Free Republic

Here is video of Rush Limbaugh today saying the Obama Administration has "gone far beyond what Richard Nixon even comtemplated" in his dealings with the media. Rush said Obama is attempting to "silence" individual reporters and an entire network. Obama is doing so from a position of being the darling of the mainstream media. In Nixon's case, Rush said "Nixon was trying to get a fair shake." The media always hated Nixon and were very biased against him. Rush made the comments after mocking Andrea Mitchell for being a supposed "real news" person. He plays audio of her slamming Sen....

Here is video of Rush Limbaugh today taking a call from a liberal from Indiana named "Dwight." Rush introduced him by saying he was calling from Indianapolis, the home of the Colts owner, Jim "Hearsay" (Irsay)! Irsay publicly opposed Limbaugh's bid to be part of a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams. Dwight is dissatisfied with Obama, because he believes Obama's Health Care Plan will be a $1.2 Trillion transfer to the Insurance Companies. Limbaugh begins this segment by reacting to CNN's hitjob story on him in which they theorize that people flock to Rush because he is...

Sorry to disillusion those of you who are still in denial about President Barack Obama's true socialistic and dictatorial nature, but this guy's militancy against his perceived enemies puts Richard Nixon's White House to shame. His war on Fox News is just his latest salvo. Obama's perceived enemies are all those who have the temerity not to roll over for his extreme agenda. They all must be demonized, marginalized and silenced by a president who has turned the Oval Office into a glorified street organizing headquarters to attack his opponents. Indeed, this self-described uniter is the most divisive president in...

CNN’s Carol Costello began a new series on political talk radio on Monday’s American Morning, suggesting it was unfairly dominated by conservatives, and brought on a liberal psychiatrist who theorized that Rush Limbaugh has an audience because he’s “operating like the bully, and if you’re on the playground...you want to be...under the bully’s wing and go along with him and get...some power by proxy.” The correspondent’s report, which aired just before the bottom of the 7 am Eastern hour, was the first installment in a “special series on talk radio,” according to anchor John Roberts. Costello zeroed in on the...

Andrew Sullivan directs attention to this fascinating query: All of this gets me to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Both of them have been in the news a lot for their outspoken and controversial views. And once again, people don’t seem to understand that their jobs are entertainment, nothing more… Talk show hosts have no legal or ethical obligation to do anything but entertain. And judging by their successes, Limbaugh and Beck are brilliant at their jobs. I find it mind boggling that anyone believes a TV talk host is expressing his own true views… Do you think that Limbaugh...

I'm no fan of Rush Limbaugh, goodness knows, but I rise defensively at today's "La Cucaracha" comic strip, appearing in the Sun-Times and other papers. In the strip -- which is several days behind the news, though through no fault of the creator -- the TV burbles: Conservative broadcaster Rush Limbaugh is trying to purchase a stake in an NFL franchise. If the deal goes through, Limbaugh hopes to change the team's name to "The St. Louis Klans." That's just wrong.

The Fox News Channel and conservative and right-leaning libertarian talk radio hosts Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage and Lou Dobbs are being targeted for federal investigations by a coalition of religious groups for so-called anti-immigrant hate speech.The So We Might See Coalition is sponsoring what they call a media fast, asking participants to abstain from violence on television and radio from October 19th through the 26th.The coalition is leading a petition drive asking the Federal Communications Commission initiate an investigation in to "hate speech in the media."The coalition is also calling for the 1993 report entitled, The Role of...

MSNBC contributor Touré on Wednesday continued the network's vitriolic, slanderous attacks on Rush Limbaugh. Discussing the radio host’s bid to buy the St. Louis Rams, the cable commentator smeared, "Several NFL players have already said they would not play for Rush because they know he would love to say he owns a plantation full of black men." [Audio available here.] When Morning Meeting host Dylan Ratigan mock protested, "No, they don't know that," the one-named Touré reiterated, "They feel it." Ratigan gave in and played along, "Okay, they feel that." Despite calls from the Media Research Center, MSNBC has repeatedly...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) rejected charges Sunday that President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, is a racist. Asked if he agreed with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh that Sotomayor is a racist, the South Carolina Republican said he disagreed. “No, they interject themselves in the debate. They have got an audience to entertain and Newt is a political commentator. I’m a United States senator,” Graham said on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace. “I don’t think she’s a racist. She should be proud of what she has accomplished in...

