting somebody
from "liberalism" to "conservatism" as a precursor to getting his vote
is simply not going to yield many votes. If it did, this is
what candidates - who have the greatest interest in winning votes -
would try to do. Instead, ...
Nihilism Ain’t Just A River In Egypt
Firedoglake —
As you may have noticed, I'm not exactly a David Brooks fan. But he was dead-on when he described Bobby Jindal's anti-government rebuttal message as "nihilism." Rush Limbaugh's stated desire for Obama to fail (since echoed by Michelle Malkin, Rick Santorum, and Mike Pence) is in ...
Frum Takes on Rush; Conservatives Leap to Condemn Frum
Matthew Yglesias —
... As part of the ongoing conservative civil war, David Frum took some shots at Rush Limbaugh. And for his trouble, he’s now getting set up for some purging. ...
alicublog — THE STORY SO FAR. Let's see if I've got this straight. Rush Limbaugh receives a Caesaresque reception at CPAC, where he says he wants the President's economic recovery plan to fail. The nominal head of the GOP mildly criticizes Limbaugh's comments. Limbaugh beats him up on the radio and Steele is forced to apologize. Republican reformers find this troubling, but the yahoo wing of the party tells them to shut up, as do some of the suit-and-tie operatives, and their press organs start ...
Indulge Me. A LOT
Talking Points Memo —
Via Ezra Klein, when David Frum nails it, the guy nails it ...
Here's the duel that Obama and Limbaugh are jointly arranging:
On the one side, the president of the United States: soft-spoken and conciliatory, never angry, always invoking the recession and its victims. This president invokes the language of "responsibility," and in his own life seems to epitomize that ideal: He is physically honed and disciplined, his worst vice an occasional cigarette. He is at the same time an apparently devoted husband and father. Unsurprisingly, women voters ...
This could only get better if Limbaugh puts together an exploratory committee
pandagon.net - we are the public option —
... , I see that David Frum has decided that he wants to be the next victim of the non-official head of the Republican Party. ...
Rush Is Not the Problem
The Next Right —
I've stayed away from the Rush Limbaugh discussion since it seems the ultimate in Seinfeldian debates about nothing.
My overall sense is that the Frums and the Douthats of the world would be well served by staying away from this argument. As Ross himself has written, the grassroots needs elites -- and the elites need the grassroots. By trying to isolate Rush, the elites break down this elegant separation and veer into micromanaging the grassroots -- a losing proposition, particularly against a brand as sticky as Rush. By staging a power play against ...
A Final Word On Rush
Ross Douthat —
Ruffini writes: My overall sense is that the Frums and the Douthats of the world would be well served by staying away from this argument. As Ross himself has written, the grassroots needs elites -- and the elites need the grassroots.
By trying to isolate Rush, the elites break down this elegant
separation and veer into micromanaging the grassroots -- a losing
proposition, particularly against a brand as sticky as Rush. I take the point: I originally only meant to take a mild and passing swipe at Rush's CPAC speech, ...
US Political News Blog — ... scathing articles about the campaign to elevate Limbaugh as the nominal leader of the GOP, responded to attacks by Levin by calling the show-- ...
Jim Wallis: I Hope Rush Limbaugh Fails
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
Go ahead, guess who wrote the following paragraph. And I'll give you a hint: It's not Al Franken, Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddow, or even Michael Moore.
And for the leader of the Republicans? A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as 'losers.' With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence...
Figured it out? The author is former Bush speechwriter David Frum. In fact, this first appeared on David Frum's Web ...
