GOP Lawmaker Apologizes To Republican Powerhouse Limbaugh For Criticism
It’s increasingly clear just who The King is in the Republican party. If you criticize The King you could face consequences.
So what do you do to try and get out of them? You bow down. Way down:
U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey spent today apologizing to the loudest voices of the Republican right — to radio talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, and to former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich.
Gingrey’s crime? He declared that they earned a very good living by stirring up dust among conservatives, without having to struggle with the consequences.
Which happens to be true.
But true, schmoo – what really matters is not being on the other side of angry talk show audiences making phone calls to not-with-the-program politicians’ offices, perhaps threatening to work to defeat them for re-election. So it’s bow down time.And what better place to bow down than on the Rush Limbaugh show itself?
This afternoon, on the nationally broadcast “Rush Limbaugh Show,” Gingrey said:
“I clearly ended up putting my foot in my mouth on some of those comments, and I just wanted to tell you, Rush — and all our conservative giants, who help us so much to maintain our base and grow it to get back this majority — that I regret those stupid comments.”
Gingrey began his day of mea culpas with a call to Neal Boortz on WSB Radio in Atlanta. Then Limbaugh at 12:30 p.m. A session with Hannity will be part of his 5 p.m. program — broadcast locally on WSB.
He issued a statement on his website, too:
“I regret and apologize for the fact that my comments have offended and upset my fellow conservatives—that was not my intent. I am also sorry to see that my comments in defense of our Republican Leadership read much harsher than they actually were intended, but I recognize it is my responsibility to clarify my own comments….
“Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, and other conservative giants are the voices of the conservative movement’s conscience. Everyday, millions and millions of Americans—myself included—turn on their radios and televisions to listen to what they have to say, and we are inspired by their words and by their determination.”
Oh.
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10 Responses to “GOP Lawmaker Apologizes To Republican Powerhouse Limbaugh For Criticism”
Joe
Thanks for pointing out a very real phenomenon in GOP party politics. Rush was considered for a long time as a nutty fringe element. We can see now that the heart of the Conservative movement lies in the hands of a few extreme right wing talk show hosts, who are pulling the strings in the US Congress.
Its no accident that not a single House Republican voted for the bailout bill , regardless of the overtures and compromises made to them by Obama, or of the very dire straits of the American worker.
What is even more apparant is that the left has to find a demon to hate. Someone to keep the masses stirred up and so with Cheney and Bush gone they turned almost immediately to Rush Limbaugh.
Fire them up. They need a demon. The king we love to hate is gone, long live the king we love to hate.
It worked so well for them by turning Bush/Cheney into Heir Oberfuhrers that they hope to accomplish the same thing with El Rushbo.
Greenschemes, your comment makes no sense to me. You think the Dems are in the wrong for criticizing Rush Limbaugh's blow-hard ways? Did I get that right?
Well, count me as a Republican who agrees with the Democrats' assessment of Rush Limbaugh being a windbag. Rush is despicable and an embarrassment, and Gingrey is a coward for his boot-licker comments.
I never defended Limbaugh.
1. Fact. The left loved to hate Bush. They were consumed with hatred for GWB and Dick Cheney and the entire GOP organization.
2. Fact. So much so that they used names like Oberfuhrer, Nazi, Fuhrer, Facists, Liar, coward, thief and just about every other name in the book in between apoplectic breathing.
3. Fact. Anything GWB did was met with BOOS and a prayer for failure. The Left prayed daily to their god for a Bush Failure.
4. Fact. The democrats worked for his demise.
5. Fact. The leader of the house called GWB a “Miserable Failure”
Anyway you get the point. You may or may not agree with those facts but they set the stage for why the Democrats need someone to hate. They literally and immediately began quoting Limbaugh and writing about him non stop the day after the swearing in of the new president.
It is simply a fact that the Democrats want to keep the spotlight off themselves and onto someone else because all these so called Moderate Democrats realize that they dont have the answers to anything. Put simply if you can keep a demon to hate in the spotlight and its not YOU then its a good thing.
They succeeded in winning the White house and congress by fooling the American people with their “Hate Bush 24x7x365 plan” and now its Rush Limbaugh. The GOP wont fight back and Rush Limbaugh is only heard by about 12 million people a day and the other 288 million can be lied to by the Democrats and never know the difference.
Do I defend what Limbaugh says. Not necessarily but that was not what my post was about. It was about the strategy of demonizing someone that people love to hate to rally support and to take away the spotlight from the real corruption now. The majority party of the US congress.
