The Pink Flamingo :: Rush Limbaugh's PMS - President McCain Syndrome

I’ve been telling a few friends via email that Rush would hit McCain today. I no longer listen to him, so I rely on the kindness of strangers for my information. Thank you Article 6 Blog, for the following headline
“Huckabee is in the race to take Romney out of the way for McCain.”

PMS – President McCain Syndrome. I don’t know any other explanation. He’s lost it. I just emailed a friend and told her I think Rush is so irrational about his hatred of John McCain that he would even destroy himself. There was a Star Trek Classic episode called “Whom the Gods Destroy They First Make Mad”. If Rush is not careful he is going to destroy himself.

Am I annoyed with him?

Yes.

His hatred of John McCain is so great he is no longer making sense. After spending the day researching this mess, I think Limbaugh just has this very strange hatred of McCain. The problem with such hatred is it eventually destroys the hater. Rush is no longer sounding ‘rational’ when it comes to John McCain. I am seriously afraid it is going to become his undoing. I have a feeling we are witnessing the beginning of the end of Rush Limbaugh as a powerhouse. When a man uses his power to destroy another decent man, something is very very wrong.

I’ve gone back about 10 years looking for a genesis of Limbaugh’s hatred of McCain. I still don’t know when it started, but I have some interesting tidbits for you. I think the worst of it is Limbaugh is literally walking toward his own personal Waterloo. It is sad and tragic.

From today's Article 6 Blog

“…1. Huckabee cannot win the nomination or the election. He lacks the money, the organization, or the personal depth as a candidate to do either. Huckabee himself probably thinks he has a shot, if things go his way; but he is realistic and realizes he probably won’t end up the nominee

2. He can, however, bleed off support from Romney. If Huckabee were not in the above races, the lion’s share of his votes would go to Romney, the only other candidate who’s running vigorously and credibly as a social conservative. No, some hard-core Evangelicals would never vote for Romney, but I still think that’s a small group. (I am prepared to be convinced otherwise.) A great many Evangelicals will vote for Huckabee simply because he’s “their guy,” like they did in Iowa. Huckabee knows this; so does John McCain….”

John from the Politico commented:

“…But, when you harbor a dangerous animal in your garage, it will eventually attack you. McCain has been no friend to Evangelicals over the years. Could Huckabee be letting his ambition allow him to be hoodwinked into crushing the very movement he holds so dear, the movement that John McCain thinks hoodwinked him in 2000? THAT I would not put past John McCain….”

Evidently Rush Limbaugh and Company are completely out of the loop when it comes to what went on in 2000. Limbaugh caused quite bit of the problems. The problems in South Carolina were finally admitted to this past week. Is Rush so out of it that he wasn’t paying attention when the sins committed against McCain were admitted. Today, when Novak pronounced that McCain may just well be the nominee, it must have caused Limbaugh to jettison all reason and simply react against McCain out of his abject hatred of McCain.

RUSH MARCHES TOWARD WATERLOO
I saw something on Race 42008 where Rush Limbaugh complaining about Huckabee supporters constantly calling him to complain about his treatment of Huckabee, yet McCain supporters never call. There’s a very good reason for this. Mike Huckabee supporters are THE RUSH LIMBAUGH BASE and he has insulted them. John McCain supporters gave up on Limbaugh ages ago.

ChristFollower write this:

“…All of this leads to why I can longer in good conscience consider myself a ‘dittohead.’ Rush has veered away from conservative orthodoxy by attacking the one true conservative in the race. He has distorted Gov. Huckabee’s record, repeated discredited arguments, overlooked the faults of the other candidates, directly attacked Gov. Huckabee and those of us who support Gov. Huckabee, and shown a disinterest in the truth. Rush is carrying water for someone. I’ll leave it to you to decide for whom, but there is no way that an independent thinker could possibly embrace these false ideas about Huckabee and parrot them for millions of listeners to hear when there is a plethora of information available which dispels each and every one of them.

