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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 10/05/2007 : 03:56:50
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..... with all of the form and grace of a falling cowpie, his "phony soldier" remarks snapping at his pustulent ass as he soars.
In an unprecedented display of fear, Republican Company spokespeople from across the country and multiple media outlets teamed up to blame Hillary Clinton and George Soros for Rush Limbaugh's defamation of the troops.
The intimidation seems to be working only on coward Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Mary).
Last Wednesday, Limbaugh labeled anti-war veterans "phony soldiers." Amazingly, while Congress set aside their priorities last week to condemn MoveOn.Org for merely begging the question: "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?", this week they're above trifling little condemnations for personal attacks against US soldiers.
The comment was typical. Rush, an orthodox McCarthyist, was incensed after bungling a call from a Republican war veteran who shattered the Republican stereotypes that Limbaugh so carefully promotes. Here is the incident:
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Limbaugh has always been somewhat delusional, but now he thinks that he can get away with anything. Up to a point, he's been right, but this time he's getting a well deserved backlash, some vets, myself included, asking the cowardly bastard to say it to their/our faces. Limbaugh's "phony soldiers'' comment has been something of a public relations disaster for the conservative commentator -- or perhaps a boon, depending on one's point of view. Limbaugh claims he was not alluding to war-protesting veterans in general, but only one, Jesse MacBeth, who had told stories of witnessing atrocities in Iraq but was later found to have never served there. MacBeth has since pled guilty in federal court to making a false statement to the VA.
Yet Limbaugh's "rant,'' as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called it this week, certainly sounded like a slap at "phony soldiers'' protesting the war -- and Limbaugh went on to expand his roster of "genuine phony soldiers'' on his show Friday, adding Rep. Jack Murtha of Pennsylania, a retired Marine colonel and decorated Vietnam veteran who opposes the war in Iraq.
Limbaugh maintains it is his critics who owe veterans an apology for misconstruing his remarks. Critics are pressing Limbaugh for the same.
"This is not just the anatomy of a smear,'' Limbaugh complained on his program yesterday. "There's much more going on with this than just smearing me. There is an attempt, I think, as they have done throughout my career, to discredit me.''
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Rush, you wretched hagfish of a human being, you have no credibility except with people even stupider than yourself. there are those who listen to you for laughs of course, but they are pissed as well at your utter disregard for the men & women who are putting their lives on the line for Bush's Folly. It was those same sorts of people to whom you owe a great debt of gratitude for allowing you to sit on your butt-zit through Vietnam whilst far better men than you were adding their names to what would become The Wall. And you are in the best of company; there are a lot of genuinely phoney fucks strutting around out there, some of them in the highest offices of the land.
But's ok, Rush; the Republicans, the Party of Phoney Fucks, love you more than ever for it.
So much for all the claims that Limbaugh is just a lone loony who doesn't represent Republicans or their party. The congressional Republican group in charge of electing Repubs to Congress has embraced Limbaugh's latest attack on the troops, big time. Here is their email they just sent out.
From: Rep. Eric Cantor, Chief Deputy Republican Whip website@nrcc.org
Date: Oct 4, 2007 2:19 PM
Subject: Rush Needs Your Support
Friends,
One failure after another, Washington Democrats have built a record of legislative failure; one disappointment after another, Washington Democrats have failed to deliver results to the people who got them there.
This must be why, just nine months into their tenure, the Democrat-led Congress hit an 11% approval rating – that is the lowest in recorded history. Facing their record of failure, Washington Democrats decided to try and distract – and so they took a man's words out of context, then they went on the attack.
That's why I'm encouraging you to click here to "Stand With Rush" and sign this petition. |
Oh yeah. They take you unto their bosom and coddle you like you're really of value, but even they know you for the foul piece of work that you are. And they, who have only loyalty to their ambitions, will drop you into the cesspool the minute they see that you are repelling votes rather than pulling them in.
Have a nice, relaxing swim, Rush. They tell me the beach there is very nice, but for the smell & odd, floating items. You should be quite comfortable.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
 Posted - 10/05/2007 : 04:24:29 [Permalink]
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| Where did they get 11%? Over at Polling Point, I can find no instance of Congress getting 11%. Must be that special Republican-only poll... |
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 10/05/2007 : 04:54:22 [Permalink]
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Oh. A butt boil kept Rush out of military service. Having look at a couple of sites I cannot find where it mentions that a Pilonidal cyst is a "a congenital birth defect" like the bio reference did. Could be true, but I'm not going to be looking at sites 3 & 4 or more right now.
