WaPo DEMANDS that the GOP REPUDIATE Rush: "The GOP can no longer avoid its Rush Limbaugh problem"

[kpete]

The GOP can no longer avoid its Rush Limbaugh problem.

Like other “shock jocks,” Mr. Limbaugh has committed verbal excesses in the past. But in its wanton vulgarity and cruelty, this episode stands out. Mr. Limbaugh’s audience, and those in politics who seek his favor as a means of reaching that audience, need to take special note ... What we are saying is that Mr. Limbaugh has abused his unique position within the conservative media to smear and vilify a citizen engaged in the exercise of her First Amendment rights, and in the process he debased a national political discourse that needs no further debasing.

This is not the way a decent citizen behaves, much less a citizen who wields significant de facto power in a major political party. While Republican leaders owe no apology for Mr. Limbaugh’s comments, they do have a responsibility to repudiate them — and him.

THE REST:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gop-can-no-longer-avoid-its-rush-limbaugh-problem/2012/03/02/gIQA1xvVnR_story.html

[southernyankeebelle]

1. Well lets hope they follow through.

[xxqqqzme]

2. What?!?!?

"...Mr. Limbaugh’s left-wing equivalents have trashed any number of conservatives over the years. Conservativeshave a point when they protest that the “mainstream media” don’t always heed their legitimate grievances...."

(emphasis added)

Ahhh, trotting out the ole false equivalency.

[Uncle Joe]

7. The corporate media will always push the Republican/Conservative Frame even when the Republicans

are at fault, especially when the Conservative Republicans; are at fault, because that's when they most need defending and the corporate media if not busy promoting corporate supremacist falsehoods are all about damage control.

The corporate media doesn't view the American People as clients we're just customers or consumers to be sold a product, candidate, meme, down the river or all of the above.

The corporate media is the corporate media, there is no mainstream media and they damn sure don't always heed the legitmate grievances of the Democrats, liberals and progressives but don't expect a corporate supremacist rag like WAPO to admit that inconvenient truth.

[elleng]

11. Pure b.s., from WaPo.

Not to be sanctimonious, but mr. limpballs has NO left-wing equivalents, and any 'left-wing' media have not, 'trashed' any cons. Joked about them, maybe, but NO trashing that I can think of.
(I'll be glad to change my p.o.v, if its ever occurred.)

[Frances]

3. The Post does not mention the creepiest aspect of Rush's talk

It's almost as though the media is afraid to directly refer to Rush's demand that the woman take videos of herself having sex and post them online so he and his followers can view them.

[denverbill]

4. And he's demanding government-funded pornography. But not health-care.

[ladywnch]

5. that's kinda been my feeling too..... he's too cheap to pay for his porn nowadays

so he wants her to provide it to him for free now!!!!

no one is talking about how sick he is for wanting to watch.

[DFW]

6. The GOP doesn't HAVE a Rush Limbaugh problem, and that is the problem.

Rush is and speaks for the mainstream GOP. They LOVE it that he's out there spewing his hate
unfettered. They can always repudiate him publicly when he goes too far, but they'll never get
rid of him because he fires up their base and speaks for so many of them.

The USA has a GOP problem precisely because the GOP does not have a Rush problem. As far
as they are concerned, the GOP has a Rush asset.

[Bill USA]

8. recommended

[modrepub]

9. Don't give them a martyr

The ratings must have been going down before he launched into this triad. I think it more effective to just play his pathetic attempt at attention getting over and over so everyone can see just what type of person we're dealing with. Personally I find him a pathetic multi divorced, overweight drug addict and kidless troll.

[Jack Rabbit]

10. Just a couple of points

1. This is not the way a decent citizen behaves. We're not talking about a decent citizen; we're talking about Rush Limbaugh. Please spare me any lectures that I have stooped to his level. He's done this a thousand times before, every time he suggests a black person in a high position got there by affirmative action (including the president of the United States and a pro football quarterback), every time he suggests homosexuals are intrinsically weird or every time he suggest a young woman who takes The Pill is just a slut. This kind of outrage is long overdue.
2. The Post uses the word conservative time and time again in its editorial on the matter. Rush Limbaugh is not a conservative. Rush Limbaugh is a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe, an Islamophobe and a rabid social snob who believes that the rich are morally superior to the poor, even when the rich steal more money. He simply believes some people are better than others and that those who are not should just sit down and shut up. In short, he is a member of the far right fringe. That the conservatives in the Republican party, who believe in small government, low taxes and free enterprise, have coalesced with right wing loonies is the major problem afflicting the GOP and has been for almost half a century. They have aided and encouraged the right wing by opposing civil rights legislation, opposing women's rights, especially to abortion and opposing even classifying the beating a homosexual for being a homosexual as a hate crime. It might help if the MSM were not bending over to be polite to Mr. Limbaugh and call him what he is: a right wing screwball.

[SemperEadem]

12. he has attempted to intimidate Ms. Fluke

because she does not proceed in a way in which he believes she ought to.

That is called "intimidating a witness", as she was called as a witness called to testify before Congress. There is a law against doing that. Whether it applies to this particular case remains to be seen, but there is no getting away from the fact that his whole point was to intimidate her into silence... and like all abusers, he's gotten away with it so many times in the past that what used to work to get him off on this no longer does, and he has to go harder in the paint to get his thrill--this time, he went so hard that he's drawing back nubs and THAT is the only thing he's sorry for.

Were he truly sorry for what he said, he'd have apologized the moment it left his gaping pie hole.

[Warren Stupidity]

13. The GOP is Rush Limbaugh.

WaPo doesn't get it (deliberately). This is who they are now, the GOP, a bunch of hateful intolerant know-nothings wrapping themselves in the flag and proclaiming their devotion to a form of Christianity every bit as hate-filled and deliberately ignorant as they are.