We haven't heard much from Tim Kaine yet since he took over at the DNC, but yesterday's much-publicized back-and-forth between Rush Limbaugh and RNC Chairman Michael Steele gave him a chance to get in the action and mix things up--and to jump on the latest storyline that has Democrats in Washington giddy about its political possibilities: the notion that Rush Limbaugh is the de facto leader of the GOP.
Last night, after Steele told Politico that he hadn't meant to slight Limbaugh by calling him an "entertainer" whose rhetoric could be "incendiary" and "ugly," Kaine issued a statement that Limbaugh is, in fact, the GOP's leader--a notion Steele has had to refute publicly twice in the past three days.
"Chairman Steele's reversal this evening and his apology to Limbaugh proves the unfortunate point that Limbaugh is the leading force behind the Republican Party, its politics and its obstruction of President Obama's agenda in Washington," Kaine said, in a statement issued by the DNC press office last night.
Kaine continued to push the idea today, including the talking point in
a statement on new infrastructure projects: "My counterpart at the
Republican National Committee proved who is really leading their party
-- calling Rush Limbaugh to apologize after courageously criticizing
him just this weekend," Kaine said.
Kaine's were the latest in a
string of public statements where Democrats have sought to push
Limbaugh's incendiarity to prominence: White House Chief of Staff Rahm
Emanuel said on CBS's Face the Nation Sunday that Limbaugh is now the GOP's leader, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs urged
cable news hosts to ask Republican guests whether they agreed with
Limbaugh's desire for President Obama to fail, and liberal activist
group Americans United for Change has begun running a TV ad accusing the GOP of listening to Limbaugh too much.
And it's a message that isn't likely to go away anytime soon, according to one Democratic strategist.
"We're
going to keep trying to draw this wedge, because we know that most
Republicans in Congress...hanging him [Limbaugh] around their necks,
there's not a lot they can do about it," a Democratic strategist told
me over the phone today, pointing to Rep. Phil Gingrey's (R-Ga.) apology to Limbaugh in January after criticizing the commentator.
"Rush
really represents a polar point in the Republican Party, and I think,
again, it is a way to make Republicans have to choose" between his
rhetoric and more inclusive, bipartisan politics, the strategist told
me.
"Republicans are going to have to answer for every incendiary thing their leader says,"
a Democratic leadership aide told me. And that seems to be the goal for
Democrats: to make Republicans answer for Limbaugh's comments as a
voice for the party.
It wasn't that long ago that Democrats were
the ones seen as having a unity problem; now, disagreements between
Limbaugh and more mainstream Republicans over the "fail" remark (Rep.
Eric Cantor, one of the most prominent Republicans in Congress,
distanced himself from Limbaugh over the weekend) have given Democrats
an opportunity to spread some "disunity" messaging of their own.
By
suggesting Limbaugh is the leader of the GOP, Democrats are seizing on
a moment of rebuilding for the Republican Party. Since John McCain lost
the 2008 election, Republicans don't have a single, widely recognized
leader the way Democrats do in Obama. And, in the midst of that
rebuilding moment, Democrats are granting a national megaphone to
(debatably) the most polarizing voice in the GOP's ranks.
The
notion of "Steele vs. Rush" became widespread after Steele's original
comment on CNN and Limbaugh's subsequent tirade against the RNC
chairman. But it is a "Democrats vs. Rush" dichotomy that Democrats are
establishing by promoting Rush as the GOP's de facto leader--a
dichotomy that seeks to marginalize Steele and other mainstream
Republicans and offer moderates an easier choice between Republicans
and Democrats (after all, how many non-conservatives are likely to
follow Rush?). That and, as the strategist told me, it offers
Republicans a tough choice on where they stand.
Nowadays
(meaning Tuesday morning), everyone's a deconstructionist: Democrats
are seeking to deconstruct the GOP, and Michael Steele must seek to
deconstruct both the "Steele vs. Rush" media narrative and the
"Democrats vs. Rush" choice being offered to voters by Democratic
messengers.
His statement to Politico began to do so, but that doesn't mean Democrats will stop hammering.
Regarding Rush Limbaugh’s hope for failure —
The Republicans need to find some path to bipartisanship. The Democratic Congressional leadership needs to both encourage and facilitate Republican bipartisan efforts. Thus far, both parties have failed the public.
The country is more fearful than it was after 9/11. Many, many more people are directly affected by the economic collapse that started in 2007 and became evident in September.
