The Republican caucus apparently exists to serve the Republican media elite.

Keep driving toward that cliff, boys. Don't falter now. Stay the course.

If Limbaugh et. al. are the voices of your movement's conscience, then you're morally bankrupt.

Rush actually is in charge of the Republiscum? Oh, happy day!

A drug addicted, 3 time divorced liar is the new face of the GOP! How can the Dems blow this? (Don't actually answer that question.)

Gingrey sees eye-to-eye with The Leader? OK, we have on record that a Repub Congressman WANTS to see Obama fail. Let's forget about the country.

Gingrey added that Limbaugh and others like him "don't have to try to do what's best for your people and your party"

At least he didn't take that part back.

Just goes to show why we can't afford to have a Republican president any time soon.

How can we expect them to stand up for American interests abroad if they fold so quickly and abjectly to pathetic blowhards like Limbaugh.

/snark off

I sometimes wish an oxycontin-dazed Rush would be found in a cheap motel room with an underage alpaca and a bucket of Crisco.

But then thousands of his fans would figure out a way to justify this behavior, and I just couldn't stand the thought of all the alpacas that would be hurt as a result.

Wow, that dynamic is eerily Stalinesque. Mild criticism followed by obsequious apology.

And you know that plenty of the faithful would be happy to lead a session on Gingrey in the bowels of the Lubyanka.

Having decided to govern like Democrats in the name of "compassionate conservativism" under W, the GOP has lost the White House and their majorities in both Houses of Congress in less than a decade. With a track record like that, Rush couldn't do any worse.

It will be sweet to have zero House GOP votes in favor of the so-called "stimulus package" so that the public will know who to blame for its passage in 2010.

Is DraftRush2012.com available?

From balls of the jolly green giant to balls of peas in a half day. Planet of the neutered apes.

Reagan made a pact with the religious right to gain power. Gingrich made a pact with Limbaugh to gain power. Now the Republicans find that forces they unleashed are actually their masters.

Wonderful.

What a pathetic twit. The fact that Gingrey was so cowed by a gasbag like Rush says volumes about the kind of leader he is. It also says volumes about the state of the Rupublican party. Blowhard talking heads are the heart of the Republican party. Truly truly sad.

If Limbaugh and his nihilistic followers can force a republican house member to grovel, Limbaugh would seem to be the most powerful single person in the republican party. Is it possible for an American political party to be anymore decadent than that?

ReThuglicans certainly have a penchant for substance abusers. An alcoholic and now a drug addict.

Just like they're addicted to tax cuts.

Or more generally, to money.

How can ANY of them call themselves Christians when it clearly says in the Bible that the love of money is the root of all evil?

"I sometimes wish an oxycontin-dazed Rush would be found in a cheap motel room with an underage alpaca and a bucket of Crisco."

LOL

And a MALE alpaca at that!

Having decided to govern like Democrats in the name of "compassionate conservativism" - chicounsel

Where do you get this stuff? If you take away the Iraq War, the no-bid contracts, and the Star Wars programs, and you have exactly what Republicans have been calling for all along. So which part of that did he do under the guise of compassion?

Posted by: Chicounsel on January 28, 2009 at 1:39 PM |

You still haven't told us whether you got your degree out of a ten- or a twenty-five cent gumball machine.

Having decided to govern like Democrats in the name of "compassionate conservativism" under W, the GOP has lost the White House and their majorities in both Houses of Congress in less than a decade. With a track record like that, Rush couldn't do any worse.

Impervious to reality. After 8 years of sucking Bush's balls on his war-n-fear-n-taxcuts policy you really think that it was No Child Left Behind that caused the downfall of the GOP?

As a liberal, this makes me happy. It shows that you guys will be in the ash heap of history. As a human being, I hate to see such mendacity. I think your delusions harm us all.

Having decided to govern like Democrats in the name of "compassionate conservativism" under W, the GOP has lost the White House and their majorities in both Houses of Congress in less than a decade.

Ah, yes. Conservatism can never fail, it can only be failed, so therefore if Bush was a failure it must be because he "governed like a Democrat," not because Republican policies of less regulation and more tax breaks for the wealthy tanked the economy.

Man, I love a good meltdown. You keep doing what you do, Chicounsel.

You write: The Republican Party is suffering something of a leadership vacuum. It's pretty obvious who's calling the shots.

