McCain Takes Bizarre Approach To Smoothing Rush Relations

EAT YOUR PEAS!

To Bring Rush Into Line, McCain Employs Scolding Technique





*** UPDATE BELOW ***


Does John McCain truly believe he can scold Rush Limbaugh into joining his camp? Could a scathing letter from failed 1996 presidential candidate Bob Dole really help?

Think about it this way: as an adult, do you enjoy being admonished for not eating your peas? Would you like to be told how to vote?

At least the plate of peas (or lima beans) has some nutritional value, unlike Angry Man McCain's foolish policy positions.

And yet here is Dole, more than happy to emerge as McCain's fellow- traveller, there to browbeat El Rushbo into offering his eleventh- hour support for the Arizona senator:

Dole scolds Limbaugh

By: Mike Allen

Bob Dole, the former Senate Republican leader, wrote an insistent letter to Rush Limbaugh on Monday and suggested that for the good of the party, the conservative talk-show host should stop his strafing of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Fox News has the entire text of the letter here.


Earlier, McCain's supposed attempt to "reach out" to conservatives took an equally bizarre turn, with the GOP hopeful comparing the act of listening to Rush Limbaugh with masochism:

McCain added that conservatives might warm to him once they became focused on the fact that if he wins the nomination, he's poised to take on either Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) or Hillary Clinton (N.Y.). "Maybe when they look at the opposition, I may be a little more attractive at that time."

Still, there are limits to McCain's courtship of his party's right wing. He said that while he hoped talk radio host Rush Limbaugh would back his candidacy, he would understand if he didn't, adding he wouldn't appear on Limbaugh's show because he doesn't have guests. When told that Vice President Cheney has appeared multiple times on the problem, the senator confessed, "I don't listen to him very much. There's a certain trace of masochism in my family, but not that deep."

Given McCain's bizarre attempt at courtship with Limbaugh, is this an indication of how he would perform as president? Disagree with Commander- In- Chief McCain, feel his unhinged wrath. Think about it: he actually believes he's extending an olive branch to El Rushbo!

Syndicated talk host Lars Larson has more here.


For reasons that are still mightily unclear, 2008 will go down as the year when GOP establishment figures thought they could win elections by bashing talk radio, the very medium that propelled them to victory in 1994. Too bad the final chapter has yet to be written; will they succeed?

Weighing in today was Rush himself, who offered his own theory on the show: that the GOP establishment supports McCain because it's after jobs and influence in Washington. From the transcript:

RUSH: When you live and work inside the Beltway, your focus is power, your focus is mattering, your focus is being on the powerful, winning side, no matter what they stand for, as long as they're from your party. So some of these people who are telling me, just shut up, will you, why don't you see the light and understand that this is the only way we can win?

They want most-favored person status after their candidate is elected. They want that candidate to know that they were instrumental in supporting them and getting them elected so that there will be returned favors, favors of, you know, granting access or what have you. There is also this desire -- and this is not just contained to people on our side of the center aisle, as you will hear in the audio sound bites coming up during the remainder of the program -- there is a desire among the inside-the-Beltway elites of both Republican and Democrat persuasion to eliminate talk radio.

They don't like it. It causes them problems. We are not insiders. We are the definition of outsiders, and outsiders are never welcome as outsiders. You've gotta compromise and you've gotta lick boots and you gotta kiss rear ends in order to be accepted, and even then if you don't have the right university pedigree you might have a problem being admitted into the club.

There's a lot going on here with this, and it's distracting as hell. The bad thing is that our ideas and principles are being abandoned by people who once held to them.

One question: why does the GOP establishment believe McCain will fare any better than Dole did in 1996?


UPDATE: Rush is disputing some of this, saying Dole didn't "scold" him, but is upset with McCain for attacking Romney over this comment. In addition, he blamed the McCain campaign for spreading the idea that Dole had scolded him.


FOR New England regional talk radio updates, see our other site. NEW: Patriots loss means Globies forfeit $$$


Your Amazon orders that begin with clicks here, regardless of what you ultimately purchase, help to further this site's efforts.

Support this site: please contribute at the Honor System box to the right. Thanks again!


Technorati tags: talk radio mitt romney john mccain rush limbaugh dole scolds limbaugh bob dole rush limbaugh dole letter to rush mccain conservatives gop establishment

Dole image: AP