I am 61 and have lost my job. My 401(k) is worth about 40% less and dropping. If I get my job back by September, I'll be okay. If not, then I'll cash in my 401(k) and hope to make it last a year. If I don't get my job back, or some job, by September 2010, then I will go bankrupt and lose the house. At which point I will take my Social Security and a modest pension from a former life and, ever mobile, I’ll become a member of the lower class (might be pretty close to the poverty line). I would hate to disappoint my wife of more than 30 years with an impoverished retirement, but it could happen.
The financial system is truly broken. The public has lost confidence in the leadership of the private sector. The federal government is the only player left standing. Without taxpayer support, most of our financial institutions would be bankrupt.
I expect Congress to achieve a unity of purpose rivaling the country's response to 9/11. Republicans have an important, if somewhat unflattering, role to play to help shape a new and better regulated financial system to support our markets. For the 12 years that preceded the collapse (1995 - 2007), Congress was controlled by Republicans. They should be in a good position to shed light on the regulatory failures that led first to the instability of the financial system, then to its collapse.
Public confidence requires the Congress to unify and support the President. The Republicans must find the political courage to admit that the system they promoted has failed the people. If they would be less defensive and more analytical they could make important contributions to helping the country out of this mess.
Rush Limbaugh has the right to voice his opinion. He speaks for that part of the Republican Party that understands patriotism only in terms of bullets and coffins — lapel pin patriots. Apparently the collapse of the financial system and the economic hardship it imposes on citizens does not require a patriotic response. And so, Rush hopes for Obama’s failure.
Those members of Congress, as well as Rush, who think we ought to just let the institutions fail, that any intervention will make the problem worse, should be voted out of office. These people are in a state of denial that the failure is systemic. They think it's part of the business cycle, only they can't find any economist who agrees. Hell, they would be hard pressed to find any bank CEO who agrees. The free market fanatics have taken credit for fabulous returns for so long that they cannot call it, as a CNBC documentary recently did, A House of Cards.
Rush seems to think that health care and environmental issues are the collateral damage of free markets. “We didn’t mean it and we are very sorry it happened …it is just one of those regrettable things that sometimes happens.” This doesn’t make it okay. He's pretty sure that anyone trying to constructively address these issues is a “liberal” whose real purpose is to move us all towards “socialism”.
I find it interesting that the right wing is doing to the Republican Party today what the left wing did to the Democratic Party in 1968. The fringes of the parties tend toward ideological purity resulting in an inability to compromise. When an inability to compromise begins to affect the entire party, its days are numbered. The truth is the inability to compromise is the inability to govern. Fortunately the public knows this and, in the fullness of time, throws the laggards out.
And so I've come full circle — compromise is at the heart of bipartisanship. The Republicans need to learn again how it is done.
Rush is a leader, you betcha',...of pill-popping, angry, myopic, closet xenophobes who criticize anything that their small minds can't digest. He snubs the leader of the RNC, snubbed McCain, snubbed any and everyone not "rational" enough to understand his warped brand of conservatism. This guy is a joke!!!!! Please let him lead the GOP now. It will equate to a Democratic reign for years to come.
Didn't Obama confess to using illegal drugs? Didn't Bill Clinton smoke a little weed? Oh wait, they are just expressing individualism, while Rush is a pig.
My bad...I have trouble catching liberal double standards.
Rush is certainly the leader of today's Republican Party. I'm old enough to remember Eisenhower, Rockefeller, and Javits. The GOP changed its spots in 1964 and has never been the same. Even Barry Goldwater would be appalled at what the GOP has become. Steele is tokenism. Only a very few African Americans would find comfort in GOP policies, and the voting trends bear that out. Cantor is also an anomaly. He is a Jewish Republican. That used to be an oxymoron. Interestingly, affluence in the Jewish community has not been followed by an increasing shift from Democrats to Republicans. Jaoob Javits was also an anomaly. When I hear Rush Limbaugh, I hear the demogogue's art taken to new limits. I'm not surprised that Steele apologized to him. Limbaugh holds a lot of GOP IOUs.
I thought Obama was way too smart to bring Rush into the spotlight without having a strategy behind it. Making the Republicans own Limbaugh as an intellectual leader is brilliant. What intellectual has no tolerance for ambiguity? That is the mark of, at kindest description, an unconscious person. Rush, like George W., is a one trick pony. You aim him down the furrow and he plows a straight line, no matter what extenuating circumstances might arise, such as discovering that the field is mined, for example. Sometimes I listen to Rush just to marvel at how somebody can be so socially maladapted as to have absolutely nothing good to say about anybody who doesn't agree with him on everything. He could not lead any group other than mean people; he's lucky that they never seem to be in short supply.