If Rush is so willing to do this to one of our own, and those of us who support Huckabee, how can I possibly align myself with someone who is so intellectually lazy (or obstinate) as to continue using false allegations and disproved charges in attacking a candidate who is truly conservative. Rush Limbaugh is not the arbiter of genuine conservatism. I know that may come as a shock to him, but it is true. Conservatism existed prior to Limbaugh and it will exist long after Limbaugh’s star goes supernova and implodes upon itself. Limbaugh has shown such a callous disregard for truth in this instance that I can not bring myself to trust him on subsequent issues. Time will tell whether I am an exception or whether Limbaugh has permanently damaged his credibility with social conservatives….”

This irrational hatred that Rush Limbaugh has for John McCain has been going on for well over a decade. On March 4, 2000, in Salon,

“…Ever since McCain scored his 19-point New Hampshire victory over Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the conservative talker, heard by nearly 15 million listeners on more than 500 radio stations nationwide, has been shredding McCain hour after hour, day after day. Longtime listeners say for Limbaugh to conduct this kind of sustained scorched-earth policy against a fellow Republican is unprecedented.

And the sharp blows have left more than a few Limbaugh loyalists, who happen to be McCain supporters, scratching their heads in disbelief as the self-proclaimed "Truth Detector" gives McCain the full Clinton treatment; questioning his honesty, his integrity and running parodies that make the senator sound like a stammering, incoherent twit. (By contrast, Limbaugh, a Lincoln Bedroom guest during George Bush's presidency, has found no fault at all with W.)… What Limbaugh has been saying on-air is that McCain is a shameless manipulator who's borrowing "the deceitful politics of Bill Clinton." That there's "intellectual dishonesty" flowing from the McCain camp. That "you can't rely on what McCain says," because he lifts policies "right out of the Bill Clinton/George McGovern play book." And that "McCain is the unsuspecting tool of the Rockefeller Republicans who want to reclaim the party from Christian conservatives."

Limbaugh welcomes callers to his show who denounce McCain as "an intellectual bigot" who "lies, lies, lies" and is a man who "has no set core values." Online, at Limbaugh newsgroups, fans are now posting questions about McCain's Vietnam military service ("Has there been any corroborating evidence by McCain's fellow prisoners that he was 'brutally tortured'?") right next to "Is Clinton a murderer?" rants.

"Limbaugh's just beating the hell out of McCain," notes Michael Harrison, the non-partisan editor of Talkers, the talk radio industry bible. "He's found McCain to be a temporary replacement for Bill Clinton. And Limbaugh needs another Clinton just to be Limbaugh. He's an entertainer and he's got a show to do. Talk-show hosts are like movie theater owners -- 'we need new films.'"…”

In 2004, according to the Carpetbagger Report, Limbaugh Mocked McCain’s Time As POW!

“…Here’s what Limbaugh said on his nationally broadcast program this week:

“So we are nearly two days into the latest regurgitation of the National Guard flap and CBS hatchet job on George W. Bush, and McCain is nowhere to be seen. Where is he? Where is he condemning this exposé into George Bush’s “honorable service,” quote, unquote? He hasn’t been seen since that Monday at the convention. I’m wondering if McCain’s been taken prisoner and being held as a POW by the Kerry camp, in the Kerry Hilton, somewhere in the basement of the DNC. The McAwful Hilton [an apparent reference to DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe]. I mean, where is McCain? Really. I mean, the question is — to me — is serious.”

Stunning. Limbaugh thinks it’s appropriate to joke about McCain being “taken prisoner” and “held as a POW”? All because Bush got caught failing to do his duty and McCain isn’t out there lying on the president’s behalf?  To his credit, McCain’s office is showing great restraint and responding with an incredibly mild rebuke.

McCain is taking the high road. His spokesman, Marshall Wittman, said the only comment he would provide is this: “Senator McCain has made it crystal clear on numerous occasions that he believes the president served honorably in the National Guard.,”
When pressed about Limbaugh’s comments, Wittman said, “It’s just not truthful.” Considering that a draft-dodger like Limbaugh is mocking McCain’s years as a prisoner of war, I suspect there are stronger responses available than “it’s just not truthful.”…”

In 2004, Salon called Limbaugh to task for repeating false claims about McCain’s time in a Vietnamese Prison camp.

May 24, 2005 From The Last Harrah, comes the Limbaugh rant complaining about the “Gang of Seven and the courts. Funny, but what McCain did was the right thing.

