I now pledge not to do more posts on Rush Limbaugh lowering the bar on our political discourse again. His latest descent doesn’t lower the bar, since he is so underground now that the bar is several miles up. His defenders will go through all kinds of rhetorical and lets-attack-his-critics modes but THIS is an example of unadulterated racism. The truth? If he was a local radio station talker and said this in most markets he’d be yanked off the air — but he is Rush who is an excellent broadcast talent, makes a ton of money and is major power in the Republican Party. So he gets another pass — but won’t here. Not that it’ll matter to him. Just watch his partisan fans defend this latest bit. It is not defensible. It is racist.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.