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Media Bias or Just Personal Incompetence?

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  December 27th, 2008 at 10:18 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Following Mike Duncan’s public statement, Ken Blackwell and Saul Anuzis have now broken their notable silence on “CD gate” — both statements coming over 24 hours after news of the story initially broke. Mirroring much of the public’s response, two of the three total candidates to offer comment have forcefully criticized Saltsman’s actions, yet he still refuses to apologize for the apparent gaffe.

When first cornered by The Hill’s Reid Wilson, Saltsman was forced to defend his gift as “good humored” political satire, but now we see the problem was not with his gift — and by proxy his judgment — but rather the media’s flawed interpretation.

Saltsman writes:

Liberal Democrats and their allies in the media didn’t utter a word about David Ehrenstein’s irresponsible column in the Los Angeles Times last March.  But now, of course, they’re shocked and appalled by its parody on the Rush Limbaugh Show.

I firmly believe that we must welcome all Americans into our party and that the road to Republican resurgence begins with unity, not division. But I know that our party leaders should stand up against the media’s double standards and refuse to pander to their desire for scandal.

Wow, apparently I was just overreacting. He believes we must welcome “all Americans,” even those ‘magic negroes’ into the party. That’s nice…

Saltsman’s response is typical post-gaffe political maneuvering: He knows he did wrong, but his ego — and campaign — can’t afford to admit it. You’ll note there was no degree of remorse in his statement, only the reactionary condemnation of media bias. Moreover, if Ehrenstein’s column was, as Saltsman claims, “irresponsible,” why then is Shanklin’s satire of the subject just good wholesome fun? Simple answer: It’s not.

Having spent the last year on the campaign trail, I’ll be the last person to argue the media is without bias, but the “victim card” doesn’t lend itself to Republican victories. Republicans cannot win elections by blackballing news outlets, crying foul, and crusading against “unfair” media portrayals.

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COMMENTS

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  • bobojake

    The democrats are finally having to take some heat for reid, peloski, schummmer, dodd, frank, housing-banking scandal fraud that ended up in the reid, peloski, obama bailout. The media is trying anything to help take the heat off the democrat actions the last 2 years to destroy our economy. We conservative have to yell, fight, stomp back and keep the heat on the democrats where it should be.

    • Mike gamecock DeVine

      lie that repubs are racists. He is garbage to me.

      I may have to look into this Saltsman fella more closely. He might be just what the doctor ordered.

      • mbecker908

        -nt-

        • Mike gamecock DeVine

          to the curb! But I get your point. My exception proves the rule! umm

          • mbecker908

            Number one definition:

            Random House Unabridged Dictionary: an utterly foolish or senseless person.

            American Heritage? Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition: A foolish or stupid person.

            Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary:Id”i*ot\, n. [F. idiot, L. idiota an uneducated, ignorant, ill-informed person...]

          • Mike gamecock DeVine

            to call him garbage, and really didn’t. He is a child of God and not garbage. What I meant was that his attack on a fellow repub using the liberal racist meme was the straw that broke the camel’s back “for me” and hence he is garbage “to me”.

            I really think it is best to describe actions and explain why they are as described than to try and reduce a human being to these words.

            But I have said my peace on that. If you feel the need to stalk my every word for hypocrisy, please do. I am trying to improve myself for eternal life qualification!

            But remember that the 24/7 rule outlined in my latest blog also applies to you. We have only so much time to do what matters.

            smile

          • mbecker908

            Using them to defend Saltsman is a waste of both.

            If Saltsman wants to defend himself, let him have at it. No other official of the Party should say one word about him, for or against, to the media.

  • indym

    That is communication stategy. This is the fundemental weakness of the Republican Party. A wiser, smarter person would have been more cautious and thought about this decision. Surely Mr Saltsman should have known there would be a backlash. But my own opinion is he did not know or did not care to know, A wiser smarter man would have used this oportunity to present a forward thinking vision for the party for the 2010s. A smarter wiser man would have had a bold plan for building the party and adding to it not mocking the next President of the United States (POTUS).

    There are some serious structural problems with the US Job market in the coming years. There are not enough new well paying jobs to keep up with the demand, We need to be talking the endless regulations that you must adhere to start a new business. We need to ask President Obama how will he pay for his stimulus scheme. We need to ask what his national defense strategy is. We need to ask what is plan to fight the drug war. What is his plan for homeland security? What is his plan to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons? What is his plan to deal with the rising gang violence coming from central america? The list goes on and on. Instead we have to deal with this kind of silliness. We need to do better.

  • Rod_Patrick

    nt

  • http://www.scottbomb.com scottbomb

    “Republicans cannot win elections by blackballing news outlets, crying foul, and crusading against ?unfair? media portrayals.”

    Sorry Jim, but I disagree on this point. The press is nothing more than the mouth of the DNC and it’s high time we call them on it.

    I quit reading newspapers and watching “main-stream” newscasts long ago. I’m saddened whenever I see Redstate blogs bemoaning some New York Times op-ed. Why pay them any attention? Cancel the @#$&! subscription. If enough Americans stop reading their crap, eventually they’ll lose their influence.

    • Finrod

      This is not favorable ground to fight a battle on. As much as I loathe media bias, we’d be better off finding a better battlefield to fight the media on.

      • Rod_Patrick

        This issue will lead us to nowhere but more doubts from the people.

        • Enough_is_Enough
      • kchand

        UNNECESSARY DISTRACTION.

        Why would we want to spend our limited media exposure attempting to explain the details of this situation rather than describing the broader Conservative (hopefully Republican) message and its merits?

        Geeezzzz ……. because the Dims keep shooting themselves in the foot ……… do we have to follow? And their stupid ideas have significant consequences …………. well beyond political ones.

        Keep in mind, the economy going into ’09 is like a jumbo jet with an engine out in bad weather and the pilot has never successfully flown an intact jet in perfect conditions. Then we end up complaining about the food service on board.

        • mbecker908

          ..

          • ZootSuit

            you have said everything I would have said and probably said it much better.

            Thank you!

          • mbecker908

            Feel free to pile on… Giggle 3

            … and thanks.

          • ZootSuit

            I’m enjoying football and family too much. Besides, you’re doing well enough for both of us.

            And you’re welcome!

        • Mike gamecock DeVine

          by agreing with them that Saltsman has poor judgment. That can be used against us later to attack other parodies. I guess the GOP likes being limited in its arsenal while abandoning so many feilds of battle to the left and its rules.

          and how long does it take to point out that the parody makes the point that it is the left that is race obsessed. About 13 words.

          • mbecker908

            First of all, if it’s not obvious that Saltsman’s judgment is just a little worse than bad because of all this, you’re just not paying attention.

            Second, nobody is limiting anybody’s arsenal. Just take a page Reagan’s playbook. When he was attacked he defended himself. He didn’t need Rush to jump in. Or anybody else. He fought his own battles. Saltsman should do the same. After all, HE created the problem.

            Third, if all it took was “13 words”, this would never have survived the weekend. The only way this thing is going away is when Saltsman goes away and that’s been obvious to all but the blind since day one.

            Four, get Firefox, it’s got a spellchecker.

          • janis

            Listening to the two of you go at it over just about everything reminds me of them. For the record, they’re two of my very favorite characters.

          • Mike gamecock DeVine

            Tuesday FNC Grapevine echoes gamecock, reports Blackwell and several GOP state chairs defend Saltsman and condemn Duncan for mimicking the msm lies about poor judgement.

    • weave

      For those who think the MSM is inconsequential and should be ignored, consider this anecdotal evidence.

      For Christmas I purchased a lot of digital tire pressure gauges. Before each person opened it, I said that the present was inspired by President-Elect Obama.

      Most people didn’t get it, leaving me with having to explain the joke. The only people that got the reference were those who listen to talk radio or read Drudge regularly.

      For those who like to say how Rush is #1 talk show host in the country, I say it’s dwarfed when compared to people who don’t listen to any talk radio. For those who say Fox is #1 on cable, I say if you add the aggregate of all other cable news channels plus the major networks, Fox’s viewership is diminutive.