Powell to Rush, Cheney: Room For Me Among 'Emerging' Republican Party Posted by David Beard, Boston.com Staff May 20, 2009 06:27 AM Colin Powell issued a sharp rebuke last night to Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney for trying to exclude him from the backbiting Republican Party. Before some 1,500 business leaders in Boston, as well as Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and wife Gisele Bundchen, the retired general and former secretary of state spoke openly of the dispute roiling the Grand Old Party after election setbacks and polls putting its popularity at roughly one of five Americans. "Rush Limbaugh says, 'Get...

The Republican strategist who helped Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman prepare for a possible presidential run says the Republican party is in for a devastating defeat if its guiding lights are Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney. "If it's 2012 and our party is defined by Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney, then we're headed for a blowout," says strategist John Weaver, who advised Huntsman and was for years a close adviser to Sen. John McCain. "That's just the truth." Huntsman, a favorite of GOP moderates, left the Republican presidential race last week after accepting President Obama's offer to become U.S....

(CNN) — Rush Limbaugh responded to Roberta McCain's criticism of his tough radio persona Thursday, joking over the fact "McCain's mother is dumping on me." "She is absolutely right" in her assessment that that she belongs to a different Republican Party than he does, Limbaugh said during his radio show: "The Republican Party she belongs to gets shellacked election after election after election." . . . . . On his show Thursday, Limbaugh made clear he found the criticism quite amusing. "Sending Sen. McCain's mother out to dump on me?" Limbaugh said, laughing. "I love it."

(CNN) — The always-outspoken Roberta McCain — mother of Sen. John McCain — took a swipe at Rush Limbaugh Wednesday, saying the popular conservative radio host "does not represent the Republican Party that I belong to". "I belong to the Republican Party," McCain, 97, said during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. "What he represents of the Republican Party has nothing to do with my side of it. I don't know what the man means, I don't know what he's talking about." McCain also praised Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele for labeling Limbaugh an "entertainer" earlier...

Wanda Sykes isn't killing but she's getting some laughs -- and Obama was yukking it up until Sykes muttered the word "abstinence" and "Palin" in the same joke. He was back laughing when Sykes slammed Rush -- and hard -- for the hoping-Obama-will fail stuff. CSPAN was trained on the president when Sykes joked that Limbaugh was the "I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th [Sept. 11th] hijacker, but he was so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight." Obama was chuckling -- while saying something to his dais mates -- and couldn't quite stop smiling even as he...

After her son's failed presidential bid, 97-year-old Roberta McCain can let her guard down. BY JAMES RAINEY Reporting from Washington -- It had been more than a year in the making, this meeting between Roberta McCain and me. The smart guys who managed her son's presidential campaign got all queasy at the thought of Roberta, unfettered, in a journalist's thrall. I managed a few tantalizing phone calls with John McCain's outspoken mother, a column on my vain pursuit of an interview and a promise that the end of the presidential race would bring a chance for us to share some...

The Republican Party is in big trouble and needs to find a way to move back to the middle of the country, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday. Powell said the GOP is "getting smaller and smaller" and "that's not good for the nation." He also said he hopes that emerging GOP leaders, such as House Minority Whip Cantor, will not keep repeating mantras of the far right. "The Republican Party is in deep trouble," Powell told corporate security executives at a conference in Washington sponsored by Fortify Software Inc. The party must realize that the country has...

It's been all over the news - Rush Limbaugh packing up camp and abandoning his operations in New York City. It's been the subject of a Jon Stewart "The Daily Show" tirade [0] and even drew the attention of New York Gov. David Paterson [0]. Limbaugh appeared on Fox News Channel's April 8 "Your World with Neil Cavuto" [1] and explained why he was leaving and how he felt about those that were glad he was leaving. "Well, if they're glad I'm leaving, Neil, then I assume that the governor of New York, the unelected governor - has no interest...

Rush Limbaugh to New York: "Drop dead. I'm leaving." New York to Rush: "Don't let the screen door hit you on the way out." And with that, New York Governor David Paterson laughed off a millionaire packing up and heading out. Paterson even found it funny.

The mistakes liberals like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are making can teach Republicans how to regain power—and how to hold onto it. In recent weeks, I’ve been critical of some of the most hard-core ideological elements of the GOP. As a consequence, some have requested I leave the party altogether, and say that I am now an unwelcome member. Let me be clear: No one wants the Republican Party to succeed more than I do. I spent nearly two years on the road during my father’s presidential campaign, in my early twenties, surrounded by hygienically deficient, middle-aged political strategists...

Angered by a New York state plan to tax residents earning over $500,000 per year, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh vowed Monday to sell all of his property and shut down his operations there and move them to Texas, a state with no income tax. The new plan, which is expected to be voted on Tuesday, would raise about $4 billion a year, said Dan Weiller, spokesman for New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Lawmakers are calling it a temporary tax increase but Rush was having none of that. “When I am there working I pay whatever, you know,...

