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Giuliani’s Condemnation of Limbaugh Should Be Along Any Minute Now…

September 28th, 2007

Well, the right wing has revived MoveOn.org as a whipping boy, a Liberal Satan that they all agree they can pile onto and attempt to destroy. Pretty much all the Republican candidates have taken it upon themselves to completely and utterly vilify MoveOn.org. Why? Because they called General Petraeus “General Betray-Us.”

McCain actually called for MoveOn to be “thrown out of the country” (he later claimed that he spoke in error due to his “outrage”), and Giuliani is daring Hillary Clinton to condemn MoveOn. org or be labeled a hypocrite.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I think such name-calling campaigns are less than mature and respectable for any large public advocacy group, or even any one critic. Sure, it can be fun–there was a satisfying edge to Al Franken’s “Rush Limbaugh Is a Big, Fat Idiot.” It might not be enough to point out that Franken at least wasn’t making fun of Limbaugh’s name with bad puns, but it is rather more excusable that (a) Limbaugh ain’t no soldier (in fact, like so many chickenhawks, he dodged the draft), and so few see it has foul play when he is attacked for his actions, and (b) while being funny and comical, everything that Franken wrote was either fully true or was high satire (for example, Franken’s fictional account of Limbaugh serving in Vietnam). In other words, Limbaugh deserved it in spades, and the worst of it was less name-calling than it was simply pointing out facts.

But such things are not what the Republicans claim to be furious about; they claim that MoveOn.org crossed a line by attacking a man in uniform. That, we are told, is unacceptable and deserves, even demands condemnation.

However, what MoveOn.org did with its recent ad was virtually amateur hour when it comes to right-wing spokespeople and organizations. Take Rush Limbaugh, as a simple example.

One of the few times I ever listened to more than just one minute of Rush Limbaugh was many years ago when he was attacking Senator Inouye, a decorated WWII veteran who won the Medal of Honor, and repeatedly called the Senator “In No Way.” But that’s hardly Limbaugh at his worst. He has recently called Barack Obama “The Magic Negro” and has had racist impersonations of Al Sharpton on for a long time; is it any less objectionable to be a racist? When Clinton was in office, Limbaugh referred to his daughter Chelsea as “the White House dog”; is it OK to viciously attack the president’s 13-year-old child? Limbaugh has called Democrat Tom Harkin (also a war vet) “Dung Heap Harkin.” Other name calling includes “Nikita Dean,” “Ned Lament,” “Dick Turban,” “Nazi Pelosi,” “Bela Pelosi,” “Dingy Harry [Reid],” “Barack O’McNabb,” and many others. He has absolutely no problem with calling decorated war vets names, often far worse than “General Betray-us.”

But wait, you say, Limbaugh is just attacking politicians, and that’s okay–ignoring for the moment that many of these politicians are also former soldiers, and Petraeus himself is a presidential hopeful, in his own mind at least.

Then how about this statement made by Limbaugh just the other day, where he called soldiers who oppose the Iraq War “phony soldiers”?

And in a rather strong show of irony, MoveOn.org was not the first to use the name “Betray-us.” Guess who was? That’s right: Rush Limbaugh. He used it last January to smear Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who also opposes the war–and is also a Vietnam War veteran:

LIMBAUGH: By the way, we had a caller call, couldn’t stay on the air, got a new name for Senator Hagel in Nebraska, we got General Petraeus and we got Senator Betrayus, new name for Senator Hagel.

So, when will Giuliani condemn Rush Limbaugh? Did Giuliani call for Republicans to condemn Limbaugh back in January?

Of course not. That would violate the long-standing Republican principle of applying double standards to conservatives and liberals. And we can’t have that.

  1. Larry
    September 30th, 2007 at 05:23 | #1

    Show After Show, MSNBC Smears Limbaugh with ‘Phony Soldiers’ Distortion

    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2007/09/28/show-after-show-msnbc-smears-limbaugh-phony-soldiers-distortion

    “He has recently called Barack Obama “The Magic Negro” ”

    No, that was the LA Times. Rush merely did a song parody of that editorial.

    “When Clinton was in office, Limbaugh referred to his daughter Chelsea as “the White House dog”;”

    Nope. Transcripts and video shows a different story.

  2. Luis
    September 30th, 2007 at 09:57 | #2

    Um, “Newsbusters” is an extremist right-wing rag that publishes such biased propaganda that using them as an information source is laughable. And what they offer as “evidence” is simply the weasely excuse Limbaugh himself has claimed, trying to say that what he clearly meant was not what he clearly meant. At least MoveOn.org had the guts to stand up to what they said and take the criticism for it; Limbaugh, instead of sticking to his guns or apologizing, is taking the gutless route on this one.

    As for the LA Times reference, that was Limbaugh’s “excuse” to allow him to go on a racist screed. I dealt with the hypocrisy of that excuse in this blog post. Short story: it doesn’t matter if the LA Times made a literary reference to a media archetype, that does not make it OK to then run off and abuse the term endlessly in a clearly racist manner.

    As for the Clinton “White House Dog” incident, you are probably referring to this transcript from Lexis-Nexus that has been floating around the Internet, used by Rush fans to falsely “clear” his name:

    LIMBAUGH:David Hinckley of–of the New York Daily News wrote this, and what he has–he’s got–it’s very strange. He says, In: A cute kid in the White House. Out: Cute dog in the White House.’ Could–could we see the cute kid? Let’s take a look at–see who is the cute kid in the White House. (A picture is shown of Millie the dog)

    LIMBAUGH: (Voiceover) No, no, no. That’s not the kid.

    (Picture shown of Chelsea Clinton)

    LIMBAUGH: (Voiceover) That’s–that’s the kid. We’re trying to…

    However, you are confused. This is the 1992 incident, and the one where Limbaugh called Chelsea “the White House dog” happened a year later–there were two incidents. See here:

    On November 6, 1992, three days after her fater won the elections, in a reference to who is moving in and out of White House, Limbaugh made a reference to Chelsea and the the dog of outgoing President George H. W. Bush, Millie. At the moment where Limbaugh said ‘cute kid’, the picture of Millie appeared onscreen. Limbaugh apologized during that show and gave a more lengthy apology a few days later. Critics of Limbaugh have maintained that this was a deliberate act on his part.

    In 1993, when Chelsea was still in braces, Rush Limbaugh said the following: ‘Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat, Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog?’ He then pointed to a video monitor, which switched to a picture of Chelsea. Although Limbaugh has claimed it was a technical error, as Al Franken documented in his book “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them”, since the show was on a tape delay, if it truely was a technical error, it could have been corrected prior to airing of the show.

    Even back then, Limbaugh tried to weasel his way out of taking responsibility for things he clearly meant to do; little has changed since then.

  3. Larry
    December 8th, 2007 at 05:43 | #3

    “This is the 1992 incident, and the one where Limbaugh called Chelsea “the White House dog” happened a year later–there were two incidents. See here:”

    No, there was only the one incident. The one provided in the transcript. This phony claim that there were two incidents was invented by Rush detractors after they were confronted with the transcript. They, the detractors have failed to provide any transcript or video of this supposed second incident. And besides which, your source now reads: “On November 6, 1992, three days after her father won the elections, when Chelsea was still in braces, Rush Limbaugh said the following on his television show: ‘Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat; Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog?'”

    Its still an inaccurate description of events, but at least they got the date right.

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