      IF you ignore the MSM, you end up just preaching to the choir.

      • zuiko

        Who don’t even get their news from CNN or the NYT. Most people get their news from even more stupid sources, like the local Channel 4 news and the local daily rag that is every bit as liberal as the NYT but much less informative. CNN and the NYT would be an upgrade for these people. You can’t ignore the MSM. They are still very influential with the mushy middle, and we need those people to win elections.

        • http://www.scottbomb.com scottbomb

          I agree, most people do seem to get their news from liberals who are all singing from the same hymnal. That said, what do we do about it? Support these news/propaganda outfits with our viewership and subscriptions?

          We certainly can’t expect them to print/televise our side of the story.

  • CajunKate

    Doc Holliday is right. The parody is of Al Sharpton whining because Obama is getting all the attention w/o paying his dues like Sharpton has. I dare say, 90% of the media who have reported on this have no idea what the parody is about and have never listened to it. I think we should really hammer the media on this.

  • klangston

    Why is the attorney who, in 1981, “represented John Hinckley, Jr., who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan” also “Obama’s own [personal] lawyer”?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Craig

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/rahm-emanuel-foot-in-the-door-1212436.html
    Rahm Emanuel: Foot in the door

    Barack Obama’s chief of staff could have been a ballet star. And when the new team moves into the White House, his are the moves that everyone will be watching

    Saturday, 27 December 2008

    If you want, at the dawn of this brave new era, a sobering insight into the way Barack Obama will go about being the Most Powerful Man in the World, try sitting down with a copy of the official report into his office’s dealings with the disgraced Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich.

    The document, published on the news-burying day of 23 December, was written by Obama’s own lawyer, Gregory Craig, and details every contact the president-elect’s transition office had with the dodgy politician who now stands accused of attempting to “sell” a seat in the United States Senate.

    It makes for chilly reading. Not because Craig reveals any corruption in the Obama camp (in fact, he exonerated the future president and his aides), but instead because of the light it shines on the chummy horse-trading between Blagojevich and the man many believe to be the future US president’s most powerful lieutenant, Rahm Emanuel.

    Mr Emanuel’s official title is chief of staff. But really he’s the Obama team’s pantomime villain: the tough-guy “fixer” who cuts deals, twists arms and is responsible for actually getting things done in Washington. Like a transatlantic version of a parliamentary whip, his personal style veers between pit bull and mafia don. Certainly he has become a key player in the “Blago” scandal.

    Despite Obama’s public promise after the election that he and his team would take a “hands-off” approach to selecting his successor in the Senate, it emerges in Craig’s report that the president-elect actually authorised Mr Emanuel to do the reverse.

    In fact, Obama’s chief of staff spoke to Blagojevich twice in early November, suggesting on one occasion that Valerie Jarrett would be an “acceptable” candidate to replace the new president as Illinois senator.

  • Enough_is_Enough

    I am glad that both Mike Duncan and Newt Gingrich came out and denounced Saltsman’s JOKE. To some, this whole caper may seem like no biggie to some but to many it is a bit more. The laws which legalized and codified Jim Crow came about because those who should have know better thought it was all fine and dandy. Rush Limbaugh may have played this record, etc. but Rush is not the face of the GOP and does not make policy, at least not directly. Saltsman, if elected as RNC, chair will both make and influence policy directly. And therein lies the difference.

    Personally, I’m getting sick of this “Blame the MSM” meme for all the GOP’s problems. Yes, the media IS biased, but when we blame them even when we fall on our own swords then it diminishes our credibility and we end up looking like fools. There is a term for it, its called: Cry Wolf.

    • Enough_is_Enough

      I was thinking RNC chair; Why not Newt. He is the best ideas guy around and he won’t have to run for office which can be a disadvantage.

      • zuiko

        So I don’t see him being interested in it.

        • Enough_is_Enough

          but you have to admit that he has what it takes to make the GOP a majority party, once again. And not just because he has done it in the past.

          There is no one i can call on off the top of my head who can expound on conservative issue AND policy in a more clear and forthright way. Most pols are good at either one or the other. They can talk issues but they sound like empty suits because the policy part is weak. Others can narrate policy but they get too wonky and the issues get lost in the mix.

          Well, one can dream, can’t they?

      • George Claghorn
        • zuiko
        • http://www.scottbomb.com scottbomb
  • Kowalski

    Earth to Republicans: here’s a tip for Republicans in elected office everywhere, and those who want to be considered for the Chairmanship of the RNC in particular:

    Leave the sophomoric humor to the sophomores and professional entertainers. It doesn’t matter if you’re making fun of something a liberal said that was picked up by Rush Limbaugh; in fact, that makes it worse, because you’re trying to ride the coattails of one of their sophomoric jokes. And nobody likes a Republican trying to be funny with a liberal’s joke after Rush Limbaugh made it a retread. It’s unoriginal first of all, and you run a big risk of getting hit from both sides.

    It’s a dumb move, in very poor taste, and beneath Saltsman, who apparently has some good ideas as the putative Chair of the RNC, but whose candidacy has now been overshadowed by a sophomoric parody that should never have left the editing room.

    Heed the words, and be circumspect.

    Over and out.

    • zuiko

      And this happened to be one of the tracks on the CD. I don’t see that as trying to be a funny man using other people’s old material. I have a hard time heaping blame on the guy for sending out a CD and not foreseeing it would be used as the basis for an attack.

      Seems like there is much less blame to go around here than there was to go around at Strom Thurmond’s birthday party, and that was a pretty thin basis for outrage, too.

      • janis

        As someone who has long been in the political game, Saltsman knows that everything a Republican politico does and says will receive the biased and gimlet eye of the MSM, and always unfavorably. Don’t you think it was really a careless mistake on his part not to review the contents of the gift that he was spreading around to over a hundred receipients?

        And another thing strikes me as well. Who recommended this CD and why? I have heard no other parodies condemned from it, so it occurs to me that the Magic Negro song was probably the one that got his attention. That thought alone should have made him avoid it like the plague.

        • zuiko

          To foresee this blowing up you would have to be extremely paranoid. The MSM makes up issues out of nothing at all, that is what you have to understand. The only way to avoid MSM outrage is to go underground and never come out. Hardly an effective strategy for achieving anything.

          As for why he chose this CD, it seems to me it likely has nothing to do with this song. I’m not sure why you would assume that this song was the reason he sent it out. Paul Shanklin is pretty well known by conservatives. This happens to be his latest CD out of the dozen or so he has already released. A CD with *FORTY-ONE* tracks on it. Sending that out as a gift doesn’t seem that unreasonable to me.

          • janis

            at least half-black man as POTUS. This is the year that we have been hammered over and over again as the party of non-inclusiveness, as racists, etc. You wouldn’t have to be paranoid at all to be able to see which way this one was going to go, just reasonably prudent. And he wasn’t, not even a little bit.

  • Mark Malcolm

    If we allow this sort of thing to go on we will once again allow the MSM and the left choose who represents us as they did for president.

    I am tired of common sense being thrown out the window for the sake of getting a sound bite with a media group who don’t like us anyway.

    Yes, I believe those making an issue out of one track on a 41 track parody are making up for a slow news day.

    This has NOTHING to do with the next RNC chair other than distracting us from the real discussion.

    If we allow the media to set our agenda and discussion with crap like this we’ll end up with Duncan and his cronies back in charge. If that happens I will drop my pail of water and become a fifth column within the Republican party for the creation of a Conservative party.

    • Michael Dugas

      It’s about perception and what the left will MAKE it look like. You can say “I am tired of common sense being thrown out the window for the sake of getting a sound bite with a media group who don?t like us anyway.” But that doesn’t have a thing to do with reality.
      We may understand that it is a parody showing how the left is so
      racially myopic but it’s not that simple and you are assuming the rest of America will share your understanding. That’s not going to happen.
      We have got to stop handing ammunition to our enemies.

      • Mark Malcolm

        It’s also a good idea to get our side to not agree with them. My point is to many of supposed conservatives are willing accomplices in throwing common sense out the window. They turn on their own and agree with the MSM because, like McCain, they believe somehow they can get in good with the MSM.

