Plain talk: Limbaugh should be ashamed, but isn't

Capital Times (Madison WI) ^ | 10/27/2006 | Dave Zweifel

[UB355]

Plain talk: Limbaugh should be ashamed, but isn't

By Dave Zweifel October 27, 2006 Rush Limbaugh may not be this country's most disgusting human being, but he surely ranks among the top 10.

You're undoubtedly familiar with his latest outrageousness - claiming that Michael J. Fox was really faking those Parkinson's disease palsied shakes when he cut campaign ads for candidates who, like Wisconsin's Jim Doyle, favor embryonic stem cell research.

Fox, who came down with Parkinson's about 15 years ago and was forced to essentially retire from his acting career, thus became the latest victim of the well-honed Republican attack machine made famous by the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 presidential election.

Limbaugh, with his audience of like-minded flame-throwers, is a key player in the well-organized cabal that uses innuendo and, more times than not, outright lies to savage anyone who dares to disagree with the right-wingers who long ago took the Republican Party hostage.

You have to hand it to them - they're very clever.

Although few of them ever served in the military themselves, they've been able to turn war heroes into cowards. Just ask Democrat Max Cleland or even Republican John McCain - one lost his legs and an arm because of an enemy grenade, the other was a prisoner of war for more than five years - who were targeted by a well-organized campaign that started with Karl Rove in the White House and was spread by Limbaugh and his right-wing imitators on talk radio.

And, of course, there was John Kerry, a decorated and wounded Vietnam War veteran, who was made out to be a wimp by a propaganda machine whose favorite candidate hadn't even shown up for National Guard drills.

This year they've characterized an Illinois congressional candidate, Tammy Duckworth, an Army pilot who lost both legs in Iraq, as a "cut and runner."

So Michael J. Fox is only the latest to be the target of the cruel attacks that have nothing to do with the issues, but everything to do with planting seeds of doubt and fueling the whispering campaigns.

Limbaugh, of course, always tries to leave himself a way out.

"If this was not an act," he said of the Fox ad, "then I apologize." All of which is nothing more than a joke, of course, since to raise the issue at all accomplishes the mission.

The pity of it all is that all too many Americans fall for these tactics of character assassination. It will never end until the people stand up and say "enough."

E-mail: dzweifel@madison.com

[GVNR]

Geee, I read the article and just can't figure-out what the guy's political philosophy is......
Ya' think he's a lie - beral??

[eleb]

Isn't Max Mccleland the one that fell on his own granade?

[TChad]

This piece is just another meritless Democratic distortion. It is not a response to Limbaugh's actual comments.

Michael J. Fox chose to enter the political arena to make misleading statements intended to damage a Republican candidate. Limbaugh responded appropriately. He did not make fun of Fox. Limbaugh said that he had seen Fox in a recent acting role in which the Parkinson's was not evident. It was completely appropriate for Limbaugh to wonder whether or not Fox's performance represented acting or genuine disability. This may be news to Democrats, but Fox is a professional actor. It is not character assassination for Rush to suggest that Fox might have been acting.

According to the left, Republicans can't respond to criticism from Cindy Sheehan because her son died, can't respond to criticism from the Jersey Girls because their husbands died, and can't respond to criticism from Michael Fox because he has Parkinson's. Of course, Limbaugh won't play by such asinine rules.

I have yet to hear one Democrat acknowledge that embryonic stem cell research has not been banned by the federal government, that private funding of such research is still permitted, but that such research has to date failed to live up to its initial promise, while adult stem cell research has been highly successful. As usual, the Dems refuse to acknowledge basic facts, while they slander their opponents with fictions.

[ansel12]

Yes, Cleland who has been in combat was in a social situation, getting off a helicopter to share beers with some other soldiers when his grenade fell off and it also armed itself.


"Although few of them ever served in the military themselves"

Also I believe Rush has a higher number of veterans tuned in than just about any other media program, or mainstream publication has readers.

The writer is an idiot.

[Nav_Mom]

That is the best summary of the democrat party I've seen.
Sadly, there are a few Libs on my husbands side. They fit at least 5 of those adjectives. We don't get together a lot.

[airborne]

You have to hand it to them - they're very clever.

We only seem so very clever to them because they are so frigging stupid!

In reality, it's just common sense!

[tman73]

This post just gives ME the SHAKES...BBbrrrrr.
That ?rush limbo? is ssooo cold hearted!...

[littlehouse36]

<< Fox's whole presentation was utterly dishonest and just about the candidates he slanders. >>

just } unjust?

how are candidates slandered?

<< Fox exploits the hopes of dying Americans >>

dying } suffering

<< that there are cures readily available, from a technique that has yielded tumors, but utterly no cures.>>

available, from } available from
tumors, but } tumors but

commas never should be used to represent a pause.