It's not that there's a leadership vacuum; it's that the leaders of the Repub Party are now Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and their tax cut/torture/rapture followers (as your post makes clear). A party which has bought the line that "government is not (and never can be) the solution to our problems" really has nothing positive to contribute. Serious question for the today's GOP: can Rush take his little blue pills and his other little feel-good pills when he's raptured up out of here?

Obama, by the way, is doing a brilliant job of forcing those who call themselves Republicans to make some very public choices. One choice (to quote John McCain): "country (or party) first"? The Repubs, by identifying themselves with Limbaugh and his hope that Obama fails, are close to turning that slogan into a joke.

I can see the campaign commercials for 2010 and 2012 now. They will show a lean and smiling and concilatory Obama. The contrast between him and the increasingly fat, always fanatical Rush, smugly snarling from the depths of his oversized broadcast throne, will be devastating. And the contrast right now between Barack Obama and John (don't call me boner, but do notice my tan) Boehner is almost as bad. Of course, the Repubs do have Mitch McConnell. Oh, and Sarah and the turkeys.

What is it about Rush that makes you want to serve him?

I'm Rush Limbaugh, biiaaatches!
Oxy is a terrible drug.

Look no further than the scum that was collecting at the Sarah Palin rallies last fall to understand what is happening here. That toxic base is all the
Republican Party has left. They can't lose them now.

"President Obama" if like mana from heaven to Rush Limbaugh. Besides his drug abuse, divorce and Viagra what other attention has he gotten in the past few years. He was a dinosaur. President Obama revived him. Limbaugh is a parasite that needs to suck off of something. Now , he once again has something. This time though he's playing to a diminished audience. Besides the faithfull, who listens to him? Years ago EVERYONE listened, love him or hate him. Now he's just the ringmaster of sad circus.

Obama is doing a deft job of making him look rediculous...and the Republicans can do nothing. They can't offend the only people they have left. There is very real and widespread enthusiasm over the new adminstration. In the face of that enthusiasm and the problems wer're facing, Rush Limbaugh has become nothing more than a venomous clown.

The GOP made it's bed. Now it has to sleep with the creeps it invited in.

Gingrey said: "... Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, and other conservative giants are the voices of the conservative movement's conscience."

Limbaugh, Hannity and Gingrich are bought and paid-for corporate shills, who are paid lots and lots of money to deceive weak-minded, ignorant gullible dupes.

As such it is probably appropriate to call them the "conscience" of the "conservative movement", since the so-called "conservative movement" is nothing but a fake, phony, trumped-up, scripted, corporate-sponsored, pseudo-ideological cult whose only real content is hatred of "liberals" and whose purpose is to create a population of mental slaves who will mindlessly believe and obey whatever their corporate masters tell them.

In the land of the blind, the loudmouth blowhard is king.

So chicounsel just what exactly is it that you and your ilk propose to do to get us out of this mess that your heros got us into. And why praytell should we keep listening to the asswipes that got us to this point.

Shorter Gingrey (as he looks out at his Peaksville cornfield):

"...it's a real good thing you did, Rush, a real good thing ..."

It's pretty amazing to have a major political party run by a radio talk-show host, but it's not unprecedented: Rush Limbaugh is the 21st century version of Father Coughlin.

George Orwell's "Animal Farm": a make-believe land where "fearless leader" is a big fat pig that tries to be a man.

Rush Limbaugh's "Resurgent GOP" a land of make-believe where "fearless leader" is a big fat pig that tries to be a man.

You figure it out....

As such it is probably appropriate to call them the "conscience" of the "conservative movement", since the so-called "conservative movement" is nothing but a fake, phony, trumped-up, scripted, corporate-sponsored, pseudo-ideological cult whose only real content is hatred of "liberals" and whose purpose is to create a population of mental slaves who will mindlessly believe and obey whatever their corporate masters tell them.
Posted by: SecularAnimist on January 28, 2009 at 2:08 PM | PERMALINK

Yep. This is dead on. And somewhat reminiscent of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. You see it all started out as a ploy. High minded people upset at liberalism formed a committee and organized themselves to collect donations to fund marketing campaigns for right of center ideas. Rush was birthed through these efforts. But now the creature controls the creators and is he who must be obeyed. Rush Limbaugh is the heart and soul of American Conservatism and the Republican Party, as such he should be taken very seriously.