“…So here's the bottom line. McCain is the de facto leader now, because McCain controls these six other nitwits. And, I'll tell you what this is, folks, mark my words, this is pay back to Bush for 2000. Got his little South Carolina buddy Lindsey Graham in tow. He slam-dunked Frist. Up until last night everybody was talking about the fact that Frist was going to ace out McCain, the Republican primaries, by exercising the nuclear option, and now McCain, it is said, has aced out Frist. He slam-dunked him, I don't know if he's aced him out, but he slam-dunked him, there's no question. Frist, a decent guy, was trying to do the right thing, and he is the first casualty in what was an early primary fight. I mean, there's no question, and you can't take that aspect out of this, either. These guys all want to be president, every senator up there thinks he should be anyway. McCain's really got it bad because of what happened in 2000. And so we know he's going to run in '08. And telling me that won't take precedence over Senate comity and Senate tradition and whatever else that might be on the agenda? Of course this will take precedence over that, but his dancing like this is going to destroy him with the base and party faithful once primary time comes around and I know he's banking on the fact that by then this will be but a blip on the radar screen.

You know, it may be time, folks, I'm just going to throw these things out here for you to consider, it may be time to treat McCain and Graham and Warner and all these others exactly as they would have treated their colleagues, as they would have treated these nominees like Myers and Henry Saad, throw them overboard, because those two nominees are gone, Saad and Myers are gone, that's part of this deal. You're not hearing about the nominees that have been thrown overboard...Nevertheless, there's a judge named Kavanaugh and one other that may also have been tacitly thrown overboard in this deal so you're basically stuck with three out of ten. So maybe you treat McCain and all these other people as they would have treated these judges, just throw 'em overboard….”

Media Matters December 9, 2005

“Limbaugh repeated NewsMax.com's false claim that McCain "admitted that torture worked on him"
Summary: Rush Limbaugh twice falsely claimed that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) had "admitted that torture worked on him" during his five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. The false assertion originated in a NewsMax.com article and is not supported by McCain's version of events….”

Reihl World View echoes exactly what I have been saying the far out right will do. If the GOP nominee were either McCain or Huckabee just stay home. Yep, it’s already starting. While I admit to making a few rash statements about Mitt Romney, by golly, if he is the nominee I will vote for him.

Rush thinks the media is supporting Huckabee/McCain to destroy conservatives. Lord have mercy, he’s doing a great job of it himself! Someone is losing touch with reality.

“…I’ll tell you, there’s so much conventional wisdom out there. I, for one, just want to repeat this: I don’t think McCain’s a lock in New Hampshire tomorrow night. I believe these debates matter. I believe people in New Hampshire watch ‘em. In both the Saturday night debate and the Sunday night forum, McCain did not do well. I don’t care what anybody tells you. You can look at the focus groups and see for yourself: He did not do well. He came off as sinister, mean, and strident on Saturday night. Sunday, he came across as tired and out of it, as though somebody had said, “Look, you’re a little too strident last night on Romney. Back off,” which he did — and then for McCain to sit there and whine and moan about attack ads? Come on! This ain’t beanbag! Politics is a blood sport. You know, McCain has run his share of attack ads. But these guys have been in politics all their lives. They’ve had attack ads run against them. They act like big babies, they can’t deal with attack ads. And, by the way, what’s an “attack ad”? You know, McCain is just like the Democrats in this regard. If you run an ad that’s truthful about their record, all of a sudden you’re “attacking” them. There have been some truthful commercials about McCain.

McCain has been the author of the first official intervention in the First Amendment in this nation’s history: McCain-Feingold. He has opposed tax cuts, the Bush tax cuts. So to put that out there in an ad is not an attack ad. It happens to be true. You have all this sensitivity about these attack ads. You don’t see Romney whining and moaning about these things. You don’t see Fred Thompson whining and moaning about these things. You don’t see Rudy whining and moaning. But you do see Huckabee and McCain whining and moaning about this. It’s unbecoming, because this is what it is. Politics is what it is. I’ll tell you what I actually think. This is based on truth, and it is in fact truth: the media are out to break up conservatives. I was instant messaging with F. Lee last night, and to me, there is no question. I spent this weekend in intense study of what’s going on up there. I watched more political TV this weekend than I have watched probably in the last six months. My instincts were confirmed: Media are out to break up conservatives, dispirit us, destroy us, destroy the Republican coalition of the evangelicals; the social and fiscal conservatives; they’re out to destroy that.