Rush Limbaugh, shake hands with Osama Bin Laden. You are Allies now. You both hope that Obama and America fail. But Rush, I congratulate you. You've done far more damage to America than Osama could ever dream of doing. You've warped many more minds than Osama has.
Please visit my Blog: "Conservatives Are America's Real Terrorists"
http://conservativesarecommunistss.blogspot.com/
I wish that Chicken Hawk Rush Limpball would run for office. Currently, he mouths off and does not have to worry about responsibility, let alone research and the consequences of his actions. He will not run for office because he is the quintessential Chicken-Hawk. It took eight years for the Republican Reactionary Neo-Cons to create this economic depression, and it will take a few years to resolve it.
Well, of course calling people names and insulting people just because they belong to another political party is extremely constructive. Congratulations and welcome to the land of "hope" and "change."
I agree with about 90% of what Rush says. Sure he gets on people a little harshly at times, but no more than I have heard from the other side of the fence and the media.
Small government and tax cuts to all sounds like a more rational plan than credit extensions and spending money we don't have.
My dad taught me if I can't afford it, I don't need it and that includes government health care.
Why aren't there any big name liberal radio shows? Because there are far fewer middle class liberal people. Liberals get their power by giving hand-outs to the poor and now are trying to make illegal aliens new voters.
The middle class is mostly conservative...the working class is mostly conservative...Christians are very conservative.
I really think this county needs to split again and let the liberals spend all their own money instead of ours and then maybe they will understand were we conservatives are coming from.
jpcedotal wrote "I really think this county needs to split again and let the liberals spend all their own money instead of ours and then maybe they will understand were we conservatives are coming from"
- Exactly the true nature of the 'Limb-servatives", once any opposing viewpoint is presented, the immediate response is "get out of my country!" I do believe that the confederate flag is hanging too low over your eyes.
As Rustbelt_Mark so eloquently wote, the true beauty and grace of the American experiment is based on an ability for those elected into our government to transcend partisan lines as much as possible and work towards the common good. Anything and everything that Limbaugh says is counter-intuitive of this true meaning of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
I can only pray that God sheds his grace on us and reminds these wanna-cons that this is OUR country; and thinking that any American is better off being isolated, insulated and secular is not what being an American is about. The men and women that have shed their blood to create this noble experiment of ours deserve better.
Hello. I'm sorry, but you're wrong on many counts. The middle class is NOT largely conservative; neither is the working class. The working class has been historically democratic.
At any rate, we can sure see who the Rush followers are in these responses! Think for yourselves, people. Do you know most of that he says are just his opinions, and that many things he says are lies? He spins and takes things out of context, etc.
Obama wants to rescind Bush's tax cuts on the TOP income level. Trust me, they'll be just fine. If their profits increase, their incomes will also increase. I find it literally funny that so many of the middle class seem to want to stick up for some of the greedy people at the top. Democrats (nor Obama) want everyone to earn the same amount of money. People are confused and hoodwinked by Rush and his spinning. Has anyone been paying attention to the banks and AIG lately?... That's called pure unregulated GREED, and being shady. They play a HUGE part in this mess. And yet, I hear responses here saying they want more of the same. That banks shouldn't have better regulation, and that they shouldn't have to pay a higher tax if they make tens of millions in compensation. WHY are you worried about them? You should be worried about Americans being able to take out a loan, which they couldn't when the banks froze up the credit markets WORLD WIDE!! This is very scary stuff people; please wake up. We need banking regulation (and world-wide at that), or this type or horrible crisis WILL happen again.
It's time to fix things in this country; things which have been ignored for decades by BOTH parties. Social security, health care, infrastructure among them. I'm floored at the people who just blindly believe anything and everything that comes out of Rush's mouth without doing any further questioning or research. It's amazing to me.
At any rate, he speaks for a MINORITY, trust me, so I'm FINE (actually happy) if he continues to be the voice for the right. If he remains the voice for them, the GOP will crumble even more!!
Dear jpcedotal,
Radio commentary as the basis to lead the United States? A Dittohead is a euphemism for a "Yes-man" that is not willing or capable of thinking for themselves. They are but lemmings following the Fat Paid Piper over the cliff. Currently, he mouths off and does not have to worry about responsibility, let alone research and the consequences of his actions. He will not run for office because he is the quintessential Chicken-Hawk. It took eight years for the Republican Reactionary Neo-Cons to create this economic depression, and it will take a few years to resolve it.Reagan, George H. and Geroge W. all ran up deficits due to spend and unwillingness to collect funds to pay. The Democrats may be Tax and Spend, but the Republicans just Spend.