Fortunately Obama has his number.

You still haven't told us whether you got your degree out of a ten- or a twenty-five cent gumball machine.

Crazy, not stupid.

I just sent Rep. Gingrey an email and told him he was right the first time. Couldn't hurt, I figured. Here's his email address in case you wanna do the same:
gingrey.ga@mail.house.gov

The wily Obama orchestrated this confrontation last week. His back-of-the-hand censure of the tail wagging Limbaugh and his GOP bitches (as in egg sucking canines) put congressional republicans on the spot. He understood they must and would respond. And they did, in as low key a fashion as possible, by trotting out Bill Bennett over the weekend. But give the devil his due. There is a hard kernel of truth in what Limbaugh said. Insofar as Obama succeeds, the GOP will stand repudiated. So the story has legs, and even the Washington Post has jumped on its bandwagon.

That's a simple simon observation, of course. The same real politik has prevented an overhaul of the health care system, for example. What is different is the adroit manner by which Obama seized that hard kernel and turned it on its guardians. All Americans can now understand it shorn of its right wing, "free market" gobbleygook. It was an inspired move, even brilliant in a minor sort of way. He did good.

Absolutely disgusting that this movement and Party are driven by such a repulsive demogogue. A system like that should, as Brad DeLong says, be plowed under with salt.

"not that these people couldn't be or wouldn't be good leaders"

I read that five minutes ago and I'm still smiling.

To my various detractors:

Apart from his handling of the "War on Terror" and his selection of judges, I would love for you guys to name a single Bush policy that could even remotely be described as conservative in any sense of the word.

Face it, in terms of domestic policy, Bush and the RINO GOP Congress has presided over the largest expansion in the growth in federal power and spending since the New Deal. Which is why they were thrown out of office by the American people. Since the Democrats offer nothing but more of the same, I expect a similar fate will await them.

Time will tell.

I think Rush is mistaking Obama for (most) Democrats in Congress. Rush is used to Republicans verbally beating down Democrats and having them have their tail tucked between their legs. Obama doesn't react that way and Rush has to be frustrated.

Maybe if Gingrey misbehaves again, they can parade him down the street in a dunce cap before subjecting him to a bracing self-criticism session. After all, it worked wonders in the Cultural Revolution, and these days the GOP seems to be taking its cues from the Maoists in their rabid insistence on ideological purity.

Face it, in terms of domestic policy, Bush and the RINO GOP Congress has presided over the largest expansion in the growth in federal power and spending since the New Deal. Which is why they were thrown out of office by the American people.

Um, no. The American people voted overwhelmingly for a spread the wealth around socialist, didn't they? Which means the American people now favor state control of the means of production -- and, of course, gay terrorist orgies.

Steve W "George Orwell's "Animal Farm": a make-believe land where "fearless leader" is a big fat pig that tries to be a man.

Rush Limbaugh's "Resurgent GOP" a land of make-believe where "fearless leader" is a big fat pig that tries to be a man.

You figure it out...."

PERFECT!!! I just had to repeat that analogy...that was great.

It's hilarious watching Republicans trying to desert Field Marshal Limbaugh, leaving him on the battlefield to fight alone. Reminds me of the disciple Peter's denial of Jesus: "I know him not."

He's your leader, Republicans, whether you like it or not. You made him an honorary member of Congress in 1995, so suck on it, bitches. He defines you. A Limbaugh-less GOP would never have positioned George W. Bush within grasp of the highest office in the land.

Chicounsel: you need to get back to work in that DEPENDS factory .. remember you are nothing more than a SHIT STAIN within the DEPENDS of your hero BUSH ..

I would love for you guys to name a single Bush policy that could even remotely be described as conservative in any sense of the word.

Tax cuts, jackass.

Which, coupled with profligate spending, led predictably to deficits -- another hallmark of Republican governance.

And that's what you can't face, Chicounsel. Voters rejected the epic fail of Republican policies. There's a reason the GOP since Reagan never could roll back the New Deal -- it's popular, and it works. It's popular because it works.

Just for laughs, I would love for you to name a single Bush policy that could even remotely be described as successful in any sense of the word.

Jackass.

Gingrey added that Limbaugh and others like him "don't have to try to do what's best for your people and your party"
I notice that the idea of doing something for the good of the nation didn't occur to either of them.

