Replies to post #63065 on Discover GOP Opprobrium

[teapeebubbles]

The more people who think Rush Limbaugh leads the GOP, the fewer votes the GOP will get.

Just because Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh agree with us more often than not doesn't mean conservatives should shout "Amen!" when Obama coronates them as leaders of the Republican party or the conservative movement.

Regarding my claim that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity often use "dodgy evidence" to back their claims, I can only plead that on the rare occasions that I've listened, this is exactly what I have found.... If you want chapter and verse on that score, you can't do better than Al Franken's two books on this subject (Lying Liars and Rush Limbaugh). Now, I know that this will double my hate mail, but the fact is that Mr. Senator-Elect is often spot-on regarding the facts when he goes after these guys.



He added that many of Hannity's bizarre attacks on the president are "bark-at-the-moon crazy," which makes Hannity a poor banner-carrier for conservative ideas.

This, not surprisingly, also did not go over well at "The Corner." In fact, Mark Stein called Taylor's arguments "pathetic," and "an embarrassment to National Review." So, Taylor returned to the subject once more.

The question for conservatives is this: Do you want President Obama to succeed in painting the Republican party as the party of Rush Limbaugh? Given his sub-Nixon popularity figures, I can't believe I'm causing a firestorm by suggesting the answer here is probably "no."


Except, of course, he was causing a firestorm by crossing the one line conservatives aren't supposed to cross -- he questioned the value of letting a deceptive, drug-addled radio shock-jock lead a party and movement.

The irony here is that Democrats have worked for months to carefully characterize Limbaugh as the right's driving force and leading authority. Corner-ites, by slamming their conservative colleague for questioning the utility in following Limbaugh, only help reinforce the Dems' point.

The left keeps arguing, "Conservatives are a bunch of mindless ditto-heads, reflexively taking orders from a man who lies on the radio for a living." And the right keeps responding, "You're damn right we are!" It just never seems to occur to the right, Taylor's valiant efforts notwithstanding, that it's rarely a good idea to let Democrats call their shots for them.