Is Michael Steele advising the DNC on the side? Because whoever is still pushing the Rush Limbaugh line over at the Democratic National Committee doesn’t get it. The whole Limbaugh gimmick went stale weeks ago when the DNC announced the remarkably uncreative slogan for a billboard meant to razz the talk show host. While it lasted Sure, the “Rush is the de facto leader of the Republican party” circus was effective for awhile. Effective in a double-edged sword kinda way. On the one hand, Rahm’s strategy completely frazzled the GOP rendering the party ridiculous for what seemed like an eternity....

As one White House official explained it to me Limbaugh became an issue not because he is the most prominent Obama critic but because the talk show host embodies “hyper-partisanship.” Limbaugh became a stand-in for White House view of Republicans as a party that is not constructive, not willing to seek common ground and out of touch with a bipartisan thirst for solutions to pressing economic problems. Obama’s aides connect the dots and see a picture of a dark, unappealing political landscape on the right in which Republicans have become so in-grown that not one of them felt free to...

The numbers are in — Rush Limbaugh has won a dramatic victory over the Democrats. The White House's unprecedented assault on the talk-radio host has driven his ratings to number one in many of America's biggest, most liberal radio markets. The anti-Limbaugh offensive was a calculated move promoted by Democratic strategists Stanley Greenberg and James Carville to make Rush a new conservative bogeyman, in the same way they stigmatized Newt Gingrich in the 1990s. The strategy was implemented on Jan. 23 when President Obama lectured a gathering of GOP leaders at a meeting discussing his $1 trillion stimulus package, “You...

Radio Dialogue paraphrase:Rush was discussing the Audit extremes foisted on him by the State of New York. The new New York State and City Taxes are targeting "rich folk". He will broadcast from his Florida home but also wants to find a Hurricane proof have. He said that he might move to Texas because there is no State Income tax.We Lone Star T=State Freepers should show our support and invite hime to "come on down". Of course as a DFW_phile I'd like to see him in my own backyard!

Captain Ed Morrissey points out that, according to her Twitter feed, Meghan McCain has found the comedic Holy Grail: (Tweet #1 and #2) To the people at current that created this, I am flattered beyond words. I can officially die a happy woman. Officially the funniest thing I have ever seen in my entire life (and I have seen my fair share). Thanks for correctly animating my bootylicious body :-) LOVE IT!!!

President Obama and the Democrats should wave the white flag in their strawman war on Rush Limbaugh. The Media Research Center delivered the grim casualty figures for the Democrats. Since January, the top talk show gabber's ratings have soared off the charts. Radio affiliates that carry Limbaugh's syndicated show call the ratings boost he's gotten from the Democrat's orchestrated attack on him a "dramatic surge." This writer predicted as much when President Obama cracked to Congressional Republicans in late January that they should knock off listening to Limbaugh if they expected to get anything done in Congress and with his...

Michael Steele is the gift that keeps on giving. His latest entrée unto the absurd comes in the form of an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon. Steele now wants us to believe that his wayward ramblings are part of an elaborate ruse – some sort of Jedi mind trick. Really?

The more President Obama and the Democrats talk about talk radio titan Rush Limbaugh, the higher his ratings go. And he’s taking all conservative talk radio along for a very exciting ride.

To hear GOP Chairman Michael Steele tell it, his recent donnybrook with radio host Rush Limbaugh - and his subsequent apology - were all part of a grand "strategic" plan. "I'm a cause-and-effect kind of guy," Steele told CNN’s Don Lemon on Wednesday. "So if I do something, there's a reason for it... Even it may look like a mistake, a gaffe. There is a rationale, there is a logic behind it," he said.

Why is it that in descriptions of the words and activities of Rush Limbaugh, it is not pointed out the obvious similarity of Limbaugh and Adolph Hitler. Rush knows exactly what he has started. Do you remember how overbearing, intimidating and feared Sen. Joseph McCarthy became before his crudities and chilling attacks on patriotic citizens was stopped? The rise of Hitler came about through use of the same strident, rancorous and dangerous appeal to a populace who had suffered military defeat and in times of embarrassment for their loss of economic power – how the Germans suffered because of inflation...

Maher and Olbermann accuse conservative talk radio of "whipping up" fringe elements of society. Maher and Olbermann accused conservative talk radio of "whipping up" fringe elements of society Friday. Maher: Listening to people like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck these days, I cannot figure out whether these right wingers are more dangerous when they're in power or when they're out of power, because when they're out of power, you know their paranoid, their paranoia goes off the charts. This Glenn Beck guy, I wouldn't even give him the time of day except he's a big star now on Fox and...

