Posted on 10/05/2007 3:57:28 AM PDT by Man50D
WASHINGTON – In a prelude to likely efforts to legislate the Fairness Doctrine in 2009, Democratic Party leaders in the Senate, including the party's likely presidential nominee next year, Sen. Hillary Clinton, are turning up the heat on Rush Limbaugh's network, attempting to force him to apologize for maligning anti-war soldiers as phonies – something he didn't say.
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter, signed by 41 Democrats, to Clear Channel Chief Executive Officer Mark P. Mays demanding he repudiate Limbaugh's comments and extract an apology from him. Mays responded the same day in a letter to Reid defending Limbaugh's right to express his opinions openly on the airwaves.
But Reid is not dropping the matter.
In an e-mail to Democrats today, he urges the public to inundate Mays with similar demands.
"I normally ignore Rush Limbaugh, but his comments last Wednesday went too far for me to remain silent," Reid wrote. "It's one thing to call me 'Dingy Harry' – it's another to insult our men and women in uniform, calling those who oppose the war 'phony soldiers,' as Rush did during his Sept. 26 broadcast."
None of the calls for repudiation or apology, however, contain a transcript of Limbaugh's remarks. That's because other than the two words "phony soldiers," it wouldn't be possible to make the case that Limbaugh was maligning anti-war soldiers generally. He was, in the context of Wednesday's commentaries, specifically addressing the case of Jesse MacBeth, an anti-war activist who claimed to have witnessed atrocities as a Purple Heart recipient in the Army Rangers.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
This goes beyond stupid. At first, I believed they were just intentionally mis-informed and by their staff and front groups, and were sincere. But, now that the truth is plainly been put out by Rush and many others for all to see, they keep on with their suicidal trek to the cliff. It makes no political sense whatsoever, except to their loony left wing base. Why are they still promoting a lie that is verifiably a lie? Why are they still tilting at the windmill?..................
Then he and his dingy offspring will have to be stepping up the shady money scams before Daddy is reduced to Tom Daschel's level of power. When you've got nothing left to peddle, people don't even return your calls. Or so I've heard.
If any one ever needs an example of why the “fairness” Doctrine will not provide fairness, this is it. Here we have a politician criticizing free speech, for something that wasn’t even said. It is proof positive that the political process cannot regulate speech with any kind of fairness.
These people are unscrupulous liars. Why are they in positions of power in our government?
If anyone should be censured, it’s Reid, Harkin, and Media Matters.
Sorry, I left out Hillary, the liberal queen.
The real scandal is that the media either have not investigated this incident when the facts are easily available, or that they have chosen to remain silent to help their RAT allies. In any case this shows the press’s dedication to the first ammendment and to the truth is non-existent.
Since everyone is paying attention to this, what would be very funny is for Rush to call Bill Clinton a phony soldier, then say, no wait, he used phony deferrement papers and ran off to the Soviet Union.
Because the lies work for those who only get their information from the evening news. There is a large portion of the country that still do that. My family for one. Whenever I visit they spit out the talking points parroted by the CNN, ABC, NCB, CBS “news” programs.
In other words they do it because it works.
It's not their base. They have the base already. It's the mushy squishy middle, most of whom only read headlines and listen to sound bites. The middle thinks they're involved in the process by doing so, but they're "busy people" They've got important things to do, doncha know - there are reruns of "Three's Company" to watch.
Ask anyone you know who has never actually listened to Rush. Most will instantly tell you "he's a jerk" or something like that. Many will think he has horns and a tail and bites the heads off baby bunnies for breakfast.
A couple of decades ago, I began saying that if they put bars on Congress, we would have ~90% of the criminal element in Congress locked up.
They keep proving me right!
Totally insane? If you're read Michelle Malkin's book Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild, there was one chapter that talked specifically about some on the Left not above resorting to assassination to achieve their means. If I were Limbaugh I would have an armed guard escort with me at all times right now.
This whole thing will backfire against smelly little Hillary.
We have been watching this week the Dems waste precious American taxdollars making fools of themselves lamblasting Rush Limbaugh. They are making the USA a laughing stock.
What is going on with Rush should be a wake up call for ALL conservitive talkradio show hosts, be they national or local because the Dems are after all of them.
All these attacks against the alternate news media will end up not only backfiring, but also create an angry backlash against the Dems. This is a prediction.
This should go for all the national conservitive talkradio show hosts as well, tighten the personal protection bigtime.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.