= = = =
What's the difference between Rush Limbaugh and the Hindenburg?

One's a flaming Nazi gasbag, and the other is merely a dirigible.

"I would love for you guys to name a single Bush policy that could even remotely be described as conservative in any sense of the word."

Well, there's the issue of Bush's dealing with the environment, and he did try to get rid of Social Security, to name two (along with Gregory's mentioning of three consecutive tax cuts).

My question is: What is conservatism (as defined by its adherents), and who was the last Republican president to meet those expectations?

It's limbo time!

"How low can you go? How low can you go?!"

Can you imagine having to apologize to the fat-assed, red-faced, coprophilic pedophile? I certainly can't!

Let me assure you, I'm not one of you!

Talk about a chicken with no head.. when does it stop running (anything), fall down and die?!

The chicken caves to the pig!

How long until

limbaugh-palin 2012 scratch that

Palin-Limbaugh 2012

Sad thing is that he is probably more informed than she is.

The big blowhard has an even bigger, perhaps the biggest, soapbox to trumpet his bullshit without the Rove-run propaganda machine in the White House. The wingnut crowd has to look to Lush Bimbo for their daily dose of what to think.

Let them cower when Rush bellows. The Rethugs are in retreat, and stomping on reality-based comments will only cause more shrinkage. Good. Any Republican revival is not going to include Rush Fatass, and he knows it.

I wonder if Rush told Gingrey "I find your lack of faith disturbing" as he unleashed the brownshirts on him.

*****
And I had the same thought as N Wells above - Gingrey sounds almost reasonable, but even for him it's about the good of the Party, not the good of the Nation.

Palin-Limbaugh 2012
Sad thing is that he is probably more informed than she is.

So's my dog. Just sayin'

Iowans generally have more backbone than this Gingrey fellow. Too busy donning kneepads in search of more corn and soy supports, evidently.

Let's add another for Chicounsel:
Bush vetoing S-CHIP twice because the markets can do a better job than the government.

And to all the sick uninsured kids out there, the Invisible Hand is flipping you off.

Sadly, Limbaugh is only going to get worse. Stir up more anger, more fear. Especially if (hopefully when) the stimulus starts to do what it's meant to do.

I look at Limbaugh like a cult leader on a compound, telling his brainwashed lickspittles that to live any way but his way is to ensure your damnation. The more threatened his empire may become - were he to start losing listeners from a combination of facing reality and confronting mortality - he's only going to get more bug-eyed & forth-mouthed. I predict within 6 months he'll actually something along the lines of "someone needs to TAKE CARE of Barack Hussein Obama, for bthe good of our country & way of life." Sure, thanks to parsing he'll be able to argue that he didn't mean it as a call to violence, but neither his dittoheads nor his detractors will believe it. It'll be enough to keep him out of legal hot water, but the message will be out there: the de facto leader of the GOP - the man Republican pols worship precisely because he's allowed to articulate all the racism and venom they can not - wants Obama "taken care of." When it happens (and it will), any politician who continues to associate him or herself with Limbaugh should be considered a traitor.

Better for him to retire now, to spend more time with his money & oxycontin, than to be the man who put an assassination plot in the thick head of one of his sheep

"I would love for you guys to name a single Bush policy that could even remotely be described as conservative in any sense of the word."

Tax cuts for the wealthy.

Cutting off money for family planning overseas.

Stopping stem cell research.

Allowing more arsenic in our drinking water.

Giving away our public lands to exploiters of our national resources.

Previous comment: "I would love for you guys to name a single Bush policy that could even remotely be described as conservative in any sense of the word."

Responses: "Tax cuts, jackass" and "vetoing S-CHIP twice"

And so many, many more.

De-regulation.

Privatization.

Watching New Orleans drown.

Opposing science when science conflicts with ideology (conservatives such as Bush are now at odds with biology, genetics, geology, and climatology, to name just a few examples).

Increasing, or trying to, the power of government to monitor the political views of citizens and control such personal matters as sexual and reproductive behavior as well as end-of-life decisions.

Torture and killing; ignoring Constitutional rights, legal requirements, and treaty obligations in order to do that torture and killing.