Larry,
You misunderstand. I was not saying radio should lead the USSA, I am just saying that the reason Rush is so popular is because most people who work hard believe one's self is responsible for providing for the family, not the government's.
Obama wants the everyone to make 50K to 250k whether you work or not.
Obama wants the government to take care of our needy, not charity or church.
Obama wants to control how a bank/company spends its money.
Does this sound like America? Is this the kind of thinking that made this country great?
Dude, you are so way off basis, maybe a little research of FACTS would be in order before you go spouting off your pie-hole on a blog!
Damn Repuks anyway!
GOP-RIP
Why so much hate from the liberal side?
Is there a such thing as a Christian liberal anymore or is the Bible now outdated since King Obama is now in power?
I mean, he is wanting to rewrite what our country was founded for, he might as well update salvation as well......
USSA...it didn't work for Russia, Cuba, China Sweden, Vietnam. Why in the heck do you think it will work here?
I want the chance to WORK for what I have. The rich are rich because they know how to use money better than the poor (and me)...duh. If we took all the money in the USSA and split it evenly to everyone over 18 (and a citizen), in two generations, the money would be back in the same hands as before. Sure the poor will have a few more pretty toys, but when those are gone, they will still be poor.
Ignorance is still ignorance with or with out money and the money will only last a couple of generations because they don't understand what it takes to keep it. Just look at the pro-athletes today.
Liberalism has never worked and is very secular.
"why so much hate from the liberal side?"
... the short answer is that I just spent 8 years being used as a wedge issue, being demonized as unpatriotic, as godless, watching the constitution torn apart, listening to the likes of Ann Colter ... I could go on and on. Yes, there is hate on both sides, and now the leader of the Republican party is doing everything in his power to intensify that hate. Because it's good for his business.
So you are fighting hate with hate?
Articles like this (and some of the responses to the articles) work hard to depress me about the lack of knowledge out there. There is no such thing as "fair." "Fair" is something one settles for when they are not able to obtain an "unfair" advantage - so it is with "bipartisan" politics. It is only about who is right and who is wring; and in this case, it is both.
A Republican governed congress with a Democratic President is not effective in establishing their "rightness." The same goes for a Democratic governed congress with a Republican President.
Depending upon your own "rightness," the thing to fear is a Democratic governed congress with a Democratic President (or, if you will, A Republican governed congress with a Republican President).
My rightness? Sharing of wealth - that is, Robin Hood politics, is morally wrong and history cries out with its failures. Penalizing business success with increased taxes (telling John Q Public that it is the "wealthy" among us which must pay) is just plain idiotic and not understood by anyone that has not been in business for themself. The purpose of business is to increase the wealth of its owner - period. Attempts to decrease that wealth (via taxes or otherwise) leads to an increase in product cost - burdened by the customer. Signs of failure creep in when those costs can no longer be supported in product cost. The ultimate failure is "out of business" - lost jobs.
Lost jobs mean less tax revenue - lost from the business and the worker.
Solution? Reward sucessful business with incentives to further invest and increase need to hire more people.
Now, for Limbaugh - he is correct! The policies of this administration will fail (and should fail) the people of this nation. Those that really do have less will receive an increase (for a time) while those that have more will receive less. When left to continue, the balance will come where those that have will have the same as thsoe that do not - then, why work? Why should I own a business? Why should I get up and go to work? My neighbor does neither and he has more than I? I will join him! Welcome to the "sofa line" - where we stand for hour after hour, day after day, for an opportunity to try to purchase one of the ten or so sofas that have been manufactured this month. A common them not so many years ago in the Communist nations - go learn how they are getting out of that now!
Winston Churchhill was correct (paraphrased) democracy is not the best form of government, but it is far ahead of whatever is in second place!
As far leadership goes, yes, Limbaugh is a leader! Only because he is willing to stand-up and be vocal for his personal values and beliefs and does not whimper and whine because his beliefs may "offend" some other person. I would LOVE to be in a position to offend as many people as I could with my personal beliefs! If one is offended by my beliefs, good! Perhaps that person needs to develop a backbone and not be a whiner!