To the extent the republican party has grown to become a more and more an accurate reflection of Limbaugh behavior and philosophy, then they have steadily been reaping what they have sown, beginning with the change in congress in 06. This observation is in no way a defense of partisan behavior on the part of the democrats, and I have long been put off by the poor leadership of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, but this divisive, disrespectful and distinctively unproductive and unAmerican climate we see at work here has definite roots in the creation and influence of Rush Limbaugh. That this republican would get down and kiss Rush Limbaugh's boot is a metaphor for republican “leadership” over the past decade plus from what I've seen. And to the extent we begin to see similar behavior on the part of democrats, then I see that as also very unfortunate, however, it's clear that many people need to make a greater effort to recall the origins of the problem, one that won't be solved so long as the same mistakes are being made over and over again. The fawning allegiance so many republicans have made to Rush and the Rush philosophy have NOT served our country well in the past, nor is that continuing fawning allegiance ever going to do anything but continue to drive a gigantic wedge between the government and the people of this once great country.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
John McCain Wins Without Rush Limbaugh Support
“If Senator John McCain makes a strong showing on Super Tuesday, he will most likely win the GOP nomination for President in 2008. If that happens it will be against a flood of criticism from nationwide conservative radio talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh. For extreme right wing conservatives, like Rush Limbaugh, John McCain appears more like a liberal Republican than a conservative. Limbaugh, along with other extreme conservatives started referring to moderate Republicans like Senator McCain as 'RINOS' which stands for 'Republicans In Name Only'. Only a few short years ago, if Rush Limbaugh did not approve of a GOP candidate for President of the United States – it would be difficult for that candidate to win the nomination. However, in 2008, John McCain is proving that a person can win the GOP nomination for President without the support of Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio.”
Never let facts get in the way in the construct of a good meme. If Rush Limbaugh has the Republican Party and voters doing his bidding, it is news to those people.
You're correct in your observations, greenschemes. If you've got some free time this weekend, can you help me move the cots at the asylum from the BDS ward to the newly contructed LDS ward?
“If you've got some free time this weekend, can you help me move the cots at the asylum from the BDS ward to the newly constructed LDS ward?”
CO, so nice to see you kids doing volunteer work with those sad Limbaugh Dogma Sufferers. You are an inspiration!
I'ts not Rush himself that they're bowing to, it's their ever-shrinking consituency that Limbaugh controls…literally controls…the collective mind of via his hypnotic paranoia-dispensing radio show, catered to the minds of the simple working-poor stiffs, the willing herd that will follow the GOP to the slaughterhouse and die, thinking all the while they are great patriots. He keeps them corraled by fear of buzzwords like “commies” “liberals” “terrorists”. Like cattle dogs that wont' actually hurt the flock, he keeps his buzzwords circling the flock, harnassing the flocks visceral nature of fear against anything looming, balling them up and driving them wherever he wants them to go. In fact, they are nothing but blind sheep who's loss will not be celebrated in any way except by cigar clenching sneers from a bunch of aristocratic fat-cats who's intellect was used for exploitation of the very same poor they openly prostate themselves before (on Rush's show) and beg the forgiveness of.
In ranching terms, part of the corral fell down and they moved quickly to board it back up, lest any of the flock stray from their confines into the greater corral that Limbaugh controls the gates of.. (Why not, the Illinois Gov. can use western metaphors?..lol..)
The neocon “fundamentalist” preachers (not actual good christian preachers) reinforce the “flocks” message every Sunday at 9:00AM (they even call them “their flock”) . They reinforce each other, too like sheep, feeding off their buddy's prejudice and panic. The Congressmen know Rush has the buzzwords at his whistle..and they're strategists after all, like any pack of wolves with their eye on the ultimate horizon. Wolves are known to fake limp while closing in on their prey, creating a false sense of hope in the doomed target(s), while their buddies close in from other angles..
People are like animals. The grovelling of the GOP is as predictable as the sheep's movements are to Rush's buzzwords and whistles. The GOP doesn't CARE about Rush's listeners, they only appear to care in a true effort to keep them corraled for the ultimate sacrafice: blind loyalty to the herdsmens' every whim…usually financial but sometimes to die for their benefit on the battlefield.
And the amazing thing is that working poor still keep lining up to vote republican. It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen, the blindness of sheep..
Actually, Sil may be right on this one. The 10 million or so “dittoheads” constitute a good chunk of American conservatives. Rush and other talk radio hosts have stirred them up previously about open borders, immigration, the liberal MSM, and a zillion other issues.
I'm sure none of the GOP reps in the House want to become targeted by Limbaugh and have their phones ringing off the hook with angry constitutents, hungry for their heads on a platter. Still, its really pathetic for any entertainer to have so much pull in DC.
[...] trouble with all of that is that he IS the leader of the Republican Party. Republicans know it, and we’ve already seen what happens when you blaspheme against The Great One: This afternoon, on the nationally broadcast “Rush [...]