Talking endlessly about family values (while watching his party nominate one candidate who abandoned his wife for a younger and richer woman and another whose family provides classic examples of high-school drop-out and unmarried teen pregnancy).

Tax cuts should really be listed several times, with emphasis on cuts for the wealthy and for business. Lower rates for income from wealth as opposed to income from labor. Labelling the estate tax a "death tax" and trying to eliminate it for the likes of Paris Hilton.

Etc.

If you think this repuke party cares about the nation, its laws or it's people you will be next to be slaughtered. They care only about their self interests and political gain and are willing to do anything to achieve a police state dictatorship. They are the people's obstructionist party cultivated by psycho-sociopaths like Rush, Hannity, Coulter, Beck, Savage and the like. Invaded by Paliens, devoid of all ethics or morality and anti-government. They are the loudmouth minority of ignorance 2steps away from starting a civil war. Rush is seditious and calling for the failure of the nation in a time of crisis. How much more anti-American can you be. There's stupid and then there's Rush-stupid raving from the gutters of humanity. Republicans that kiss his ass really are slime. Guess all the decent folk already left Georgia

You do realize, of course, that Rush's madness is synonymous to jihadist martyrdom. Since he's all but openly called for a GOP holy war against the duly-elected Government of the Republic, shouldn't we at least consider the possibility of "shooting back"---?

Chicounsel,

The biggest expansion of domestic spending under Bush was Medicare drug coverage which cost far more than it needed to because conservatives' stupid insistence that it be funneled through a confusing mix of private insurance plans and that the federal government NOT be allowed to negotiate bulk pricing from the drug companies.

Then we also had the Katrina relief efforts which demonstrated once again that conservatives like to claim government doesn't work and then get into power and prove it. Because they don't trust FEMA to exercise close control over the reconstruction moneys, they issued huge contracts to companies that frequently had little or no experience in disaster relief, cleanup or construction. In some cases the actual work ended up being done by sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub contractors for about 10% of what was paid to the original contractor.

Then of course we had multiple wars, significant increases in military spending over and above the costs of those wars, massive tax cuts that went disproportianately to the very wealthy and rollbacks of regulations on everything from the environment to financial markets.

All of these things are consistent with conservative principles as represented by the Republican party at least as far back as the election in Ronald Reagan in 1980. Just because the conservatives fucked everything up, doesn't mean you get to say they weren't really conservative. Not unless you want to suggest that there hasn't been a meaningful conservative movement in this country for the last 40 years.

What I wonder is how Gingrey's family and friends can look at him without seeing a pathetic, abjectly cringing dog piddling on the floor while waiting for his abusive master's next blow. He willingly emasculated himself in the most humiliatingly public way possible.

I almost feel sorry for the guy. He makes Harry Reid look like a tower of strength.

The right wing bloviators are what the Inuit call inukshuks. If you travel in the high arctic, you may come upon inukshuks standing on the horizon. They are piles of rocks, assembled by Inuit hunters to resemble a human figure. One of their purposes was believed to be to "herd" flocks of migrating caribou into narrow paths and sometimes over cliffs where they could be killed.

Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Really.....they are all inukshuks. Their task is to ruthlessly enforce Republican purity....to guide the party membership along the narrowing path....and over the cliff to their destruction.

I say more power to them. The more they demand that the party's politicians adhere to the principles which cost them the last election in a big way.....the better.

A few members may think about bipartisanship in addressing the nation's massive challenges. But instances like this and the recent "immolation" in the LA area of a Republican state legislator who dared to suggest he might consider allowing some tax increases as a tool to deal with the state's $41 billion and growing deficit, indicates that taking those kind of steps can quickly lead to your right-wing political death if the talk show hosts come attacking.

Yeah, good luck in the 2010 elections Republicans. You are all a drain on American society with your putrid ideology. Please do follow your hero Huey (Rush) to the political graveyard.

Chicocounsel: GOP has lost the White House and their majorities in both Houses of Congress in less than a decade. With a track record like that, Rush couldn't do any worse.

actually..during that time...

rush signed the largest contract for a radio personality ever....

Clear Channel, Limbaugh Ink $400 Million New Contract - WSJ 7/3/08

so personally..he's doing great...

how about those that listen to him..you know...republicans?

Congressional Republicans = their smallest House caucus in nearly two decades, and their smallest Senate caucus in nearly three decades

oh right...

any suckers left?