Nation rule by committee is not a good thing - leaders stand and do what is right - regardless of the pain it invokes. Children succeed when parents parent and do not concern themselves with being the childs "friend." A bad parent, and a poor government, exist when either provide their children with the permission or materils to do or have what they will when it is known to not be for their long term good.
Entertainer? You bet he is! So was Ronald Reagan!
Oh yeah, what folk do not understand is, policy changes that affect the economy take years to bottom out their results. The first Bush made some bad choices that started some problems that could have been recovered from. Too bad Clinton came in and rode the final years of the goodness wave and put things in place that took things apart. Oh, has no one remembered that it was in October/November of Clinton's last year that it was offecially announced that the economy was heading for the tank? That is what the second Bush inherited - too bad he was never ever able to be the leader Reagan was and get things back on track!
Leader? Yeah, the RNC needs a leader! Limbaugh? Sure, why not, of the two parties he seems to be the only one with enough courage to stand and take it and say it like it is! I wonder if he were in the White House if he would stand or eventually cower to the heat of Congress? I believe the former and never the latter. I believe Limbaugh speaks to the true heart of the matter and is brutally honest (to a fault) with the american public that have not forgotten how to think for themself!
srhoward wrote: "Oh, has no one remembered that it was in October/November of Clinton's last year that it was offecially announced that the economy was heading for the tank? That is what the second Bush inherited..."
I assume you must be referring to the dotcom market bust that started to take shape in December of 2000? Let's see, as far as memory serves.. Tech stocks grew over 1000% in 5 years, the NASDAQ composite became an actual trading floor, and the market gamblers and newly unregulated banks (now investment banks)were looking for the next turn-and-burn opportunity with highly leveraged funds. Oh yes, let's not forget that on Nov. 7, 2000, George W. Bush and the GOP stole the presidential election.
I would hope that someone of such detailed memory might recall a certain federal budget surplus that was inherited from a certain Democratic administration. Possibly you'll recall, that a $230 billion surplus was almost immediately wiped out with a certain push by a certain Greenspan and a certain Bush 43 to cut corporate taxes in February 2001. A surplus, you may remember, that was actually a result of a previous reduction in tax rates by the Dem-led congress and white house from their previous rates under the Repub hero Ronald Ray-gun.
Recall also by June 2002, the federal budget was once again in deficit when it had only been growing a surplus from 1997-2000. Then came the unregulated housing securities market and the newly formed derivatives market that Citi, HSBC, Lehman, Merril and AIG were so happy to put everyone's $30 trillion into...ah, the good old days...
The Limbaugh'esqe cronyism of believing that everything that Liberals ever did was the cause for every problem in America is entirely fabricated and untrue.
The beauty of the 21st century is that history is now recorded on a daily basis thanks to the various slides and tubes of the internets (sorry had to throw that in!). The tendency for small minded and egotistical radio hosts to declare truths simply on the basis of their own declaration, will only serve to further divide the uneducated and provincial from the rest of America and the world community in whole.
People entrusted with the governance of this country are relied upon to remember these lessons of the past, and not follow blindly the ramblings of a separatist. Will the real GOP please stand up?
Hello. Much of this is repeated above in my other reply, but so much applies to this original post as well:
At any rate, we can sure see who the Rush followers are in these responses! Think for yourselves, people. Do you know most of that he says are just his opinions, and that many things he says are lies? He spins and takes things out of context, etc.
Obama wants to rescind Bush's tax cuts on the TOP income level. Trust me, they'll be just fine. If their profits increase, their incomes will also increase. I find it literally funny that so many of the middle class seem to want to stick up for some of the greedy people at the top. Democrats (nor Obama) want everyone to earn the same amount of money. People are confused and hoodwinked by Rush and his spinning. Has anyone been paying attention to the banks and AIG lately?... That's called pure unregulated GREED, and being shady. They play a HUGE part in this mess. And yet, I hear responses here saying they want more of the same. That banks shouldn't have better regulation, and that they shouldn't have to pay a higher tax if they make tens of millions in compensation. WHY are you worried about them? You should be worried about Americans being able to take out a loan, which they couldn't when the banks froze up the credit markets WORLD WIDE!! This is very scary stuff people; please wake up. We need banking regulation (and world-wide at that), or this type or horrible crisis WILL happen again.
It's time to fix things in this country; things which have been ignored for decades by BOTH parties. Social security, health care, infrastructure among them. I'm floored at the people who just blindly believe anything and everything that comes out of Rush's mouth without doing any further questioning or research. It's amazing to me.
