Leftists Use Huckabee - Limbaugh Conflict Against Host

TAKING ADVANTAGE

'Progressives' Use Flap To Attack Rush







To the rest of us, 2008's Republican presidential primary is a contest between US Senators, former mayors and governors. Our so- called "progressive" friends, however, see another name, this one right at the top of the ballot: that of Rush Limbaugh.

While that might seem odd, from their perspective, it's quite simple: El Rushbo's continued dominance of the talk radio medium represents far more of a threat than anyone in the GOP's relatively weak field of candidates possibly could. If there's a chance to make Rush look bad, they're going to take it.

That's why the ongoing (and frankly bizarre) flap between Republican come- from- behind Mike Huckabee and the talk titan himself has the left siding with the former Arkansas governor. Obviously, it's all about taking down the more important target.

Besides, since Democrats think Huckabee can be easily beaten as the GOP's nominee, they aren't going to do anything that would interfere with his recent rise in the polls.


Given this background, it's easy to see why "progressive" bloggers and others would be pleased with the Huckabee campaign's recent harsh words for Limbaugh, as it serves their agenda well.

For Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher, their row was much too tempting to pass up. That led to a post featured not only at her own site, but also at the widely- read Huffington Post and a number of other lefty blogs:

Huckabee Pwns Limbaugh


Rush Limbaugh has a self-awareness problem.

It's one you commonly see in celebrities -- they form their self-image based on what those around them think, but those people are frequently responding to some combination of factors that may have nothing at all to do with who they are.

Take, for example, supermodels. When you meet them you're usually struck with the impression that something's not quite right about them, and after a while it dawns on you that you've never met anyone quite this stupid who is so convinced that every word they utter is dripping with peerless insight. You can kind of cobble together a mental image of a lifetime spent with men nodding their heads in apparent fascination and listening to hours of endless drivel trying to figure out when and how to get their pants off and draw some conclusions as to why this might be, but let's just say that intellectual humility and celebrity beauty don't often go hand-in-hand.

Chris Rock has a whole routine about "model smart," which basically means being smart enough not to walk out in the middle of traffic and get hit by a car. Which pretty much sums it up.

Anyway, now we have Rush Limbaugh. He's been putting out the message on behalf of the GOP to millions of the AM radio faithful so long he thinks he's one of them, a "man of the people," or as he likes to say, "part of the Cape Girardeau [Missouri]-Middle America axis."

But Rush is no such thing. Unless his audience is composed of a lot more people making $35 million a year than I'm aware of, he's an ugly weld spot between the corporatists and the rank-and-file within the party. Huckabee knows that audience rather better than Rush does, at least the Southern contingent, and given the fact that the GOP has become largely a regional party, that's a significant portion of Rush's base.

Because "pwns" is unfamiliar to most non- geeks out there, your Radio Equalizer looked it up:

Pwn is a slang term that implies domination or humiliation of a rival, used primarily in the Internet gaming culture to taunt an opponent that has just been soundly defeated. For example: I pwn noobs on World of Warcraft. Pwn may have sprung from the similar term "owned". Examples include "pwnage" or "you just got pwned". It can also be used, especially by non-gamers, in the context of getting "pwned" by The Man.

Beyond the peculiar use of nerd- based language, Hamsher's assertion that Huckabee is tapping into anti- Rush anger inside the GOP is absurd. And if this is the Republican hopeful's real strategy, he will be sorry come election day.

Next year's election is likely to go down in history as the first one where liberals imagined who they wanted their opponents to be (Rush, Bush, etc) and campaigned accordingly. Your Radio Equalizer can't wait to see how this strategy works out on election day!


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