        I don’t care what the left does. Right now I’m more concerned with what our side is doing, or not doing. This is just an example of us once again allowing the left to direct the conversation because some republicans are saying, ‘yea, that was bad’ when any sane person understands the circumstances and knows it’s a non-issue.

  • Martin Knight
  • http://www.rightsided.org/ Mark Kilmer

    own errors, they take some gravity from actual reports of media bias.

    This contest for boss of the party apparatus — fergawdsakes! — has the potential to become unhealthy for the party. Not that the Gange of 168 worry a white about it.

  • Jaded

    this statement

    “But I know that our party leaders should stand up against the media?s double standards and refuse to pander to their desire for scandal.”

    He is absolutely correct that WE cannot continue to beaten over the head for the same crap that originated out of the LA Times in which NOTHING was said and if we do continue to allow the MSM and Democrats (but I repeat myself) to define us than we deserve the minority!

    With Rush it was in context unfortunately for Chip not so much!

  • kchand

    This reminds of the uproar over the use of the word ‘niggardly’. It’s so very easy to create rage over something that is misunderstood. The bottom line is that it’s easy to create the uproar and MUCH more difficult to explain how it is misplaced. The bottom line, just avoid this stuff. How hard is that?

  • Doc Holliday

    but I do know the Limbaugh parody had nothing to do with Republicans at all. It was about infighting among liberals, particularly self proclaimed “black leaders”. And yes, the parody was funny.

    I don’t know if Saltsman is qualified, he probably is not the best and brightest. OTOH, we like to call the Dems a party of whimps, but it seems that is what WE are becoming. Oohh, someone said something that angered the media or could seem offensive, throw him under the bus, we feel your pain, we are so, so sorry, just take him and leave us alone!

    btw, is this really news, do you mean to tell me the guys competing for the same job find fault in each other? That is truly amazing.

  • USNJIMRET

    Worse, the Republican Party is, yet again, letting the liberal media determine what’s important for the Republican Party.
    Isn’t that exactly how we wound up with McCain as our candidate?
    We learn so slowly, if at all.

  • Doc Holliday

    by playing to the most ignorant among us. We have been niggardly with our requirements of informed discourse.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/08/taking_on_the_527_media.html

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/11/the_527_medias_predicament.html

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    the CD presents a poor message via parody. It does not. In fact, what it does is point out that libs dems are race obsessed. Rush is right and to send links to www.rushlimbaugh.com or ANYTHING on said website is exactly the king on Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies they need!

  • Michael Dugas

    Basically what Saltsman did was hand the pistol to his enemy and that’s just stupid. Parody has it’s place but selecting this time and place to toss in what will only be viewed as racial ammunition by the Left was a mistake and shows a lack of forethought.
    As Republicans we have to realize that this is a battle for the hearts and minds of the people (mainly the hearts) and we start this battle at a loss because our enemy owns the media. We have to MAKE our voices heard above the constant din of the Left and that’s a very hard thing to do and we’ll never succeed at it if our own people, Saltsman,
    add volume to the Lefts roar themselves.
    The battle is also made that much more complicated when people
    like Duncan unleash arrows at their own side. “Do no harm …” remember that phrase, as ill conceived putting that parody out there was Duncan’s response was just as harmful if not more so.

    On a side note I saw that Grover Norquist tossed his hat into the RNC Chair ring. Anyone have any ideas about him ? I am pretty much unfamiliar with him.

  • kchand

    half the population has a below average IQ. Unfortunately, too many of them vote based on their political knowledge provided from the likes of Leno, Letterman and Jon Stewart.

  • Doc Holliday

    People say this helps Saltsman, others say it helps Duncan. I say this obviously helps Blackwell. He is inured from the race issue, yet he defended Saltsman. The GOP will likely buckle to this tempest in a tea pot, but the rank and file will dislike Duncan even more, just my opinion.

    I really don’t know these guys very well, other than Steele. What has he said on the issue? If he has said nothing, Blackwell has stolen his thunder. I do know “the coach” who has lost since 2006 must be fired.

  • kingfish

    As someone who appreciates jackassery and off=color jokes (yes, even Richard Pryor making fun of white people), I can say one of the cardinal rules of business is to keep humor out of business dealings for the most part. What you think is funny someone else may not find so laughable. I’ve seen all too often an attempt at being cute leaving egg on the face of the teller of the attempted joke. You don’t ever assume what someone may or may not find funny.

    Apparently he missed this basic fact of sales.

  • Vladimir

    … anyone with any sense of leadership and public relations should know that, at the point you’re debating whether or not it’s racist or offensive, you’ve lost.

    When Rush Limbaugh sparks controversy, he gains in the ratings.

    When the Republican “Leadership” sparks (non-policy) controversy, it loses Republican voters.

  • AHALgal

    If Steele can stay out of this and keep his trap shut, he has a solid case for GOP Chairman. He needs to appear to be above it all and quite frankly, deride Mike Duncan for creating more MSM-hysteria that divides the GOP.

    Duncan has GOT TO GO and Steele/Gingrich need to play this hand wisely.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    Saltsman or Duncan, both of whom stood no chance before this or now. This is about whether repubs will stand up to the pc police or continue to be spineless wimps. There is nothing wrong with the parody. The parody needs to be defended. When asked about this, gop talking heads on TV should point out that the parody points out that liberals and democrats are race obsessed and favor laws that treat people differently based on race. That when they see a person, they see a group. Americans don’t like that and we should use this incident for that purpose.

  • James Richardson

    In an email from his spokesman:

    “Our Party is facing a stiff head wind right now. The leadership necessary to face these turbulent times requires that we appreciate how our actions and our words are often times used to define who we are as Republicans. I know Chip, I know his character; and while his attempt at humor was clearly misplaced, it does not make him indifferent to the important work of building the coalitions necessary to make our party stronger. And yet, we must be mindful that self-inflicted wounds not only distract us from regaining our strength as a Party, but further diminish our credibility with an increasingly diverse community of voters. As RNC Chairman, I want us to be a lot smarter about such things and more appreciative that our actions always speak louder than our words.” — Michael Steele

  • AHALgal

    Not everything that happens in this race requires a media comeback.

    Anyone with a coconut would know that Steele wouldn’t be pleased with this situation, but commenting on it keeps the rumor-mill game advancing.

    These guys need to let this issue die PDQ so they can get to issues that will ultimately defeat Duncan, but they’re letting Duncan out fox them all right now.

  • David Hinz

    is that the GOP talking heads are as poorly informed on the Rush parody as the liberal talking heads and liberal media.

    They need an education

  • mbecker908

    It’s about whether we are going to let the MSM set our agenda to be one of defending rank stupidity or moving to elect a Chairman who just happens to be more qualified than either of these idiots even without this little foible.

    Your first line is the key: Saltsman or Duncan, both of whom stood no chance before this or now. They should simply be ignored – like at least Saltsman would have been anyway.

  • Doc Holliday

    I agreed with you in the first post that Saltsman did nothing wrong. In the second post I predicted that this would end up helping Steele and would hurt Saltz and Duncan, just some realpolitik. I am with you on fighting back. The MSM lied about the story by failing to give it context, they cheated their viewers.

  • mbecker908

    Another thing that is important to remember is that the RNC Chair – since we no longer have the WH – will be an important person to be front and center with the media advancing the Republican agenda. I don’t want these guys anywhere near a microphone and TV camera.

  • morbie5

    people want to make the word ‘negro’ an officially taboo word they should have the United Negro College Fund renamed.

  • zuiko

    I don’t see how anyone would have seen this as an issue at the time. He didn’t call a press conference to play this parody for the reporters. I doubt he even thought about this specific track on the CD until the MSM pounced on it. Maybe more paranoia was called for, but I don’t think the solution is not to become more risk adverse. The Republicans are already far too risk adverse. We do all kinds of idiotic things (things that actually affect policy) just because we are concerned how it will play in the MSM.