At any rate, he speaks for a MINORITY, trust me, so I'm FINE (actually happy) if he continues to be the voice for the right. If he remains the voice for them, the GOP will crumble even more!!
Reward the larger earners with MORE TAX BREAKS AND INCENTIVES?! NO! Their greed and lack of foresight is what drove us down to where we are. Bush cut the taxes on the wealthiest, and that cut is STILL IN PLACE! Where are the jobs if this works so well??
Anyway, hope Rush stays in place as unofficial (or maybe official) GOP spokesperson, for he will drag them DOWN...
It's a shame that Obama has turned out to be nothing more then a breast feeding mom's boy to Nancy Pelosie.
He has no balls other then to blame all the problems on the Bush administration when wall street who supported him has now called him jerk and a-hole.
All the foreign financial countries have sad he wants to do is give hand outs and create a nanny country.
He has the Clinton smucks who created the first recession only to be followed by Bush who gave more entitlements to seniors, blacks and Aids counties then any other president. You can't help slackers by giving them more and more because they will never pull there own weight.
Prior to Bush, three demo-crap presidents tried to help the so called under privileged. All the ghettos. It doesn't work. All they want is gimme,gimme.gimme.. gimme mys drugs, bitches, and hoes. Hey, just ask the liberals at this rag..
Rush is a leader alright, a leader right to the pill box! Aren’t Repuks anti-drug? Then how can they have a drug addict as a leader?
GOP-RIP - Your party is done and there is a reason Democracy sounds as if derrived from the word "Democratic" as in Democratic Party because it did, the Repuks are the party of socialism and control of the wealthy by the wealthy. The Democrats are a party of Democracy!
GOP-RIP -- Bush & Cheney should be in prison!
I can see it now (start printing the bumper stickers):
Palin - Limburger --- 2012
So much for hope and change. I thought the Obama administration was supposed to be different - that there would be true bipartisan efforts (or at least that was one of Obama's "selling points"). So far, what I've seen is a bully who cries partisanship anytime someone doesn't just completely agree with him - much like the racist label was stuck on people who didn't jump on the Obama bandwagon during the election.
So, Democrats are gleefully "sticking it" to Republicans. While I don't think this is all one-sided - both parties are guilty of partisanship and petty games - it really is sad that less than two months after the "hope and change" president got into office there doesn't seem to be much of either, at least not for anyone who is working hard to support their families.
I fear for our country - with these boobs in charge and no apparent will of everyday citizens wanting to stand up to say "enough," we're all watching what was greatest about our country slip away.
We did stand up and say enough. Hence the change. We want to go back to a country built on ideals and a country that isn't just there for its citizens to take and take and take and give nothing back.
Uhh, there's a reason this overweight drug addict is an entertainment personality and not an actual politician: he's not qualified for anything other than being loud.
It's not so much what he says that concerns me; it's that people actually listen.
The interesting concepts are that his primary audience overlaps with the bible belt but his primary message is one of take what ever you can get for yourself and screw anyone who can't figure out how to do it themselves. To me, that just seems contradictory to the christian doctrine his audience supposedly follows.
Oh well, the world wouldn't be complete without hypocrisy.
Does anyone really take this college drop out drug addict seriously?
U mean Obama or Rush?
JP - you are the definition of a partisan. I would hope that one day you might actually consider another opinion rather than assume it is wrong because it is not yours.
Any opinion that goes against what is in the Bible and/or leaves God out of it, is just wrong...period...zero discussion. Now if you would like to discuss how another opinion actually does go along with Christianity and I am just missing the point, now that's another thing entirely and I am open for debate.
There are only two sides: Those who believe in Christ and what He did for the entire world and those who do not. If we can't agree at this point, then the discussion is a waste of time.
The GOP dilemma, they have no clear leader and Michael Steele the last person standing in their leadership election.
Rush has a national audience, in radio terms, but not with an appeal to moderates that is essential to win elections.
The arrogance of Rush has to be driving some within the GOP crazy but like McCarthy in the 1950’s, few have the guts to speak out.
Michael Steele is on thin ice. Many of the other members of the GOP are worried that their seats are in the margin and do not want to add to the risk by telling Rush to tone it down.
Rush presided over the Conservative movement for the past 8 years as they drove the country into bankruptcy and took up residency in Iraq.
The fact that a 3 times married, drug user can be looked at as the voice of the conservative GOP is itself hard to believe. If that is the behavior of a conservative the GOP is doomed to extinction.