Well, anyway, my point is that Rush is probably desperately depressed due to the fact that he never had chance to become a "Phoney Soldier".
Edited to add: All right, I lied. I looked at one more site.
At one time it was believed that Pilonidals were all congenital, however, current medical philosophy is that very few of these abscesses are congenital and most are acquired.
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Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
| Edited by - moakley on 10/05/2007 05:02:02 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 10/05/2007 : 06:28:44 [Permalink]
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Filthy, that was a brilliant essay. You are one of the main reasons I love SFN so much. I always learn something from you.
McCarthyite that he is, Limbaugh seems to be going through the pathetiic downfall stage of his ideological hero. As Wiki has it from the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954 (which I watched on live TV as an 8-year-old):| The most famous incident in the hearings was an exchange between McCarthy and the army's chief legal representative, Joseph Welch. On June 9, the 30th day of the hearings, Welch challenged Roy Cohn to provide U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr. with McCarthy's list of 130 Communists or subversives in defense plants "before the sun goes down." McCarthy stepped in and said that if Welch was so concerned about persons aiding the Communist Party, he should check on a man in his Boston law office named Fred Fisher, who had once belonged to the National Lawyers Guild, which Attorney General Brownell had called "the legal mouthpiece of the Communist Party." In an impassioned defense of Fisher that some have suggested he had prepared in advance,[62] Welch responded, "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never gauged your cruelty or your recklessness[...]" When McCarthy resumed his attack, Welch interrupted him: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" He then left the room to loud applause from the spectators, and a recess was called. |
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Mycroft
Skeptic Friend
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2007 : 22:00:20 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
..... with all of the form and grace of a falling cowpie, his "phony soldier" remarks snapping at his pustulent ass as he soars.
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I used to listen to Rush way back in the late 80's/ early 90's. Back then I spent a lot of time on-line arguing with conservatives, and it seemed everything I heard from them came from Rush first, so it was more economical to just listen to Rush so I'd know what was coming. Rush said a lot of stupid crazy things back then.
But in this case Rush's defense that he was talking about Jesse MacBeth holds up. Trying to spin that into a claim that all anti-war soldiers are "phoney soldiers" is a smear job.
As a skeptic, I think it's important to understand all sides of issues.
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 01:38:59 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Mycroft
Originally posted by filthy
..... with all of the form and grace of a falling cowpie, his "phony soldier" remarks snapping at his pustulent ass as he soars.
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I used to listen to Rush way back in the late 80's/ early 90's. Back then I spent a lot of time on-line arguing with conservatives, and it seemed everything I heard from them came from Rush first, so it was more economical to just listen to Rush so I'd know what was coming. Rush said a lot of stupid crazy things back then.
But in this case Rush's defense that he was talking about Jesse MacBeth holds up. Trying to spin that into a claim that all anti-war soldiers are "phoney soldiers" is a smear job.
As a skeptic, I think it's important to understand all sides of issues.
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I don't buy that. Rush used the plural, "phony soldiers." If he'd meant it to be confined to just one guy, he could have, probably would have, made that clear in simple English. The "smear job" was Limbaugh's work, something he does all the time.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 03:16:53 [Permalink]
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The way I read it, and I'll admit that I'm anything but an objective observer in this case, was that it was a blanket indictment of all military personnel and veterans that opposed the war.
In a way, I admire Rush. He's found a way to become a multi-millionaire by doing nothing more strenuous than bad-mouthing those whom he doesn't like.
The butt boil that kept him out of the 'Nam draft is called a ""soldier's cyst" and they are often painful, sometimes messy, and very common. Mine, acquired while I was in the service, healed up on it's own after a few years. It is in no way incapacitating, and it is a mystery to me as to how it got him a 4-F rating.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 04:34:43 [Permalink]
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I could see such a cyst causing a temporary deferment, unless the Army was willing to treat it prior to, or during, basic training. I just can't see it becoming an obstacle to serving in a whole war. When I joined the Naval reserve as a minor child, nobody seemed concerned for the many deeply inflamed pimples that covered my face, neck, and back. They must have, collectively, been at least as bad as Rush's abscess. (And I've had those, too.) But then, I was trying to get into the service.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Mycroft
Skeptic Friend
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 07:08:04 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
I don't buy that. Rush used the plural, "phony soldiers." If he'd meant it to be confined to just one guy, he could have, probably would have, made that clear in simple English. The "smear job" was Limbaugh's work, something he does all the time. |
You read a lot into that, but it's not as though the conversation were scripted. MacBeth was a fake soldier, but then you also have Scott Beauchamp who was a real soldier but told fake stories.
