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Sowell: "Senator Daschle vs. Rush Limbaugh: Who is Promoting Violence?"
Capitalism Magazine ^ | Nov 24, 2002 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 11/24/2002 3:05:22 AM PST by The Raven

The change from Senate majority leader to Senate minority leader has apparently led Senator Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, into more of the kind of wild and reckless rhetoric that may have contributed to the Democrats' defeat in the recent elections.

According to Senator Daschle, when radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh "attacks those of us in public life" his listeners are "energized to go out and hurt somebody." This is supposed to explain threats that Daschle says he is getting.

That is quite an accusation to make, without a speck of evidence. In more than a decade of listening to Rush Limbaugh, I have never heard him condone violence, much less incite it. Moreover, he has never rewarded people who commit violence with free air time to broadcast their views -- as liberal media journalists do routinely when riots break out to protest meetings of the World Trade Organization or other activities that the rioters don't like.

Raise hell and get free air time on TV is the deal. But not on the Rush Limbaugh program. It is the liberals who are busy trying to "understand" the reasons behind the violence by letting the rioters spout off into network microphones and cameras.

Liberals can be very "understanding" about violence -- provided it is violence from the left. On the very day when terrorist planes were crashing into the World Trade Center and into the Pentagon, The New York Times was running a sympathetic story about one of our own home-grown terrorists from the 1970s who had been caught up with by the law.

Where was the outrage from Senator Daschle when environmentalist terrorists booby-trapped trees so that saw-mill workers would be injured -- and could have been killed?

The double standard is blatant when you compare political reactions to the Oklahoma City bombing and the Unabomber. The Oklahoma City bombing was immediately blamed on conservative talk show hosts, even before the perpetrators were known. But when the murderous Unabomber was captured and a copy of Al Gore's environmental cult book was found in his cabin, dog-eared and with many passages marked up, that was passed over in silence by most of the liberal media.

There is no record of Senator Daschle's ever having accused Al Gore of any connection with the violence committed by the Unabomber that he helped "energize." Even though it is known that the main suspect in the Beltway sniper shootings was a member of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, that fact has likewise been passed over in silence by much of the liberal media. But would they -- or Senator Daschle -- have remained silent if the sniper suspect had been a member of the National Rifle Association or the Christian Coalition?

Rush Limbaugh is undoubtedly the most effective of the talk show hosts when it comes to puncturing the pretensions of the liberals. If unsubstantiated smears like those of Senator Daschle cannot silence him, the next best thing, from liberals' viewpoint, is to discredit him as somehow being behind various threats and acts of violence -- through guilt by accusation.

Meanwhile, even Rush Limbaugh's most telling barbs against the liberals do not match the shameless smears indulged in by Democrats like Tom Daschle and their echoes in the liberal media.

Senator Daschle complains that he has been accused of being an obstructionist. But Republicans have been accused of much worst -- by Daschle and his fellow Democrats. According to them, Republicans want to destroy the livelihoods of the elderly who depend on Social Security, ruin the environment, destroy the public schools, harm the poor, and turn back the clock to a time when blacks did not have civil rights.

It is not known how many threats Republicans have received in response to this litany of political crimes. But the accusations are a lot worse than being accused of being an obstructionist.

Stripped of control of every branch of the federal government, the Democrats have nothing left to offer anyone before the next election, except accusations and scare tactics. Back in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt said: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Today, Democrats like Tom Daschle have nothing to offer but fear itself.


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Sowell is right on target---actually he left out a whole host of left-wing violent acts (and the left's apologies for violence by the PLO, the anti-globalists, the anti-war crowds, Ireland, etc).

Daschle had been mouthing off, pretty much unchecked by the media. Rush let him have it. Somebody had to do it.

1 posted on 11/24/2002 3:05:22 AM PST by The Raven
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To: The Raven
When does this Dashole run again for election?
Have to believe that many many repubs from around the country will help with donations, letter sending, and in general bad mouthing him. So if he thinks things are bad for himself now, just wait.
How the hell can South Dakota elect this boob.
2 posted on 11/24/2002 3:36:19 AM PST by Joe Boucher
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To: Joe Boucher
Daschle is up for reelection in 2004. Early word is the Thune and former Gov. Janklow (now Representative-elect) are both interested in running against him. Here's hoping the White House can persuade them to settle it peacefully, so as to avoid a nasty primary fight.
3 posted on 11/24/2002 3:42:07 AM PST by Brandon
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To: The Raven
Ping.
4 posted on 11/24/2002 3:47:14 AM PST by advocate10
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To: Brandon
Word has it Daschle is retiring or running for President. When he sees his poll numbers...he'll retire.
5 posted on 11/24/2002 4:14:01 AM PST by The Raven
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To: The Raven
The buzz has been for some time that he would retire. But this latest tin-foil tantrum has made me think he is too addicted to power to retire. He needs the limelight and the fawning adulation of the press.