  • mbecker908

    that could only be called “classy” and are of the “time to move on” variety. It just so happens that either of them would do a much better job than Saltsman or Duncan.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    not surrender.

  • zuiko

    It’s hard to tell the difference,

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    is no reason for us that are not ignorant to correctly respond to the matter. Shall we let ignorance be a reason for us to ape the ignorant?

    Dave, do you agree that the Rush parody makes a critically valid political point about how the left is race obsessed?

    I know that you do.

    Do you and I show disqualifying poor judgment for listening too and laughing at the parody?

    Of course not. Even Rev Al has said it was funny and made a valid point, not that he is my standard.

    So, all I am saying is that those of us that are not ignorant, state the truth, rather than nodding our heads in silence at the PC police.

    But of course you know this, and I appreciate the softball you tossed me that gave me the opportunity for the rooster to crow once more!

    luv ya

    PS Will you renew the Rush 24/7 subscription?

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    thankfully
    unlike too many here that immediataly joined Duncan’s tune that apes the msm line and implicitely attacks Rush and the parody. The only way Chip shows poor judgment is if the parody is not true. But the parody is true and its one that we must muster the spine to make, i.e. that the left is race obsessed. Much bigger issue than Chip of Duncan. Standing up to the PC police is vital for GOP majority status to be attained.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    down from the pc police memes like Duncan. Rush is not stupid and the parody is not stupid. The parody makes a vital point that the left is race obsessed. Yes, they should be ignored but not because of the parody, and we need to rebut police characterizations that take our “poor judgment” admissions and translate that into discrediting Rush and our side’s very use of parodies.

    Can a liberal send out SNL episodes that insult Christians?

    yes, and be congratulated.

    Their parodies are mostly vile and false.

    This parody was true. And when we get opportunities like this, we need to attack the memes.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    and you and so many conventional beaten down republicans are content to play with the toys the left lets you have.

    I have gotten where I am by fighting. By seizing opportunities where you and your kind seek safe (you) think compromise.

    Rush is Right.

    Move on to something and sombody else. I can take only so much of your tone and defeatism.

    God bless

  • janis

    thinking ahead to how the MSM would spin this. I don’t care that it’s a parody or that Limbaugh had it first, nor do I care that it points out a particular truth about the Dems’ inherently racist behavior.

    What matters is that Saltsman wasn’t smart enough to THINK first before he did something so unnecessarily stupid and thereby gave the MSM yet another reason to point fingers at the R party as racist. Sorry, but there’s just no defending someone who ends up hurting ALL of us. The fact that he is a southerner just makes it worse.

  • mbecker908

    Saltsman should have known the media would run with this to the almost total exclusion of all else. He won’t be able to get a word in edgewise about a real issue for weeks. And in case you missed it, neither can any of the other RNC candidates.

    Look, I don’t much give a rip about the song. I don’t particularly think it’s all that funny and the fact that Rush had it done and ran it has nothing whatsoever to do with Saltsman/Duncan. Rush is an entertainer, part of his job is to create meaningless controversy for people in the media to talk about ad nauseam. That is precisely his job description.

    The RNC Chair, on the other hand, should be somebody who is an effective communicator ON THE ISSUES. Not on political parodies. Or funny songs. But someone who can deliver the Republican line on current events and issues and connect with the American people. And Saltsman has absolutely proven that he ain’t that guy.

    You want to stand up to the PC police, do it when they throw Oreos at Steele or Blackwell. Do it when they go whacky over an issue. Not when they point out – and quite rightly – that a guy like Saltsman is a jerk.

    Defending this crap is a waste of time and effort and makes everybody involved look like jerks. We have three great candidates for the job. Saltsman isn’t one of them. Neither is Duncan. Let’s focus on the issue of rebuilding the party, of developing an effective outreach to minority voters, developing a crisp platform that differentiates us from the enemy and get on with developing a strategy to win in ’10. Defending this jerk isn’t it.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    we will remain a minority party.

    Don’t you understand that no matter what we say and do, short of becoming liberal democrats (and even there, look at the failure of the new bush tone and the powell maverick strategies to do just that), they will call us racists, bigots and homophobes.

    We walk on eggshells and surrender to their memes and play by their rules and still lose. Your strategy is a loser.

    but I love you janis

  • mbecker908

    Bingo!

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    and you are repeating yourself as I have repeated my self.

    Could I have the last word on this one? Please God?!

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    1

  • Enough_is_Enough

    FWIW, I’m a black man and also a conservative, albeit a fiscal con. When I tell people that I’m a fiscon they often look at me like I’m from Mars or Pluto. It’s hard for them to understand the conservatism is about issues that work and that the GOP is not about race or gender.

    This Saltsman CD stuff and the defense of it simply propagates the creed that GOPers are racists. They are mostly not, but try telling that to people who do not see it as appropriate that Saltsman, as a potential RNC chairman, thinks this CD is just plain down-home funny. It’s not.

  • olsmithie

    Bingo!, oh great chicken.

    The MSM shall never again set our agenda.
    They screwed us, (pardon the french), out of one election by picking McCain for us.

    Never again should we let down our guard.

    Regards

  • Susannah

    Yes, Saltsman might have made a mistake giving this CD as a gift. However, like Zuiko said further down thread, there were 41 tracks on the CD, and it’s not like he called a press conference and played the song publicly–he gave it privately as a gift. Not to mention, GC, you make a good point about liberals (like Bill Maher and SNL) getting away with much more tasteless parodies of religious conservatives than Paul Shankman does in regard to liberals. (Did anyone see Maher’s parodies of Palin and her family? I rest my case.) Anyway, in my opinion, hindsight is 20/20 of this one. In other words, I could totally see how Salstman could have just wanted to give a CD to some friends and staff members that he thought that they would like, and totally forgot about that one particular song. Besides, Shankman is popular with conservatives–it’s not like he’s some fringe weirdo that only the tin-foil hat crowd listens to.

    One other point is that Saltsman did manage to take Mike Huckabee (a nobody on the national scene with no money) and make him a major candidate and runner-up for the GOP nomination–like it or not, that is a pretty big accomplishment regardless of what one thinks of Huckabee. (Oh, and please, no one respond to me about Huckabee–this is NOT about Huckabee–it’s about Saltsman’s accomplishment). Anyway, my point is that Saltsman obviously has some measurable amount of talent, and should not be immediately thrown under the bus just because the MSM is looking to gin up some fake controversy in order to take the heat off of the Dems for the Caroline Kennedy fiasco, Bill Richardson, Charlie Rangel, Blagojevich, and Obama’s recent public relations debacles in Hawaii (the troops giving him a lukewarm reception, and him looking like an elitist with his gigantic mansion Hawaiian vacation–Paul Krugman even admitted that it looked bad).

    Oh, and just to be clear to everyone, I want Steele to be RNC chair–I just also want to be fair to Saltsman.

  • Susannah

    Yes, Saltsman might have made a mistake giving this CD as a gift. However, like Zuiko said further down thread, there were 41 tracks on the CD, and it’s not like he called a press conference and played the song publicly–he gave it privately as a gift. Not to mention, GC, you make a good point about liberals (like Bill Maher and SNL) getting away with much more tasteless parodies of religious conservatives than Paul Shankman does in regard to liberals. (Did anyone see Maher’s parodies of Palin and her family? I rest my case.) Anyway, in my opinion, hindsight is 20/20 of this one. In other words, I could totally see how Salstman could have just wanted to give a CD to some friends and staff members that he thought that they would like, and totally forgot about that one particular song. Besides, Shankman is popular with conservatives–it’s not like he’s some fringe weirdo that only the tin-foil hat crowd listens to.

    One other point is that Saltsman did manage to take Mike Huckabee (a nobody on the national scene with no money) and make him a major candidate and runner-up for the GOP nomination–like it or not, that is a pretty big accomplishment regardless of what one thinks of Huckabee. (Oh, and please, no one respond to me about Huckabee–this is NOT about Huckabee–it’s about Saltsman’s accomplishment). Anyway, my point is that Saltsman obviously has some measurable amount of talent, and should not be immediately thrown under the bus just because the MSM is looking to gin up some fake controversy in order to take the heat off of the Dems for the Caroline Kennedy fiasco, Bill Richardson, Charlie Rangel, Blagojevich, and Obama’s recent public relations debacles in Hawaii (the troops giving him a lukewarm reception, and him looking like an elitist with his gigantic mansion Hawaiian vacation–Paul Krugman even admitted that it looked bad).