Edited to add:
I don't think the butt-cyst is particularly relevant. For whatever reason he ended up not serving, his opinions should still stand or fall on their own merits. |
| Edited by - Mycroft on 10/08/2007 07:19:59 |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 08:31:57 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Mycroft
Originally posted by filthy
..... with all of the form and grace of a falling cowpie, his "phony soldier" remarks snapping at his pustulent ass as he soars.
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I used to listen to Rush way back in the late 80's/ early 90's. Back then I spent a lot of time on-line arguing with conservatives, and it seemed everything I heard from them came from Rush first, so it was more economical to just listen to Rush so I'd know what was coming. Rush said a lot of stupid crazy things back then.
But in this case Rush's defense that he was talking about Jesse MacBeth holds up. Trying to spin that into a claim that all anti-war soldiers are "phoney soldiers" is a smear job. |
I seriously disagree. The context is clear-- the caller was claiming that the people (particularly Democratic candidates and the media) who argue for leaving Iraq "never talk to real soldiers" and instead "pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media." MacBeth wasn't mentioned at all. Let's look at the transcript:LIMBAUGH: Another Mike, this one in Olympia, Washington. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER 2: Hi Rush, thanks for taking my call.
LIMBAUGH: You bet.
CALLER 2: I have a retort to Mike in Chicago, because I am a serving American military, in the Army. I've been serving for 14 years, very proudly.
LIMBAUGH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER 2: And, you know, I'm one of the few that joined the Army to serve my country, I'm proud to say, not for the money or anything like that. What I would like to retort to is that, if we pull -- what these people don't understand is if we pull out of Iraq right now, which is about impossible because of all the stuff that's over there, it'd take us at least a year to pull everything back out of Iraq, then Iraq itself would collapse, and we'd have to go right back over there within a year or so. And --
LIMBAUGH: There's a lot more than that that they don't understand. They can't even -- if -- the next guy that calls here, I'm gonna ask him: Why should we pull -- what is the imperative for pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? They can't -- I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "Well, we just gotta bring the troops home."
CALLER 2: Yeah, and, you know what --
LIMBAUGH: "Save the -- keep the troops safe" or whatever. I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.
CALLER 2: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.
LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.
CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.
LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined --
CALLER 2: A lot of them -- the new kids, yeah.
LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where you're going these days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are you're going there or Afghanistan or somewhere.
CALLER 2: Exactly, sir. (my emphasis) |
There can be no question about this. According to this exchange, "REAL" soldiers want to be in Iraq. It is only the "phony" ones who want out. Rush isn't being smeared. His own vile rhetoric is just starting to catch up to him. |
| Edited by - Cuneiformist on 10/08/2007 08:33:30 |
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Mycroft
Skeptic Friend
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 09:48:33 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Cuneiformist
I seriously disagree. The context is clear-- the caller was claiming that the people (particularly Democratic candidates and the media) who argue for leaving Iraq "never talk to real soldiers" and instead "pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media." MacBeth wasn't mentioned at all. Let's look at the transcript:LIMBAUGH: Another Mike, this one in Olympia, Washington. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER 2: Hi Rush, thanks for taking my call.
LIMBAUGH: You bet.
CALLER 2: I have a retort to Mike in Chicago, because I am a serving American military, in the Army. I've been serving for 14 years, very proudly.
LIMBAUGH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER 2: And, you know, I'm one of the few that joined the Army to serve my country, I'm proud to say, not for the money or anything like that. What I would like to retort to is that, if we pull -- what these people don't understand is if we pull out of Iraq right now, which is about impossible because of all the stuff that's over there, it'd take us at least a year to pull everything back out of Iraq, then Iraq itself would collapse, and we'd have to go right back over there within a year or so. And --
LIMBAUGH: There's a lot more than that that they don't understand. They can't even -- if -- the next guy that calls here, I'm gonna ask him: Why should we pull -- what is the imperative for pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? They can't -- I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "Well, we just gotta bring the troops home."
CALLER 2: Yeah, and, you know what --
LIMBAUGH: "Save the -- keep the troops safe" or whatever. I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.
CALLER 2: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.
LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.
CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.
LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined --
CALLER 2: A lot of them -- the new kids, yeah.
LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where you're going these days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are you're going there or Afghanistan or somewhere.
CALLER 2: Exactly, sir. (my emphasis) |
There can be no question about this. According to this exchange, "REAL" soldiers want to be in Iraq. It is only the "phony" ones who want out. Rush isn't being smeared. His own vile rhetoric is just starting to catch up to him.
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A little research shows this is from the same program.
Here is a Morning Update that we did recently, talking about fake soldiers. This is a story of who the left props up as heroes. They have their celebrities and one of them was Army Ranger Jesse MacBeth. Now, he was a "corporal." I say in quotes. Twenty-three years old. What made Jesse MacBeth a hero to the anti-war crowd wasn't his Purple Heart; it wasn't his being affiliated with post-traumatic stress disorder from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. No. What made Jesse MacBeth, Army Ranger, a hero to the left was his courage, in their view, off the battlefield, without regard to consequences. He told the world the abuses he had witnessed in Iraq, American soldiers killing unarmed civilians, hundreds of men, women, even children. In one gruesome account, translated into Arabic and spread widely across the Internet, Army Ranger Jesse MacBeth describes the horrors this way: "We would burn their bodies. We would hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque."
Now, recently, Jesse MacBeth, poster boy for the anti-war left, had his day in court. And you know what? He was sentenced to five months in jail and three years probation for falsifying a Department of Veterans Affairs claim and his Army discharge record. He was in the Army. Jesse MacBeth was in the Army, folks, briefly. Forty-four days before he washed out of boot camp. Jesse MacBeth isn't an Army Ranger, never was. He isn't a corporal, never was. He never won the Purple Heart, and he was never in combat to witness the horrors he claimed to have seen. You probably haven't even heard about this. And, if you have, you haven't heard much about it. This doesn't fit the narrative and the template in the Drive-By Media and the Democrat Party as to who is a genuine war hero. Don't look for any retractions, by the way. Not from the anti-war left, the anti-military Drive-By Media, or the Arabic websites that spread Jesse MacBeth's lies about our troops, because the truth for the left is fiction that serves their purpose. They have to lie about such atrocities because they can't find any that fit the template of the way they see the US military. In other words, for the American anti-war left, the greatest inconvenience they face is the truth. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 10:18:28 [Permalink]
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Cune, that full context puts the kibosh on Rush's argument he was just talking about MacBeth, or some short list of particular liars. The caller and Limbaugh are clearly and conveniently defining "real soldiers" as pro-war soldiers, and "phony soldiers" as soldiers wwho come forward to state their opposition to the war. Not as "misguided" or a "mistaken" soldiers (as I might characterize honorable soldiers who support the war), but "phony soldiers."
Limbaugh has earned the contempt he's getting. He dishes out contempt dishonestly and daily, but can't take his own medicine.
And, really Mycroft, bringing up MacBeth again as you did at the end is irrelevant to the defaming characterization Limbaugh gave antiwar soldiers. A mere distraction, it seems. But, like Limbaugh, MacBeth has earned our contempt.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Mycroft
Skeptic Friend
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 10:51:48 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
And, really Mycroft, bringing up MacBeth again as you did at the end is irrelevant to the defaming characterization Limbaugh gave antiwar soldiers. A mere distraction, it seems. But, like Limbaugh, MacBeth has earned our contempt.
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How can you claim that's irrelevant? The whole controversy revolves around what Rush was referring to when he said "phony soldiers" and there he clearly uses the term in reference to MacBeth. I don't see how it could get any more clear.
Rush has said some outrageous things. In my opinion his comments made years ago comparing the Tailhook scandal to the woman POWs in Iraq back during the first Gulf War makes this event seem like nothing. I'm sure he's said other things as bad or worse in the ensuing 15 years. It just so happens that this one event looks a lot more like lefty demagogues trying to take down a strong righty voice with a smear campaign.
In a democracy the ideal is to defeat your opponent by convincing enough people that he's wrong that he becomes irrelevant. Trying to silence someone you disagree with by concocting slurs from statements taken out of context is just dirty tricks, and should be beneath open-minded skeptics. Someone who is open-minded should be able to see that an ideological opponent isn't always wrong, no matter how far removed from your beliefs they seem to be.
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 11:44:24 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Mycroft
Originally posted by HalfMooner
And, really Mycroft, bringing up MacBeth again as you did at the end is irrelevant to the defaming characterization Limbaugh gave antiwar soldiers. A mere distraction, it seems. But, like Limbaugh, MacBeth has earned our contempt.