There was word around D.C. that he was in talks to head up a show or replace Goneahue. This latest outburst, though, may have industry execs thinking twice.
6 posted on 11/24/2002 4:21:33 AM PST by fightinJAG
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To: fightinJAG
Why would it put the industry types off? It would just complete the tabloidization of CNN. Isn't that what they've been aiming for???
7 posted on 11/24/2002 4:32:28 AM PST by Brandon
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To: The Raven
Ditto.
8 posted on 11/24/2002 4:45:43 AM PST by Savage Beast
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To: The Raven
Daschle sounds like a red-headed woman with whom I used to work. When things didn't go her way, she threw a tantrum and blamed everybody else for her problems.
9 posted on 11/24/2002 4:54:31 AM PST by NoControllingLegalAuthority
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To: Brandon
Janklow may be the man. He is more of a fighter although
he has some age.
He could expose dasshol for what he is.
10 posted on 11/24/2002 4:54:40 AM PST by Big Horn
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To: The Raven
Sowell is right on target

I don't know if Sowell is a Rep. or Dem. I assume he is Republican from the article. My opinion is that he should be running for office. We need more like him.

11 posted on 11/24/2002 4:59:28 AM PST by chainsaw
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To: The Raven
The right has its kooks, too--like the nuts that murder abortionists (I'm pro-life, but two wrongs don't make a right). But you'd never see any media, liberal or conservative, who would glorify the murderers by having them on their shows to justify their actions.
12 posted on 11/24/2002 5:12:05 AM PST by randita
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To: NoControllingLegalAuthority
You know her too! She must dye her hair a lot. I've run into her evrywhere I've ever worked!
13 posted on 11/24/2002 5:15:27 AM PST by blackdog
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To: The Raven
Maybe it isn't Rush that makes our side want to wring Daschle's little chicken neck...Maybe it's DASCHLE!

I have yet to encounter a puny radical troublemaker, intent on preaching everyone around him into converting to his beliefs, who DIDN'T try to throw off the hostile reception he inspired unto himself onto his opposition as a "conspiracy". They just can't begin to fathom that maybe, just MAYBE, their beliefs are donkeysh*t and the people just don't want it!

14 posted on 11/24/2002 5:20:10 AM PST by Wondervixen
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To: chainsaw
Sowell is an economist, author and thinker.
You could call him Dean of the African American conservatives. He is a colleague of Walter Wiliams.

http://www.tsowell.com/

http://www.tsowell.com/odyssey.html
15 posted on 11/24/2002 5:36:28 AM PST by edwin hubble
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To: chainsaw
My opinion is that he should be running for office. We need more like him.

He was offered the post of Sec of Education under Reagen. He turned it down as his health was not very good.

a.cricket

16 posted on 11/24/2002 5:36:32 AM PST by another cricket
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To: The Raven
Back in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt said: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Today, Democrats like Tom Daschle have nothing to offer but fear itself. - Worth repeating!
17 posted on 11/24/2002 6:01:22 AM PST by Free_at_last_-2001
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To: NoControllingLegalAuthority
>> sounds like a red-headed woman with whom I used to work. When things didn't go her way, she threw a tantrum and blamed everybody else for her problems.

Hmmm--- I divorced somebody just like that......could it be???
18 posted on 11/24/2002 6:24:27 AM PST by The Raven
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To: chainsaw
>>don't know if Sowell is a Rep. or Dem. I assume he is Republican from the article. My opinion is that he should be running for office. We need more like him.

Sowell is as far as you can get from the liberals&Democrats
19 posted on 11/24/2002 6:25:44 AM PST by The Raven
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To: The Raven
Daschle is up for re-election in 2004.

I hope the South Dakota Republican party does better at finding a candidate to challenge him than they did in 1998 when his opponent was a political unknown who had never been elected to any office and ran a lack luster campaign with no money.

20 posted on 11/24/2002 6:26:57 AM PST by The Great RJ
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