    Oh, and just to be clear to everyone, I want Steele to be RNC chair–I just also want to be fair to Saltsman.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    It’s less filling.

  • mbecker908

    you are doing exactly what the MSM wants us to. You are caught in their trap and doing their bidding.

    What SHOULD have happened is that somebody should have called Saltsman and said, “Make this go away. You go away. NOW.” He drops out of the race and it’s not even a one day story. By defending this pinhead, who obviously has no business on the national stage in any role, they get to stretch what should be a non-event into a multi-day extravaganza celebrating the diversity and tolerance of Democrats who just elected the first African-American President v. the Republicans who think all black-folk ought to be like Steppin Fetchit.

    I fully agree we should fight them tooth and nail on the issues. See my criticism of GWB on that. This is not an issue unless WE make it one and if we do, it’s a loser. BTW, how can you demand we fight this stupidity and give GWB a pass on never taking it to the media, even when the stories were outright, demonstrable lies?

  • janis

    a matter of walking on eggshells and surrendering. It is, or should, be about being smarter than the MSM, not giving them so much as a fingerhold on us with which to gain legitimate points. Besides, do you really think that our side wouldn’t be all over it like this if a Dem had sent this same gift out to a hundred or so of his prominent political friends? Just think about that for a minute.

  • mbecker908

    …

    and Neil, when can we (what do mean “we” old guy?) get WordPress so it will take blank comments. Or at least so it won’t tell me “Duplicate Comment” when I type in “-nt-”.

    Thanks.

  • janis

    to set the agenda with. Let’s give them tough, smart, forward-thinking conservative solutions to liberal-caused problems and let them try to spin those. That’s a fight worth doing battle over, this one isn’t. It’s just stupid.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    2

  • zuiko

    Why not just ignore these guys? If they ask, point out how ridiculous the controversy is and leave it at that. This “story” has no legs unless people like Duncan give it legs.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    is also an option the MSM wants. But what the msm wants is irrelevant. What they want is for us to concede their gop as racist meme, which we do by saying that it was poor judgment to send out the parody, thus conceding their implication that the parody is racist and that rush is racist.

    yes, they want people that will surrender to respond and since they expect that response they “want” it.

    Wouldn’t it be great if they got their comeuppance with an unexpected response that focuses, not of their Saltsman/Duncan fight but rather that the left is race obsessed yet the press has few minorities in their ranks.

    We can turn what they want around if people that say they want to fight and hate the new tone and hated the maverick (and your suggested response is exactly what McCain would advise) would actually fight the fights that are presented rather than perpetually waiting for some imaginary fight that never seems to fit into their playing field they have let the msm confine them to.

    Maybe we haven’t exhausted the refutation of your bad ideas.

    keep ‘em coming

  • Martin Knight

    But where I have my difference with GC is that it’s not anyone other than Saltsman’s place to defend himself, just like it was Dubya’s own primary responsibility to safeguard his own honor and credibility.

  • zuiko

    That this is not “juicy” at all by objective standards. They can find this same level of “juiciness” in any made-up issue they can (and do, regularly) come up with. This kind of thing is inevitable. The question is how we deal with it. Do we stoke the fire and feed the story like Duncan, or do we ignore it?

  • mbecker908

    …

  • Mike gamecock DeVine
  • janis

    And the way we deal with it is by hoisting up leaders with more taste and sense than this guy, or Duncan, or any of the other lightweights in the game. We need men and women of vision, integrity, thoughtfulness, and good common sense. We do NOT need people who can’t see beyond on the end of their noses.

    And I am a Tennessean. It is personally offensive to me to see this again and again on the local news and see the ease with which the media gets to elicit disgust and disapproval from the public when they keep playing it for people on the street. Of course the people on the street have no context nor, for the most part, any prior knowledge of this parody. All they hear is the sung phrase “Barack, the Magic Negro….” while their facial reactions and remarks are broadcast all over the place.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    and even better when the opportunities are dropped in our laps!

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    I even posted on the FP about it as an open thread.

    Blank comments are allowed if the title ends in nt (with or without a single punctuation mark on either side), bypassing the duplicate checker.

    So “Run along and die now nt” works, “Oh Moe… (nt)” works, “John McCain can… -NT-” works, but “I love that Streisand album n/t” does NOT work.

  • janis

    Look, if this were a military war instead of media one, and I know the enemy is lying in wait up ahead to ambush me, what would be your choice of prudent behavior? Should I just march my troops right into it because I choose to, or, knowing the danger ahead, should I take care of my forces and choose a smarter route so that I can fight in the future?

    Seems more like the vision a leader should have to anticipate unnecessary trouble and steer his followers away from it.

  • janis

    under potential recruits to this party so it won’t stay a minority even longer, then this incident isn’t the way to do it. Appeal to their hearts and minds and wallets, not their taste for parody.

  • mbecker908
  • Mike gamecock DeVine
  • zuiko

    should I take care of my forces and choose a route that is also lined with MSM ambushes?

    Avoiding MSM manufactured outrage is not an option. Focusing on that is a mistake. They will always manufacture some controversey to attack with, unless you switch parties or get out of politics entirely. Those are the only two “smart” paths you can take to avoid the ambush.

  • janis

    Then if I have to fight, I should make it something worth fighting about. This doesn’t rise to that level. I gain nothing by defending something this stupid. Yes, the MSM lies in wait at every turn, yes, they manufacture outrage, but by giving them something so utterly foolish on a silver platter with lots of garnish, we beclown ourselves.

    Personally, after the year we have all just lived through, I’m tired of being represented by “leaders” who think it’s just grand to make us all wear floppy shoes and rubber noses. I WANT A LEADER WHO IS WORTHY OF THE NAME AND HAS A DESTINATION THAT MAKES ME WANT TO FOLLOW HIM/HER.

  • mbecker908

    to be out on the “front lines” in the war at home.

    Any chance we could twist your arm to write a diary with ideas about how to frame the message to the black community?

    It’s an old saw, but a large segment, I think, agrees with us on the issues but wouldn’t get caught dead voting R. How do we breach the gap???

    Thanks.

  • Enough_is_Enough

    But they are closely related and it’s not the words per se but rather how they are used. I’ll give you an example:

    You go to the mall and as you walk in the door, you see an old college mate who then hails you: Hey Jack, you S*B, long time no see. You both chat, catch up on things and you go your merry way. Then coming out of the store, you almost bump into some young whippersnapper who is talking on his cell phone and not paying attention. You say excuse me, but he then proceeds to call you an S*B for making him almost drop his phone. Not a good analogy but you get the idea. Same words, coming from different people and said in different ways.

    No victim-hood here, believe me. But sometimes this stuff is hard to explain.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine
  • zuiko

    1) Play along with the MSM and fight
    2) Play along with the MSM and fuel the fire (Duncan-style)
    3) Don’t play the MSM’s game… don’t try to explain and defend and they won’t have anything to report on. Then they’ll have to go manufacture something else.

    I vote for option #3.

  • mbecker908
  • Enough_is_Enough

    of what a southern gentleman is all about and I’m not just talking about this post. I once had a manager who gave me a very valuable insight. He said to me, son, you will go very far and do very well if you sometimes stop and look at the other person. You remind me of him.

    On the question of getting more black folks into the GOP, well I’ll try to write something useful one of the days. But I can give you some broad stroke now. One thing i will say up front is the GOP can never hope to attract all black folk. the reason is simple; the black community is not unlike any other community. It is very diverse and comprise people of all different types of dreams, aspirations, values, motivations. You will find the same things in any other community; Whites, Hispanics, heck even among Islamists they have their conservatives (we call them fundamentalist) and moderates (we refer to them as secular.)