WEST PALM BEACH, FL (WFLX) - It's a national war of words, and the battleground is West Palm Beach. In one corner: conservative talk show host and Palm Beach resident Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh infuriated Democrats with his comments earlier this month that he hoped that President Barack Obama fails. Democrats, in response, declared a PR war. They decided to buy space on a billboard in West Palm Beach to "send Rush a message". The Democratic National Party solicited ideas for a billboard message to Limbaugh on their website. More than 80,000 slogans were submitted as part of a contest. Nearly...

Here is video of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responding to a question about comments by former Vice-President Dick Cheney that President Obama is seeking to take advantage of the Economic Crisis to radically expand government in all kinds of ways. Gibbs responds that "I guess Rush Limbaugh was busy," so they "trotted out the next most popular member of the Republican cabal." Question: As Gibbs makes the caddy remark, you hear some female hyena laughing in the background. I wonder which member of the impartial press corps it was who thought Gibbs was so funny? . . ....

Beginning Sunday, the White House will harness every part of the Democratic Party’s machinery to defend President Obama’s budget and portray Republicans as reflexively political, according to party strategists. A participant in the planning meetings described the push as a successor to Democrats’ message that Rush Limbaugh is the Republican Party leader. “We have exhausted the use of Rush as an attention-getter,” the official said. David Plouffe, manager of Obama’s presidential race, helped design the strategy, which includes the most extensive activation since November of the campaign’s grassroots network. The database—which includes information for at least 10 million donors, supporters...

Did you know that the racism in our country is coming from Rush Limbaugh? That's what HBO's Bill Maher said on Friday's "Real Time." Not just that, but also the people who are buying guns and ammunition since Election Day are doing so "because they're afraid that Obama and his Negro army are going to come and get" them. I kid you not. Such offenses occurred in the following exchange between Maher and his conservative guest Andrew Breitbart (video embedded below the fold, relevant section at 2:37):

Forced to the ramparts to defend Rush Limbaugh against spurious, low-down attacks from the Obama White House and assorted Obamedia, conservatives, in their understandable zeal to defend a salient voice of conservatism, are letting the real enemy slip away unnamed. Who would that be? The answer is George W. Bush, whose stealthy political legacy stands as taking what is popularly known as "conservatism" on a disastrously leftward lurch. A shocking statement, maybe. But I came to believe long ago -- at some point after the insipid limpness of former President Bush's theories of world democracy, delivered in his second inaugural...

First, just a word before the following is dismissed by Democratic readers as partisan, or as being from someone who doesn't know what he is talking about. My polling firm, InsiderAdvantage, is non-partisan. It polled the 2008 presidential race for the red-hot political site Politico, and was in a recent speech at Fordham University named by a guru who even D.C. liberals praise as one of the three most accurate national pollsters for the presidential contest. This column isn't about partisanship. It's about strategy. I've only met Rush Limbaugh once. It was back when I was politically active, running Newt...

Presidents throughout history have kept lists of political foes. But the Obama White House is the first I am aware of to pick targets based on polls. Even Richard Nixon didn't focus-group his enemies list. Team Obama -- aided by Clintonistas Paul Begala, James Carville and Stanley Greenberg -- decided to attack Rush Limbaugh after poring over opinion research. White House senior adviser David Axelrod explicitly authorized the assault. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel assigned a White House official to coordinate the push. And Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gleefully punched the launch button at his podium, suckering the White House...

Link to Rachel Maddow interview with Meghan McCain on MSNBC (Total Time: 9:59) "...there are people who think we should go back to our conservative roots, become extreme conservatives" (emphasis mine) (1:26) Maddow identified Tim Pawlenty as being on McCain's side. (1:42) "I love the Republican Party and I'm trying to help it." (2:11) "...the poster child for moderate Republicanism..." (Maddow, talking about McCain) (2:44) "I still consider myself a Republican." (emphasis mine) (4:04) "...we're never going to create a dialogue, meet in the middle..." (talking about Republicans appearing on Maddow's show, Maddow appearing on Fox) (4:17) "And I hate...

There's nothing conservative about the boost to WABC radio from Rush Limbaugh's resurgence Rush Limbaugh likes to complain that President Obama is out to destroy the capitalist spirit in America. But so far, life under socialism has been pretty good for the confrontational talk radio star. In the months since the Republican rout left Democrats in charge and conservatives on the run, the outspoken Mr. Limbaugh has become the de facto leader of the opposition—and the only radio personality who gets national attention on a daily basis. Ratings for The Rush Limbaugh Show on its flagship station, WABC-AM, spiked by...