<< Meanwhile, the life clock ticks away for multitudes. >>

life clock } clock

<< Further, Fox manipulates Missourians to create a constitutional right to turn human beings into a commodity to be cloned in genetic factories -- by an utterly lying Amendment 2. >>

Amendment 2 is not lying but its representative ads are.

<< Please get your facts straight and gain some basic human morality, or perhaps you'd like to find a nation that wasn't founded on our unalienable rights. >>

and gain some basic human morality, or perhaps you'd like to find a nation that wasn't founded on our unalienable rights. } over the top, not needed.

<< Have some compassion, for disease sufferers >>

compassion, for } compassion, please, for } compassion for

<< and for our smallest living human beings that no one can prove are not persons. >>

that no one } whom no one

And have some compassion for the taxpaying voter, who is only looking for someone to tell him the truth and not confiscate his money to create human clone factories.

voter, who } voter who

<< PS: Governor Doyle is lying hideously about this. >>

How is he lying? Give example

[streetpreacher]

Aww Gee, little Mikey runs a partisan political ad and da' mean heartless Republicans respond to it...

Sheesh, think McFly think!

[Fizzie]

VERY nicely done, unspun.

[littlehouse36]

Many of my in-laws are libs. My only problem with them is their condescending attitude. They claim we (conservatives) see things in black and white because we're still in our "high school" stage emotionally (though we're in our 40s) and that we'll someday grow up to be "nuanced" like them.

[The Wizard]

What Rush SAID was right.....the problem is these people don't folow what he SAID

[Hacksaw]

Although few of them ever served in the military themselves, they've been able to turn war heroes into cowards. Just ask Democrat Max Cleland or even Republican John McCain - one lost his legs and an arm because of an enemy grenade, the other was a prisoner of war for more than five years - who were targeted by a well-organized campaign that started with Karl Rove in the White House and was spread by Limbaugh and his right-wing imitators on talk radio. And, of course, there was John Kerry, a decorated and wounded Vietnam War veteran, who was made out to be a wimp by a propaganda machine whose favorite candidate hadn't even shown up for National Guard drills.

I guess the writer "forgot" about the left insinuating that George Bush Sr. bailed out of his plane over cowardice, or that he attacked civilians. He must have also forgotten about the left insinuating that Bob Dole was hamming up his war injurines for sympathy.

[cpdiii]

one lost his legs and an arm because of an enemy grenade,

Max Clelland accidentally dropped the damned grenade and it went off. It was Clellands grenade. It was not during battle. Note: This is not criticism of Clelland. He was another casualty of war but it was not on the battle field and Max Clelland never said it was to his credit. I take issue with the author making up facts out of thin air. The author is either mistaken or lying. Take your pick. I pick the latter.

[TigersEye]

Here is an interesting entry in Wikipedia.
It kind of makes MJF look like a liar.

President Bush announced, on August 9, 2001 that federal funds, for the first time, would be made available for hESC research on currently existing stem cell lines; however, the Bush administration chose not to permit research on hESC cell lines not currently in existence, thus limiting federal funding to research in which "the life-and-death decision has already been made"[29]. The Bush Administration's guidelines differ from the Clinton Administration guidelines which did not distinguish between currently existing and not-yet-existing hESC. Both the Bush and Clinton guidelines agree that the federal government should not fund hESC research that directly destroys embryos.

Neither Congress nor any administration has ever prohibited private funding of embryonic research. Also, public and private funding of adult stem cell research has no restriction whatsoever.

(bolding is mine)

[AmishDude]

Uh, Dave, Limbaugh is deaf.

I'm sure Rush would eagerly love to be able to swig a little snake oil to be able to genuinely hear again.

[TigersEye]

Here is an old article from April 23rd, 2002 which shows the same partisan bias from MJF back then.

Spinning Stem Cells A damning reporting pattern.
By Wesley J. Smith

Yet as loudly as Fox and Kinsley promote ESCR in the media or before legislative committees, both have remained strangely silent about the most remarkable Parkinson's stem-cell experiment yet attempted: one in which researchers treated Parkinson's with the patient's own adult stem cells.

Fox can hardly claim ignorance about ASC research.

[Question_Assumptions]

Cleland wasn't wounded by an enemy grenade. And if you want to see a real injustice at work, Cleland didn't get a Purple Heart for his lost limbs (not due to enemy fire) while Kerry got one for his own self-inflicted wound.

[littlehouse36]

< So Michael J. Fox is only the latest to be the target of the cruel attacks that have nothing to do with the issues, but everything to do with planting seeds of doubt >>

Ping ping ping ping ping... Dweezle gets it!

[AmishDude]

Welcome to FreeRepublic.

I hope you're grounded.