    The key for me is to find your audience,and attract that audience. Not pander to them (the libs have been doing that for ages and things cannot be more worse) but explain what your values are (self-dependence, freedom of opportunity, family values, self-choice, a sense of pride in our nation) and allow them to gravitate to you if they believe int he same things.

    I can say this, a number of blacks already secretly vote conservative (prop-8 ring a bell) and that is a good start. But know that you can never reach them all, only those who genuinely want things to change for the better in out country.

    I’ll write some more later. And thank you for asking.

  • mbecker908

    First of all, we’ll never get “all” of anybody. Heck, not even “all” the white religious conservatives like us. :-)

    Generally speaking, I have no interest in developing “new” issues to attract people, because in that context, “new” typically means we are going to expand the power and reach of government and control them. My goal would be to dramatically reduce the size and scope of government pretty much across the board with a notable exception for national security (I’m a resident “war monger”).

    That said, I happen to think that conservative positions on issues are winning positions. The question is how do we present our positions in a way that voter niches will relate to and will buy in to. For instance, school choice. Nobody will ever convince me that minorities are happy with the condition of the schools their kids attend and I’ll also not be convinced that minority parents care less about their kids education than a faceless gnome in DC (or anywhere else for that matter). So, how do we sell school choice? It’s a big time winning issue for minorities across the board but we’ve got to get them listening and committed.

    That’s just one example of what I would consider a “conservative position” that would be a natural winner.

    Oh, and where do we recruit the communicators?

  • mbecker908

    and I’m not so sure you ever left the Democratic Party.

    You’ve spent the last several years insisting that the President shouldn’t engage the media and now, all of a sudden, it’s critical that we attack over something that’s a total non-issue in defense of a guy who’s a total non-entity.

    Sheesh.

  • Martin Knight

    In these types of situations, and judging from history, starting from what happened to Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, Trent Lott, George Allen and even Larry Summers, the proper response is to stand fast and fight unapologetically and unstintingly to save yourself and your reputation.

    You don’t back down, you don’t pull punches, you certainly do not apologize. Your response should be all fire and brimstone.

    In politics, there’s no profit in restraint, and no one will admire you for your “patience” and “grace” as you sit back and let yourself be destroyed. Bush did that, and look where it got him, and us by extension.

    Frankly, I just don’t get it. Finally, at long last, Republican leaders are no longer taking part in the polite fiction of a balanced media and acknowledging the decades-long reality of media bias, and yet they’re obviously still having a problem internalizing it and accounting for it in every public act.

    Saltsman was stupid for getting into this mess in the first place – and the fact that he could look at the title of this song and not realize that it would cause something like this proves that he’s not fit to take the helm at the RNC. The guy deserves a Darwin Award for the self-immolation of his political career.

    And the award should primarily be for the way he’s responding to this so-called “controversy.”

    By the way, what is the proper response?

    You do not run. You do not hide. You do not wait to be “cornered” by liberal reporters who would only pound another nail into your coffin. More importantly, you do not attempt to change the subject – no “let’s move on to real issues” nonsense that George Allen tried.

    You’re not a Democrat and only Democrats are allowed to “move on” from gaffes and slip-ups. You’re a Republican so you don’t get that kind of consideration. For a Republican, the only way past this sort of conflagaration is through it.

    You call a press conference – and record it. Reason for that? One word; YouTube. You schedule appearances on any television and radio station that will have you. You prepare a video statement for uploading to YouTube. In Saltsman’s situation, you call Rush’s scheduler and ask for a spot as soon as possible.

    If I were advising Saltsman, I would tell him to stand at the lectern and proceed to read David Ehrenstein’s article, then play Rush’s show segment on that article and the song. Then, to make it clear, explicitly set about explaining the genesis of their entire issue, starting from the LA Times article to Rush’s reaction to the inclusion of it in the CD sent to RNC members.

    Defend it as a valid parody of liberals’ obsession with race, and challenge the notion in the media that Barack Obama’s race should somehow exempt him, and other liberals, from being the subject of satire and parody. In other words, the song was no more racist than the article that spawned it.

    Then take questions. Carefully, with an eye out for “gotchas” and do not be surprised by questions from as far back as Willie Horton and the so-called “Southern Strategy.” Be aggressive, be hostile, under no circumstances go on the defensive, and while liberally {heh} dropping comments like “I know most of you voted for Obama …” warn them that everything will be on YouTube within the hour so they should be careful of what they leave behind on the cutting room floor.

    It may work. It may not. But its results would of a certainty be no worse than the pathetic Run-Hide-Surrender tactic we have employed for the past three decades.

    Either way, Saltsman’s bid for the RNC Chair is over.

  • $peciallist
  • Achance

    and say very loudly and often that you’re just pleased as punch that they’re saying bad things about you because every bad thing they say about you makes the people who matter to you like you more. Republicans need to understand that you are judged by the quality of your enemies. If the press, academia, unions, non-profits, and Greenies don’t HATE you, you’re doing something wrong. Give them a better reason to hate you; get your money’s worth. Nothing you can say or do will make anyone on the Left like you; another lesson Republican politicians never seem to learn. So, since they’ll never like you, give them really good reasons to hate you.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    they should denounce Duncan and the false msm/dem/lib sentiment behind it and point out that it is the left that is obsessed woth race

    rather than, as has been argued for here ad nauseum

    simply agree with Duncan and the left that Saltsman has bad”judgment” because merely doing that essentially affirms the let’s allegation that the parody itself is unacceptable and its progenitor, i.e. Rush Limbaugh. It essentially surrenders in yet another battle in which we are presented an opportunity to discredit the left in one of its memes.

    You know MAK, they don’t hold “Liberal meme credibility” debates or bowl games. If we are to fight back against them, we have to seize opportunities where they are being advanced and unfortunately, our side has clay feet. So we have to deal with what we have.

    But you basically articulate 99% of my position better than I, so thanks!

  • birdmojo

    Not every hill is worth dying on, dude.

    If you can agree with the above statement, I’d love to hear why *THIS* hill is one of the ones worth dying on.

  • Moe Lane

    I remind myself of that every day: it helps keep my heart light and my sleep untroubled.

    Moe

    PS: You can still despise people or groups. That just requires elemental revulsion on your part, which isn’t the same thing at all.

    PPS: That being said, Saltsman was dumb for including the song.

  • Martin Knight

    That was Howard Dean when he was running for DNC Chair.

    Now put aside the fact that the bulk of the MSM greeted this with applause while they would have made the life of any Republican (especially one who was almost the Presidential nominee) who makes the mistake of saying something similar a living hell.

    Now I doubt Howard Dean literally hates Republicans – I’m sure, for example, that he likes John McCain. But it was a declaration of war. A declaration of the sheer determination to inflict harm on the Republican Party and everyone associated with it. Despite their disagreements, Reid and Pelosi shared this mindset. I doubt it was even personal.

    The only way Republicans would be able to claw their way back to relevance again is to have leadership equally as bloody-minded and in-your-face confrontational, both when it comes to Democrats and their allies in the Press, “Bipartisanship” and “comity” be damned.

  • Achance

    Yeah, it was dumb. Republican public figures just have to understand that first, they don’t really have any friends and second there are things that others can do that they simply can’t do.

    The only time I ever really got in trouble, sorta, for something I said was in a private, quiet conversation with a friend in one of the more fashionable watering holes in town. I made an off color and perhaps racially tinged reference to another political figure. I’m a pretty careful person and never fail to reconoiter a room before I choose a table and never sit with my back to the door. Didn’t occur to me that the busboy was a moonlighting State employee and a union activist. Next day there’s an anonymous email to most of the Legislature, the Gov and COS, and my commissioner purporting to recount the loud and boisterous offensive conversation. Fortunately, they overplayed their hand and threw in way too much embellishment so it didn’t really have any credibility. What I said certainly didn’t violate any laws or even offend most people’s sensibilities, but it might have been enough for a sqeamish politician to decide to kick me to the curb.