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How can you claim that's irrelevant? The whole controversy revolves around what Rush was referring to when he said "phony soldiers" and there he clearly uses the term in reference to MacBeth. I don't see how it could get any more clear.
Rush has said some outrageous things. In my opinion his comments made years ago comparing the Tailhook scandal to the woman POWs in Iraq back during the first Gulf War makes this event seem like nothing. I'm sure he's said other things as bad or worse in the ensuing 15 years. It just so happens that this one event looks a lot more like lefty demagogues trying to take down a strong righty voice with a smear campaign.
In a democracy the ideal is to defeat your opponent by convincing enough people that he's wrong that he becomes irrelevant. Trying to silence someone you disagree with by concocting slurs from statements taken out of context is just dirty tricks, and should be beneath open-minded skeptics. Someone who is open-minded should be able to see that an ideological opponent isn't always wrong, no matter how far removed from your beliefs they seem to be.
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All that shows is Limbaugh using McBeth as a singular example to try to justify his previous "phony soldiers defamation. He's clearly already defined all anti-war soldiers as being "phony" and only uses MacBeth to impune them by association and to bash the anti-war "left" (and center, and part of the right).
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 11:44:45 [Permalink]
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Come on folks. Link the source.
And then please keep the referent in mind. According to Rush, real soldiers "joined to be in Iraq." "They" could refer only to "real soldier."
And "phony soldiers" are those that "come up out of the blue and talk to the media."
While the link for the words "Morning Update" is members-only, Rush clearly describes MacBeth as a "fake soldier." That first paragraph, of course, attempts, through guilt-by-association, to taint all of the Left's "celebrities" as being fake soldierS, using only MacBeth's stupidity to do so.
But it's obvious that the second caller makes a distinction between "real" soldiers and "phony soldiers," and Rush meant to agree with it, and that Rush meant that anyone who didn't enlist in order to go to Iraq is a "phony soldier." Jesse MacBeth obviously didn't, and so is a "phony soldier" in more ways than one. His crime was irrelevant to that phone call.Originally posted by MyCroft
In a democracy the ideal is to defeat your opponent by convincing enough people that he's wrong that he becomes irrelevant. Trying to silence someone you disagree with by concocting slurs from statements taken out of context is just dirty tricks, and should be beneath open-minded skeptics. Someone who is open-minded should be able to see that an ideological opponent isn't always wrong, no matter how far removed from your beliefs they seem to be. |
Please. In context, Rush's statements are no less damning. In context, the "open-minded skeptics" are powerless to silence anyone, through dirty tricks or otherwise. If we had that sort of power, it's obvious that the easiest way to drive Rush into irrelevancy would be to ignore him. But without it, the best way to counter nasty ideas (like the clear implication from Rush during both calls in that transcript that not only are you not a real soldier if you think we should get out of Iraq, but that you're a Democrat, too) is with more speech.
And the dirty trick of suggesting that anyone who thinks that Rush didn't mean what he said makes that person either not "open-minded" or not a "skeptic" should be beneath an open-minded skeptic, shouldn't it?  |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 12:23:34 [Permalink]
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I don't know, Mycroft. I did some more reading into it, and to an extent, you're right. Though actually, it seems like the reference was to the previous caller, who claimed to be both a Republican and in the military. To this, Rush says, "And I, by the way, used to walk on the moon!" In other words, since the caller is in favor of leaving from Iraq, he must be lying when he says he is a Republican and in the military. That is, no real Republican/military person could want to leave Iraq.
But the second caller-- the one where the "phony soldier" comes up, really seems to take it a step further and suggest that only "real" soldiers want to stay, and the rest (i.e. those who want to leave) are, in Rush's words, "phony." And Rush said nothing to suggest that he disagreed. (Even though, for instance, real soldiers wrote a compelling NY Times op-ed arguing that we should leave.)
The McBeth comment (the "Morning Update") came long after the phone calls and so is not in the same context. It's not clear, but it sounds like it was something covered much earlier-- days or weeks-- by the comment "that we did recently." In general, that's not what you'd say if you did it in the previous hour or something.
In all, I'd say that Rush's defense is pretty weak and that he got caught up in his own deluded rhetoric-- that no real Republican or member of the military can possibly be in favor of leaving Iraq. Those that are must, in Rush's mind, be liars. |
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Rush Limbaugh jumps the shark.....
