Fred Thompson on Harry Reid’s attacks on Rush Limbaugh

Fred File ^ | 10-3-7 | Fred Thompson

[Petronski]

Fred Thompson on Harry Reid’s attacks on Rush Limbaugh

Posted on October 3rd, 2007
By Fred in Announcements

Congressional Democrats are trying to divert attention from insulting our military leader in Iraq and pandering to the loony left by attacking Rush Limbaugh. He is one of the strongest supporters of our troops, yet Democrats claim he is not being strong enough. I wonder who General Petraeus and his troops think is most supportive?

[Jim Robinson]

Thank you very much, Mad_Tom_Rackham!!

[Finny]

Hugh makes it obvious that he REALLLLLY dislikes Thompson, he refuses to even say his name. It’s weird.

Really? Man. I know, "weird" is a good word for Hugh sometimes. He becomes ... irrational! I used to listen to Hugh fairly often, but ... I really turn queasy in my gut at Romney, he just strikes me as such a big phony-baloney. He's probably not as bad as all that, but even if he didn't seem phony, I'd still not get behind him because he's a Big Government guy. He wraps it all up in "free market" MBA packaging, but he's a Big Government guy. A Daddy. He'd make a lousy president. I'm really disappointed that Hugh hasn't kind of let go a bit.

I hope Hugh gets over it.

[Jim Robinson]

Love it! Thanks!

[Finny]

Hugh is a cheap salesman, who lacks honesty, and scruples.

I agree that Hugh has behaved wrongly. I think he has rationalized his behavior as right because of his evangelical leanings, which also prevent him from embracing Fred. He feels to do so would make him untrue to his own scruples -- at least, that's my guess. There is a breed of righteous Christian who is 80 percent right and solid, and just 20-percent-enough deluded in their own all-powerful knowledge and soaring-on-the-updraft-of-their-own-rhetoric of How God Means It To Be that the line behind pride and principle becomes wavery. It leads to irrational political choices like Hugh's infatuation with Romney.

That said, I probably do the same thing, confusing pride with principle. I can forgive Hugh, but I reject his take on Romney.

[Soul Seeker]

They really contacted Rush’s people to say they’d give a correction? As if that makes one bit of a difference.

Romney claims to be a conservative. I know of no conservatives that are active in politics that have not listened to Rush. If you’ve listened to Rush there can be NO DOUBT he’d NEVER attack the military. heck, the man was gentle with Cindy Sheehan! The mother of a fallen soldier, not even the soldeir himself. He Accused the left of using her, rather then attacking her! the fact Mitt’s instinctive action was to believe these lies and repudiate Rush tells me everything I need to know about him.

He’s a phony conservative and not fit to represent us.

[Soul Seeker]

Romeny and hewitt know that Romney really stepped in it this time and Hewitt is trying to do spin control for him the way he did for Miers. yeah, hewitt, that worked out real well for her didn’t it?

[Soul Seeker]

Since I’m not a Republican, I think I’ll adapt that for myself to a “Rush Conservative”. I love the new phrase though. From now on we should demand Republicans answer if there are a Rush Republican or not. easy enough to call yourself a reagan republican when he’s dead and even Libs fear putting him down anymore. Quite another to align yourself with his ideological heir while that heir is alive and kicking back.

[papasmurf]

I’m sure he’ll feel differently if you ask him now

Another epiphany?

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

There is a breed of righteous Christian who is 80 percent right and solid, and just 20-percent-enough deluded in their own all-powerful knowledge and soaring-on-the-updraft-of-their-own-rhetoric of How God Means It To Be that the line behind pride and principle becomes wavery. It leads to irrational political choices like Hugh's infatuation with Romney.

Very true.

I remember when an evangelical friend of mine voted for the "peanut man" because he (the peanut man) claimed he was a "Born Again" Christian.

And we now see what a disaster that was.

[ansel12]

“Since I’m not a Republican, I think I’ll adapt that for myself to a “Rush Conservative”.

---

Same here, and my guess is that many in Rush’s audience are like me, conservatives that always vote for the most conservative Republican, but register Independent.

In the eternal battle of the Republican party between the conservative side and the “moderate” side, we are always on the side of “right”.

Some people might call it the George Romney wing vs the Ronald Reagan wing of the party.

[Lancey Howard]

“Governor Romney would disagree with the negative characterization of those men and women who serve with honor and distinction in the United States Military. There may be disagreements with individual opinions, but no one would ever dispute the fact that those members of the military who disagree with the war have earned the right to express that opinion.”

You gotta be friggin kidding me.

In my book, Mitt just went from, "Okay, I could live with him" to "Mitt's a piece of s***".

[ansel12]

If anybody wants to watch a Romney video and check to see if they now see it through new eyes, here is one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNbGNHaNFtw

[Soul Seeker]

Some people might call it the George Romney wing vs the Ronald Reagan/Rush Limbaugh (me: added the Rush bit) wing of the party.

Absolutely agree with this!

Screw Romney. What does it say about his level of intelligence that he threw Rush to the dogs while even Rudy was silent or McCain at least tried to be lukewarm? He doesn't even know how to keep his mouth shut if he doesn't have the guts to stand up to the left.

Not that the other two are any better, but you'd think the guy most trying to be a phony conservative would know dumping Rush and by extension the entire conservative base would have a lightbulb moment before he does it. Instead he needs His cheerleader, Hewitt, to explain what even 10 Democrats instinctively knew since they didn't sign that Stalinist petition to Clear Channel.