    Anyway, their version of the story was just too over the top, so even the true part of it got lost. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

  • Achance

    You just call them in and say; I’m going to be very reasonable with you and if you’re not reasonable with me, I’m going to kill you! Amazingly effective! You do have to be able to back it up though. I did it with our unions during the Murkowski Administration. They never called me on it, and I can now admit that I really don’t know what would have happened if they had. Anyway, it worked; kept them off the streets and under contract for four years.

  • mbecker908

    in any and every way he see’s fit. My issue that the Party should not be spending one second on this. I know the media isn’t gonna let it drop but the appropriate response to the question should be: “That’s an interesting question, take it up with Chip…” and then make an issue oriented statement about something we’d like to talk about.

    We – the Party – shouldn’t be wasting limited powder on non-issues defending non-entities. This is a non-issue and Saltsman’s made himself a non-entity.

  • janis

    I can also bring refreshments. And guns. Actually, I can picture you doing your thing with them while mbecker and I sit in the background cleaning our guns and snarling periodically. It would be a nice break from Christmas.

  • Achance

    I’m prepared! Actually, it’s the Marine version with some anti-corrosion finishes and such so it’s to be my new “boat gun” superceding my Remington 870. Blued, walnut stocked guns have a very hard life on a saltwater boat, but you need a 12 guage if you’re going out into the islands here. If you wind up ashore on one of the islands either voluntarily or accidentally, you are NOT at the top of the food chain. You’re on the Brown Bear’s territory and sometimes he or she doesn’t take that very well. The Mossberg carries five; the last one is for me.

  • mbecker908

    Whip

  • Martin Knight
  • janis

    and I can round up some of the local talent. As long as there’s no biting involved, they’re good to go. (Dental hygiene is not often on the top of their personal grooming routine.)

  • mbecker908

    gets a nasty infection. I think that’s cool.

    And, if we can fund ammunition, I can get more Marines that we’ll know what to do with.

  • Achance

    He hasn’t been out long enough that you can put him in polite company, but he’d be pretty useful in a scrape. Wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve said “stow the F-bombs” over the last couple of months. Anyway, he’s off to Anchorage and the University day after tomorrow, school starts the 12th and this is the closest ferry sailing. I’m thinking this is going to be an adventure.

  • janis

    enough teeth to get the job done that I’m referring to. But we can still count on them for eye-gouging and hitting below the belt when called upon.

    Hmmmm–all of sudden, the political picture is getting much brighter.

  • janis

    As to not being able to put him in polite company, I don’t think the events we had planned had a single thing to do with polite company. :-) In terms of his language, sounds like he might have a promising career in politics.

  • Achance

    that they wouldn’t dare tell anybody that you talked to them like that. Works every time; call ‘em in, give them a comprehensive summary of their ancestry and sexual proclivities – you’ll never hear a word about it because their ego won’t let them publicly admit they got treated like that.

  • janis

    technique? If not, then you need to hold seminars and don’t waste a moment getting started.

  • mbecker908
  • Achance

    of controversy or confrontation. Murkowski let me just handle things as long as I kept them off his plate. But, even he, no sensitive, get along, go along guy, didn’t much like controvesy landing in his lap. If I’d done something that really got people complaining, I’d have been eating carpet in his office. And I wouldn’t be eating carpet for what I did, I’d be eating carpet for causing the upset.

  • Achance

    If you don’t understand that, you don’t need to be at the Party officer or elected or appointed official level.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    I said that it would be best if the elected repubs had attacked their dishonorable dem friends over the bushlied allegations.

    I guess you have missed all my hatred of the dem party columns that my dem friends hate me for!

  • mbecker908

    Let Saltsman defend himself, if he can and if he wants to. “We” shouldn’t be wasting our time on a second rate political operative who doesn’t have the smarts to understand that sending out that kind of stuff is going to get him tattooed. Hell, my dead white cat is smarter than that.

    And Rush is a big boy, perfectly capable of defending himself.

  • George Claghorn

    …not to try this stuff at home. He’s a professional.

    Saltsman tried to use Rush’s joke as his own and it backfired. He can defend himself.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine
  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    The problem are those that attack Saltsman’s judgment, esp Republicans and esp that our current RNC chair attacked him on this, when the only way his judgment is poor is if Rush’s parody is out of line. It is not, and to suggest that it is wrong to send out a Rush parody is to surrender to the msm meme that Republicans are racist rather than defending the parody and its essential message of truth that the Left, incl the msm and the dem party are race obsessed.

    That is what is called for here. Not a particular defense of Saltsman, but rather, seizing an opportunity to discredit liberals and their lies about conservatives on race that are part of the msm conventional wisdom.

    there is never going to be a liberal meme bowl game where all of America tunes in to Marquis of Queensbury rules. The only way to defeat these lies is to seize opportunities in imperfect situations.

    You say you want to fight, but there never seems to be an occasion when you will dare cross the msm game rules in the real world.

    You seem to always want to wait for another day.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    is to seize opportunites to smack down liberal msm and dem memes. Opportunities will always be imperfect. See my previous comment for additional substance to my position and, for that matter all my comments on this subject.

    One more thought: As long as we have the attitude that we will die in fights on hills, we will. And as long as we concede the playing rules, we will lose.

  • janis

    :-)

  • mbecker908

    Saltsman is a political operative. Rush is an entertainer. They are as different as night and day and the standards for one do not apply to the other.

    Your last two paragraphs are total BS. I’ve laid out dozens of hills we should fight for.

    • Bush should have taken on the MSM & Dems over the intel leading up to the Iraq war.
    • The whole Plame mess.
    • The lies about “no body armor”.
    • We should have buried them over SCHIP.
    • There should have been a federal grand jury investigating the NYT and WaPo publishing classified information and “journalists” and publishers should have been tossed in the stoney lonesome until they gave up their sources.
    • Thomas Tamm finally outs himself and nothing gets done to him.
    • Hurricane Katrina…
    • We should be burying the Dems on corruption with Dollar Bill, the Detroit mayor, Hotrod, etc, etc
    • The Congress should have been called into special session last summer and forced to deal with drilling.
    • The Administration should have forced either a renegotiated auto contract or a PPBK in exchange for a whole lot less cash.

    I could go on for hours about the fights I’ve recommended pursuing. And it seemed at the time, and still does, that since most of them involved GWB having to get off his Oval Office chair and actually DO something – which he wouldn’t do – you were either opposed to the fight or OK with nothing happening.

    Now we get a non-issue and you want to fight. Sheesh. You pass on issues and want to go to war over personalities, and with a guy who isn’t going to (and wasn’t going to) get elected to the RNC Chair position anyway and who is a demonstrated air head with a stunt like this.

  • ZootSuit

    Well, actually I don’t think the auto industries should have been given ANY Federal money under ANY circumstances but hey, I’m still willing to give you the “amen” here.

  • Martin Knight
  • janis

    That was a thing of beauty. It made me ill to read it as it put so many of the things that have been so damnably frustrating and unnecessary over the past 8 years in one place, but still, it was so very well put.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    liberal msm/dem meme that repubs are racist is not on it.

    I did not pass on any of those issues either.

    But, this debate and website isn’t all about me…or you.

    later

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    and has been at least since Reagan explicitely passed the mantle to his fellow radio broadcaster soon before Reagan bid farewell to Alzheimer’s seclusion.

    That you reduce him to merely an entertainer speaks volumes.

  • mbecker908

    They needed cash to be able to restructure. Normally in a BK there would be commercial financing available to insure liquidity but it’s not there now for pretty much anybody and certainly not for these fools. I would accept keeping them liquid – but just barely liquid – in return for a “real” workout and turnaround plan. What we’ve seen up to now – and thanks to Bush tossing them enough money with no strings to survive into the next Administration – is nothing more than a continuation of the 40+ years of mental masturbation the B3 and the UAW have been involved in.

    And thanks for the Amen.

  • mbecker908

    Blushing 6

  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    He is a little more than just an entertainer, you might call him an educator as well. But hardly a leader.

    Leaders have to be those who not only talk, but implement.

    Buckley was a leader because he founded a magazine, helped found some political action groups, actively promoted candidates and even ran for office himself.