What did the Godfather say? Basically, he said that if Obama's goal was to create a socialist economy in the United States, he wanted him to fail. Let's stop the phony sense of outrage. If you don't agree with The Man on this one then you ought to be looking at emigration laws. Yesterday we learned that this whole "wanting the president to fail" stuff isn't new and isn't by any means exclusive to evil conservatives. We now learn that James Carville, Bill Clinton's attack python, was referring to President Bush in the early years of the Bush administration when...

Setting a world record today for beating a dead horse, the Democratic National Committee will announce they’ve selected an anti-Rush Limbaugh slogan to be placed on a billboard in the radio host’s hometown. The DNC began soliciting slogans a week ago in response to Limbaugh’s well-known statement that he wants President Obama to fail. “If you’re anything like me, then you’ve had the urge to talk back to a right-wing talk radio host more than a few times. Now you can,” reads an email blast from the executive director of the DNC. “Can you help us come up with...

Rush is not the right leader for the Reagan Revolution Phase Two John Mark ReynoldsPolitics 03.04.2009 Rush has enviable radio talent. He reaches out to a big group of people every week and edutains them. He has his reward and needs no further praise. I am not going to let leftists force me to throw Rush under the bus, but they cannot force me to make him the driver either. Suppose you want to see some of his ideas, such as pro-life and small government, win.Suppose you want to see the Reagan Revolution continue or expand to new groups. Rush...

James Carville fired back at radio host Rush Limbaugh Wednesday, who earlier in the day took the Democratic strategist to task for saying of President Bush in 2001, "I certainly hope he doesn't succeed." Carville told CNN that unlike Limbaugh, who recently said he wants President Obama to fail, Carville retracted his own missive -- uttered to a group of reporters on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 -- just minutes later, when he learned of the terrorist attacks on America. "Thank God that I had the good sense to realize that the United States was at war and that...

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. bests controversial conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh in a new national poll about the direction of the Republican Party. The Democratic strategy and polling group Democracy Corps found that more Americans prefer Huntsman's moderate approach to Limbaugh's premise that the GOP must move further to the right, 57 percent to 37 percent, according to Politico.com. As the GOP struggles to recover from last November's loss of the White House, Limbaugh is increasingly being seen as the party's leader. He was cheered at the recent annual meeting of the national Conservative Political Action Committee for...

Team Obama, aided by Clintonistas Paul Begala, James Carville and Stanley Greenberg -- decided to attack Rush Limbaugh after poring over opinion research. White House senior adviser David Axelrod explicitly authorized the assault. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel assigned a White House official to coordinate the push. And Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gleefully punched the launch button at his podium, suckering the White House press corps into dropping what they were doing to get Mr. Limbaugh. Was it smart politics and good policy? No. For one thing, it gave the lie to Barack Obama's talk about ending "the political strategy...

EXCERPT: The bad news is that newspapers are dying and comic strips are fading into history. The good news is that the Huffington Post is guaranteed to make you laugh every day. For example, here’s how New Age guru Deepak Chopra opened his article about Rush Limbaugh yesterday. “When Michael Steele, the hapless chairman of the Republican Party, lost his bearings and called Rush Limbaugh’s style ugly and incendiary, everyone knew it was the truth,” the subcontinental sahib said. “But it was a perfect example of an inconvenient truth. The right wing has long used ugly, incendiary speech the way...

It wasn't supposed to happen this way. The Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats have been pursuing a strategy of tying elected Republicans to Rush Limbaugh, concocted in hopes of painting Republican opposition to the Administration policy proposals as extremist. ... The conservative radio host, and liberal scourge, reports that his ratings have nearly doubled since Democrats began their campaign to marginalize him. Revenues are up as well. ... Things are so good for him right now, even the White House has to admit its attacks on Limbaugh are becoming "counter-productive." ...

By nearly 2 to 1, Americans view Rush Limbaugh negatively, according to a new Democracy Corps poll that pours gas on an already divisive battle between the conservative talk show host's fans and those of moderate GOP boss Michael Steele. The Democratic poll, provided to Whispers, declares Rush a heavy weight on an already downtrodden GOP. "On virtually every question the great majority of the mainstream rejects Limbaugh's ideas and vision of the Republican Party," said the poll summary, printed below. Of course, many conservatives will question the poll, conducted by a group headed by Clintonites James Carville and Stan...

Best-selling author and former Republican Frank Schaeffer lets Rush Limbaugh and his Republican mates have it at HuffPo, in a piece called, "An Open Letter to the Republican Traitors (from a former Republican)": I have to say, love him or hate him, the Republicans have got to appreciate Schaeffer's helpful inclusion of related content. He's like their own personal AOL Dashboard.....