They want to destroy that by getting McCain or Huckabee nominated. That’s how they intend to do it, and we have pundits, including some who are conservative, who are falling all over themselves to be the first to announce permanent realignments, permanent trends; the end of this era, the beginning of that era. In truth, all they have to be making such sweeping predictions is the results of the Iowa caucuses, where a couple hundred thousand people voted, 10% of those eligible, in a very odd format. Now New Hampshire is coming where the more liberal or populist candidate in the Republican Party now benefits from the flood of independents who vote in the GOP primary and skews the results, which means that you cannot draw conclusions about the Republican Party based on New Hampshire but they will anyway, and you’ve got to keep this in mind. Whatever happens in New Hampshire tomorrow night, the Drive-Bys are going to try to spin this as the end of conservatism as it’s known. Now, let me be blunt about some things here. Governor Huckabee does evangelicals a disservice when he uses faith to promote what is a liberal, populist agenda — an agenda that includes large tax increases, which were not offset by tax cuts….’

MEDVED DEBUNKS BOTH LIMBAUGH AND HEWITT

I told my friend Sally Vee, who was kind enough to forward Michael Medved's most recent column, that I was going to use it tomorrow. I think it needs to go here, because it COMPLETELY DEBUNKS the previous Limbaugh paragraphs.

"...Hugh’s a great guy, and one of the best political commentators in the country, but he recycled an old and despicable lie in the course of our conversation. This distortion of the truth is unworthy of such a decent and fair-minded observer and Hugh owes an apology – not to me, but to Senator John McCain. During the course of our conversation, I deplored the slimy negative ads aired by his candidate, Mitt Romney – in particular a TV commercial where the narrator says that John McCain “voted to allow illegals to collect Social Security.”
I condemned the ad as an outright lie, but Hugh defended it as an arguable, reasonable description of McCain’s position. Let’s settle the issue, Hugh, and move ahead to that apology—because the record clearly shows that I was right and you were wrong. There’s nothing defensible about Romney’s smear.
FactCheck.org is a non-partisan, non-profit project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The website spanks Democrats and Republicans alike when they try to lie for political advantage. On December 28th, they offered a devastating review of the despicable Romney ad aimed against McCain, using the headline “More Mitt Malarkey.”...

...Hugh might argue that the Romney attack is misleading, but not false, because the immigration bill would have given millions of illegals a path to citizenship, and once they became legal residents and citizens, they would then receive credit toward future benefits for the amounts they had already paid into the system. In that sense, immigrants who legalized their status would get credit for payments they made into the system while they were illegal.

But here is the truth—the simple, undeniable, bracing, refreshing and necessary truth –about the comprehensive immigration reform championed by President Bush, John McCain, John Kyl, Trent Lott, Mitch McConnell and, at one point, most other Republicans in Senate. As FactCheck makes unmistakably clear: “UNDER CURRENT LAW, illegal immigrants who work and pay Social Security taxes may later receive credit toward future benefits for the amount they have paid, if they become legal residents or citizens. THE McCAIN MEASURE WOULDN’T HAVE CHANGED THAT.” (emphasis added)

In other words, the proposal for comprehensive immigration reform would have done nothing to alter the basis under which immigrants who qualified for legal status got credit for the payroll taxes they had already paid. Yes, the Romney ad is a loathsome lie.

And what about an attempt by some Republicans to alter the compromise legislation during the immigration fight by changing the system so that newly legalized immigrants would be disqualified from receiving credit for payroll taxes they had paid while illegal? Eleven Republican Senators voted to kill that proposal, including John McCain. Why? Because stripping tax credit for newly legalized immigrants would help remove the incentive for them to go through the process to earn that legal status—paying the thousands of dollars in fines, going through background checks, paying back taxes, mastering English and so forth.

As FactCheck suggested: “To be accurate, the ad might have said that McCain ‘voted against a measure that would have denied illegal immigrants Social Security credit for their work once they gain legal status.’ But such a truthful statement might not strike New Hampshire voters as so damaging.”..."