    Rush has done precious little of any of that.

    I am not saying he is not influential, but not a leader.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    He calls himself an entertainer. His show’s job firstly is to entertain, always. He doesn’t spend political capital to achieve objectives. He’s not an activist. It’s not his job to be an activist.

    If our movement can’t have a leader who achieves things, then we’re in trouble. That’s not a knock on Rush. That’s a knock on our movement.

  • janis

    he is not the leader of the conservative movement or the Republican party either. He said it wasn’t his job. Knowing how much respect and affection you have for Rush, not to mention that he helped lead you to the Right, I understand your support and defense of him.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    That he was made an honorary member of the first GOP Congress in 50 years?

    And that Reagan himself dubbed Rush the new leader of the movement?

    guess not

    Beaing the leader of the conservative movement does not preclude also being an entertainer and also does not require one to be a Republican Party activist.

    But then it gets into semantics.

    Suffice to say, can you name anyone that has better advanced the movement over the past 20 years than Rush and Reagan? Maybe Newt? Anyone else?

    I can’t.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    20 years ago Reagan was only playing out the string on a fantastic Presidency, thanks I’m sure to his illness.

    Gingrich had a high peak, but not a long prime.

    You know who’s done the most to advance our movement, without even being a part of it? President Bush.

    So I’m back to saying that you’re probably right: Of conservatives, Rush may have done more for the movement than anyone else, but that doesn’t speak well of the state of our movement.

  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    he also has done a lot of harm IMO.

    The problem is that he (like the rest of us) is not always right, and when he is wrong he is spectacularly wrong, there is never a middle ground with Rush.

    I take it back that he never endorses candidates, I still remember how he was one of the major reasons we got G W Bush as our nominee back in 2000.

    Another problem is that Rush never gets his hands dirty, so he can push ideas and agendas, and remain aloof. The political fallout of any bad decisions are borne by other.

    Still another problem is precisely his popularity among conservatives. He has become the voice of conservative “orthodoxy” when there ought not be such a thing, ever.

    If he is the conservative leader then that is an illustration of our problems as a movement.

  • mbecker908

    I seriously doubt if Rush could get elected dog catcher in a statewide election anywhere in the country. Not that he’d want to run.

    The key to your whole screed is this: [Rush] was made an honorary member of the first GOP Congress…

    Rush is a very, very good entertainer who serves as a rallying point for the base. He doesn’t set the agenda. He doesn’t develop or implement strategy. He doesn’t write legislation.

    He’s an entertainer. He’s brought a lot into the mix, mostly because he – unlike GWB or McCain or the Washington Reps – has been willing to fight with liberals and he’s been willing to stand up and say “It’s OK to be Conservative!”. Too bad Bush didn’t learn that lesson. Too bad McCain wasn’t up to the task. And it’s really too bad that we didn’t jam the WH switchboards on a daily basis demanding that the President stand up and fight for what he believed in.

    You want to know who will likely be the next person to advance the Conservative cause? It will likely be Bobby Jindal. Or another Republican governor.

    And, as far as this “Negro” foolishness, Rush is more than man enough to defend himself. And if Saltsman feels he needs defending, he can stand up and do it himself too.

  • mbecker908

    And I’ll just cite the PPBK as the latest. You wrote a good piece on how a PPBK works and why that should be pursued. When GWB decided to just throw some cash to the folks you ran away from your original, and correct, position like a scalded dog.

    And, as far as the media projecting us as “racist”, man-up and get over it. That’s never going to change unless we buy out the media. And if you want to make the point that we’re NOT racist this fight sure as hell isn’t the one to pick. You want to make a fight out of this that we can win, you accept the fact that both Duncan and Saltsman are idiots who shouldn’t be at the helm of the party, you work the RNC delegates who can vote and we get behind one of the three “real” candidates – Blackwell, Steele and Anuzis – and get some real leadership at the helm. Then we develop a real outreach program into the minority communities that has realistic aims over a long term plan.

    We actively recruit qualified candidates at the local level and fund them to help get them started. Some of those will be minorities, because the Dem Black Caucus should have to fight for every one of their seats and now they don’t.

    We work to roll back business taxes and work at the state and local level to build real minority owned and managed businesses who don’t need set-asides to be successful.

    Bottom line, because the above just scratches the surface, you don’t fight and win the “racist GOP” battle with utterly stupid skirmishes like this. You win it by winning over increasingly larger segments of the minority communities which we have steadfastly ignored.

    Heck, we even ignore the white community. Our biggest problem isn’t that we’re the “rich white men” party, it’s that we’re the “inside the beltway” party. Just like the Dems except they do a better job of faking it.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    Better Bush than McCain, I tell you what. So if that’s the worst knock on Rush, then he’s pretty good at what he does.

  • mbecker908

    Better Bush than McCain.
    Better Bush than Gore.
    Better Bush than Kerry.

    And knowing what I know right now, I’d vote for Bush again against all three. Ick.

  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    Or anyone else?

    And for that matter, how can you say conclusivley he was better than McCain, from where I sit he is about the same thing.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    reluctant and de facto. The numbers of people converted over time to conservatism by following Rush makes him a leader, no matter his bashful reluctance to declare it.

    And as a 20 year (even when I was a democrat) listener almost every day since 1988, I can tell you that the statement you cite is more a symptom of how shaken he has been by the refusal of the party to follow the Reagan model which is his model and gamecock’s.

    The evidence of whether someone is a leader is not what they say, but rather, the number of followers.

    By that measure and many more he has been the leader, esp given how soon Newt and the GOP congress imploded even in the 90s, Dole and even Bush and esp McCain.

    Thru all that time, Rush has never wavered. Yes, his first priority is to take and hold a large audience so that he can charge confiscatory ad rates!

    But in that process he has led millions to conservatism.

    More than anyone I can think of except for maybe

    Mr Mugged by Reality!

  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    he hit upon a great untapped conservative audience, and he has probably influenced several thousand people to become conservative, who already had some leanings in that direction.

    He has also polarized an unknown number of people against conservatism by his style.

    You make him out to be some sort of god, some sort of white knight.

    What he really is a clever, and very flawed individual. Yes he is part of the mix, but he is not thankfully a leader of the movement.

    It would be more accurate to call him a spokesman.

  • janis

    I think one of the most valuable things about Rush is his never-ending optimism. When things are darkest for our cause and the news events are dire, I try to listen to Rush. He is almost always able to find the bright side of something, to encourage us to not be defeated, to not buy in to what the Left and the MSM are trying to force onto us.

    That alone makes him an extremely valuable voice in our particular wilderness.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    via semantics if not outright lies and I don’t appreciate it. As I said earlier, this site is not all about you and me, and even if it were, I would not be goaded into an hours/days/weeks long search of my extensive and prolific archives to rebut your musings.

    We disagree on this matter and have examined it every which way from Sunday.

    As for me, I will continue to look for Reagan’s pony under manure piles, just no longer under this pile.

    I hereby concede defeat among the vocal Redstate community on the debates in this thread, as judged by the comments. Not sure if evev one commenter agreeed with me 51% (except for MAK), much less 100%. Most were 0-1%.

    If you wish to continue to stalk, go ahead. I am self imposing a restraining order.

    smile

    PS Are you as tired of talking to me as I am of you? I hope so.

    PSS I miss Flyerhawk!

  • Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
  • mbecker908

    But heck, he made even McCain and Dole look like really exciting guys. Talk about watching paint dry.

  • mbecker908
  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    that’s hyperbole

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    addresses on radio for a few years before 1980. Rush’s audience has been upwards of 15-20 million for over 15 years and his impact has been huge. You really are off on this one friend. The connection made on the radio is quite unique.

  • birdmojo

    I have a friend who never, ever, admits fault. He can knock his can of coke over on the table and he’ll explain how the table is bumpy (for the record, it ain’t).

    Put yourself in my shoes for a second. Let’s say that this friend is telling me a story and he explains how something happened but it wasn’t his fault.

    Do you think that my initial response is to think:

    A) He could very well be telling the truth this time.
    B) Of course it was his fault!

    Why?