The face of the Republican Party

Old, fat, white, misogynist Republican leader

Rush Limbaugh: Rush, a man, who has considerable influence on conservative Republicans - which speaks volumes about the Republican Party -, enjoys attacking ordinary people who have different views that he does and who for all practical purposes can’t fight back. He tried it again last week when he savaged Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student, with misogynistic and vitriolic comments and misrepresented the position of Ms. Fluke in her testimony before congress. The blowback has been severe, (So far he has lost 7 sponsors for his radio show.) though probably not sufficient to cripple his style for long. He is a terrible spokesperson for Republican causes and I hope he continues his garbage-mouth tactics at least through the national elections.

Obama recasts birth control debate on own terms

"WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama waded deep into the culture wars of American politics by rushing to the defense of a female law student Rush Limbaugh verbally attacked.

And by doing so, the president cast the contraception controversy raging in America as an issue of women's rights, not religious freedom.

Friday's telephone call of support to Sandra Fluke was nothing short of an election-year appeal to a crucial voting bloc — and it also had the political benefit of forcing Republicans to choose between siding with the president and taking what critics view as an extreme position to counter him.”

For the complete article click HERE.

****

Have You No Shame, Rush?
NYT OP-Ed columnist Maureen Dowd March 3, 2012

“AS a woman who has been viciously slashed by Rush Limbaugh, I can tell you, it’s no fun.

At first you think, if he objects to the substance of what you’re saying, why can’t he just object to the substance of what you’re saying? Why go after you in the most personal and humiliating way?

Then, once you accept the fact that he has become the puppet master of the Republican Party by stirring bloodlust (earning enough to bribe Elton John to play at his fourth wedding), you still cringe at the thought that your mom might hear the ugly things he said.

Now he’s brutalizing a poised, wholesome-looking 30-year-old Georgetown law student as a “slut,” “a prostitute” and “round-heeled” simply for testifying to lawmakers about wanting the school to amend its health insurance to cover contraception.”

For the complete article click HERE

Conservative icons step on their dicks, again!

Rush Limbaugh

Reverend Pat Robertson

POLITICO
Andy Barr Thu Jan 14, 11:57 am ET

Rush, Robertson take heat

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh and televangelist Pat Robertson are being scolded for their comments in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake in Haiti that has killed tens of thousands, according to early estimates.

Critics from both the left and right are denouncing their remarks as insensitive to the disaster and attempts to score political points off human tragedy.

Speaking on his radio show Wednesday, Limbaugh said the earthquake has played into Obama’s hands, allowing the president to look “compassionate” and “humanitarian” while at the same time bolstering his standing in both the “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country.”

He added: “We've already donated to Haiti. It’s called the U.S. income tax.”
Limbaugh’s comments were, in part, a riff on Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) much publicized remark in a new book that Obama was able to win the election because he is “light-skinned” and lacks a “Negro dialect.”

But regardless of the intended context, Limbaugh’s comments have been widely panned. “They are deeply insensitive,” said conservative commentator Pat Buchanan on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“The president speaks for the country when he says we’re going to go in there,” he said. “You want your whole nation, and it’s very positive. And I think Rush’s comments were cynical.”

Sitting next to Buchanan on set, host Joe Scarborough called Limbaugh’s comments “deplorable.”

“The insensitivity is stunning,” said the former Republican congressman.
Liberal commentators also quickly jumped on Limbaugh.

“Limbaugh did not know when to just shut up,” said liberal commentator Keith Olbermann on his MSNBC show “Countdown.” “Today he blamed communism for the poverty of Haiti, blamed President Obama for holding a news conference the day after this cataclysm when he did not hold one after the failed half-assed terror attempt in Detroit.”

John Amato from the left-leaning website Crooks and Liars added that “with thousands of people dead already and as the suffering continues in Haiti, Limbaugh and his ilk only care about one thing: destroying Obama.”

The conservative media watchdog site Newsbusters stepped up to defend Limbaugh, saying his comments were not put in proper context, but very few others are backing the conservative firebrand’s latest controversial remarks.

While Limbaugh received a modicum of support, nobody of note has stepped up to defend Robertson’s claim that Haiti got hit by an earthquake because it is “cursed.”

Speaking about the disaster during his program “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network, Robertson said that when Haiti was still a French colony its leaders “swore a pact to the devil” to get out from “under the heel of the French.” “They said, ‘we will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal,’” Robertson claimed, as was recorded and sent around by the liberal group Media Matters.

“But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other,” he continued. “That island of Hispaniola is one island. It is cut down the middle on the one side is Haiti the other is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty.”

Robertson, who has a long history of making controversial remarks on his program, urged his followers to pray for the residents of Haiti and said that “out of this tragedy I’m optimistic something good may come.”

Speaking on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” White House adviser Valerie Jarrett said Thursday morning she was left “speechless” by Robertson’s remarks.

“That's not the attitude that expresses the spirit of the president or the American people, so I thought it was a pretty stunning comment to make,” she said.

A statement from Robertson’s spokesman Chris Roslan tried to downplay the “cursed” remark.

“Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath,” the statement read. “If you watch the entire video segment, Dr. Robertson’s compassion for the people of Haiti is clear. He called for prayer for them. His humanitarian arm has been working to help thousands of people in Haiti over the last year, and they are currently launching a major relief and recovery effort to help the victims of this disaster.”

Personal comment: Limbaugh, a drug abuser, often lets his mouth get ahead of his brain and this is yet another instance where has made a fool of himself, even to his loyal ditto-heads. The Reverend Robertson’s handlers might want to consider having him tested for dementia as the sorts of statements he makes, like this one, with distressing frequency could hardly be from a man who is sane.