He is officially Stuck on Stupid. Surpassing even My Senator Maria Cantwell who didn't put her name to it.

[mmichaels1970]

Look for a “clarification” within 24 hours. With phrases like “was never intended to....” or “the context of....” etc.

[ansel12]

“Not that the other two are any better, but you’d think the guy most trying to be a phony conservative would know dumping Rush and by extension the entire conservative base would have a lightbulb moment before he does it. Instead he needs His cheerleader, Hewitt, to explain “

---

Imagine, Hewitt described today that he had to contact Romney to make this hand holding rebuttal to the Rush Limbaugh show, that is mind blowing.

[Eric Blair 2084]

I'm sure Rush will appreciate Fred's support. Reading between the lines he hates ______ (fill in the blank wannabe liberal big city candidates who run from Conservatism because they think the proletariet won't like them) Not naming names.

Having said that, Rush doesn't need any help in kicking these power hungry useless Communist/Populist douchebag Congresscritters like Harry Reid up and down the sidewalk for public amusement. He is a trained professional on a closed course.

[barker]

I listen to Rush pretty much every day and every time the troops come up he always mentions in what high respect he holds them.

This is nothing new for Rush. Way before 9-11 he always supported the troops and had the highest respect for them. That's why this attack against him angers me so much. This is an attack against all conservative talk radio hosts.

[Soul Seeker]

Go to Hewitt’s site. He dragged Romney onto his radio show tonight to try to reposition Romney as equal to Thompson in his quick defense of Rush and just ignored the statements Romney instinctively made first.

It was a shameless display from both of them.

[redgirlinabluestate]

That is entirely a false characterization of what happened and just another example of "gotcha politics" which the dems are so famous for but which has become more and more popular with Freepers.

The truth of the matter is that it looks like the Romney campaign is not revolving around the Rush Limbaugh radio show and had no idea the controversy had erupted.

The Romney spokesman made a less than fully informed statement caught off guard by the question.

The campaign is a bit busy doing 4 to 6 townhall meetings a day and flying all over the country meeting Americans.

When Mitt realized he had become part of the controversy he became fully informed on the topic and responded appropriately.

Hugh Hewitt: Thanks for joining us. Have you been able to follow this story?

Mitt Romney: Well, you know, you sort of follow it from afar as you’re from place to place. And I think anybody who looks at the story hears what Rush Limbaugh has to say, which of course makes perfect sense. He was referring to this soldier who had doctored up his resume, was a phony soldier. And he was critical of that soldier, and he had every right to be critical of that soldier. And it’s amazing to watch the Democrats turn that into something which clearly he had not intended to make it. And certainly, with his explanation, people should say oh, okay, I understand what you were saying, what you mean. I understand the context. And that’s fine.

HH: Now Governor, when I got to the studio today, I called your staff, because my mailbox was full of e-mails saying why is Governor Romney down on Rush. Did that catch you by surprise that somehow you’d become part of this story?

MR: Gosh, I didn’t know I had become part of the story. That just shows how you’re running around the country and you hear those things. Surely, the comment which he made today, or yesterday, where he said look, you have to understand, I wasn’t referring to all soldiers who oppose the war, I was referring to this soldier as a phony soldier. That makes sense, and you know, you take the man at his word. That’s what he was referring to, and you know, he’s got a long record of supporting our soldiers. There’s no question that this is a man who has been very much on the side of our fighting men and women, but somebody who’s doctored their resume is not somebody who he or anybody else is going to stand up for.

HH: Now this strikes me as an attempt by the MoveOn.org left, allied with some Democratic Senators, to turn attention away from the attack on General Petraeus made a few weeks ago, and an attempt to rebrand themselves as pro-military. How do you assess the effectiveness of trying to escape the effect of the MoveOn.org attack on General Petraeus?

MR: Well, it’s a very different setting. In the case of MoveOn.org, they actually ran an ad, and they said that General Petraeus will betray us, and that is an extraordinary challenge to make for a person who is risking his life for the security and safety of our country, and that’s outrageous. The Democrats wouldn’t distance themselves from it and denounce it, and that was to their dishonor. In this case, Rush’s statement taken out of context appears to say something which he explains he did not mean to say, that he instead was referring to an individual soldier who had doctored his resume. They’re entirely different matters, and you know, the lefties will believe what the lefties want to believe, but the truth of the matter is Rush Limbaugh supports our troops, and supports the rights of Americans to express their views. After all, he does that very thing day in and day out.

[redgirlinabluestate]

What's shameless is the type of gotcha political games you seem to enjoy playing. Romney addresses your types here:

HH: Now Governor, expanding the scope here a little bit to how the campaign has changed, today, Rudy Giuliani’s in New Hampshire, he’s at the Chocolate Moose, and he misstates where he is. He says he’s in Massachusetts. All right, the kind of stuff that happen every day on the campaign trail. But then it shows up on the Politico.com Jonathan Martin blog as being a significant issue. You’ve run statewide in Massachusetts twice. Was there anything ever like this kind of scrutiny on one word showing up and immediately becoming an issue?

MR: Well, it is interesting today that gotcha politics is alive and well. It used to be that you had a day to clean up your mistakes. So if you made a mistake, you know, you’ve got to fix before the news cycle. But now, the news cycle is instant, and everything is made a huge matter. And you know, I’ve made at least two or three gaffes in my campaign so far. They’re made big deals by not just the media, but by the opposition. And you know, frankly, look, I’m going to mess up where I am now and then, and so will Rudy and so will John McCain and everybody else. And let’s give the process a bit of a break.