I got seriously mad seeing Anderson Cooper seeming to swallow this whole bullshit Politico 'story' earlier and feel compelled to try and get things straight just in case anyone else is swallowing it.
This was my first reaction to this "story" as posted on the
Rush Job: Inside Dems' Limbaugh plan thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5182249 As this is a Politco piece, I'm not entirely convinced and it could be a concoction to make Limbaugh look like some kind of martyr...
I mean, these guys run a tight ship. Nothing substantive leaked out from inside Obama's election campaign team and I'm sure they wouldn't allow a high level 'plan' such as this to be leaked out. Smells like Martin cobbled together some bits and pieces and turned it into a 'plan'. Would this 'plan' have succeeded without Limbaugh's 'fail' moment?
Sure, the Democratic party are making hay while the sun shines but that article about a pre-arranged 'plan' didn't quite ring true with me.
Let's not forget Martin had close ties with the McCain campaign and was even described as going off like Limbaugh himself by Salon.com during the election...From:
Boys' night out: "The Politico guys," Rove's top disciple and how our press corps works=snip=
...Martin wrote a
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/1008/McCain_will_be_accused_of_racism_regardless.html">widely-cited post at Politico vigorously -- even angrily -- defending John McCain from accusations that the McCain/Palin campaign has been exploiting racist resentment. Sounding like Rush Limbaugh (or Karl Rove), Martin railed against what he called the "outrage industry, ever on the lookout for any sign of racism and quick to pounce even when it's not there," and repeatedly lamented on McCain's behalf that he's in "in a no-win position." (Martin was among those who attended the cozy weekend at the McCain compound in Sedona in March and caused Megan McCain so memorably to gush: "It was really fun to kind of see big journalist figures like Holly Bailey swinging on the tire swing, and Jon Martin helping my dad grill ribs . . . The guys from the Politico brought (my mom, Cindy) flowers which I still think is the most adorable thing ever, so thank you, I thought it was like so cute that they decided to bring my mom flowers . . . ")
=snip=
More:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/10/12/griffinIt's good to see Bob Cesca has called them out in his excellent piece:
From:
The Dittohead Party: Why the GOP is Screwing Itself=snip=
...contrary to what Drudge and Politico are reporting today, this isn't some sort of wicked conspiracy cooked up by Rahm Emanuel and Robert Gibbs from within the same underground war room where they keep the president's madrassa diploma and his secret Kenyan birth certificate.
This Limbaugh situation is entirely the fault of the Republican Party. The White House is merely exploiting it -- and rightly so.
=snip=
Governor Jindal: "I think Rush is a great leader for conservatives."
Chairman Michael Steele: "I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh."
Congressman Mike Pence: "I think Rush Limbaugh -- who I admire, and like millions of Americans, I cherish his voice in the public debate."
And so the Republicans expect to be taken seriously now?
No wonder the White House is gleefully winking and nudging everyone in the direction of this Republican clown car of awfulness -- if not for the political advantage, for the sheer spectacle of watching the once mighty Republican Party effectively screwing itself. The Democrats, on one hand, appear to be busily going about the business of cleaning up the mess left behind by three decades of Reaganomics while, on the other the hand, the Republicans are duct-taping themselves to the ample bosom of the most self-satirical political sideshow geek in American media history, while also expecting this will help their electoral chances.
Full article (well worth reading the whole thing):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/the-dittohead-party-how-t_b_171979.htmlAnd there's also Greg Sargent's piece...
New Media Meme: Obama Team Solely To Blame For Rush StoryNew media meme alert: A secret plot hatched solely by the White House is entirely to blame for the Rush Limbaugh story getting so much media attention and turning into a media circus.
This shiny new meme is popping up on the same day (today) that top Republicans launched a new offensive, accusing the White House of deliberately focusing attention on Limbaugh to divert attention from solving the country’s problems.
This version of events has its genesis in this Politico piece reporting on the inner workings of the Democratic strategy to hang Rush around the necks of Republicans. Drudge linked the piece with the blaring headline: “Enemies List: White House Plots Limbaugh Coverage.” Time’s Michael Scherer argued that it shows that this “entire controversy has been cooked up and force fed to the American people by Obama’s advisers.” Reporters pushed the idea at today’s White House press briefing.
But come on: None of this is really true. Or at least, it’s a grotesque exaggeration.
First of all, the Politico piece just doesn’t say this. If anything, the reporting in there proves the opposite. The piece says that the “strategy took shape” after Dem strategists James Carville and Stan Greenberg polled on Rush and found him to be deeply unpopular. But as Steve Benen notes,
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_03/017144.php">Carville and Greenberg aren’t Obama advisers, let alone White House advisers.
That’s not all. The piece explicitly says that groups outside the White House — the DCCC, the Center for American Progress, and the labor-backed Americans United for Change — were the first to push the strategy.
The main data points in the piece on White House involvement? That Carville and Begala, and other outside groups, began discussing the strategy with White House advisers — after the two were already pounding the Rush theme on television. Also, that White House advisers started publicly pushing the Rush angle — after the story was going full throttle, after Rush had reiterated his desire for Obama to fail at CPAC, and after reporters asked the White House for reaction to Rush.
That suggest that Rush and the press also played something of a role in ensuring that this story was a major media circus.
It’s true, as Sam Stein reports, that White House press sec Robert Gibbs acknowledged some sort of role in helping to create this circus. And of course White House advisers discussed ways of pushing this story. But they obviously did so after many other parties — operating largely independently — ensured that it was in full swing.
Anyone paying attention to this story knows it developed “organically,” as Paul Begala put it to me last week. There’s just no “there” here.
From:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/new-media-meme-obama-team-solely-to-blame-for-rush-story/ I wouldn't be at all surprised if Rove was behind this disinformation campaign that's clearly designed to tarnish The White House's image/reputation. Whatever the case, the main story that the Republican party is falling apart at the seams and the whole GOP/Limbaugh debacle is fascinating political theater. However, Anderson Cooper has now given that Politico fabrication bullshit 'story'
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/04/live-blog-from-the-anchor-desk-30409/">waaay too much credence, let's just hope that we don't see today's papers spreading this concocted "Oh Noes! It's ALL Because of a White House Conspiracy Plot Against Rush Limbaugh" meme even further...
:rant: