A conservative pundit stands up to Rush Limbaugh
I’ve been very disappointed that so few Republicans have stood up to denounce the fringe lunacy that has come to dominate the ultra-conservative movement. As Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have come to represent conservative ideology, very few elected conservatives have been willing to risk the ire of the rightwing base by calling them out for their vile race-baiting, their blatant fabrications and their paranoid idiocy.
(When a Republican is willing to disagree with the base, I try to point that out. So kudos to Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), who was one of only seven Republicans willing to vote for a formal reprimand of Joe Wilson. Despite what South Carolina conservatives think, Inglis clearly understood that Wilson was insincere, at best, in his apology, since he has been busy using his boorish behavior to become the rightwing’s newest hero.)
But — God bless ‘em — a number of conservative commentators have refused to be cowed. They are standing up and taking issue with the ugliness they see on the right. Rod Dreher, a conservative columnist for the Dallas Morning News and a blogger (Crunchy Con) on BeliefNet, has called out Rush Limbaugh.
How low will these people go? Look, I think it’s important to talk about black male violence, or at least as important as it is to talk about any other important social trend. I don’t think we should be squeamish about discussing it in a responsible and fair-minded way, despite what the politically correct say. But good grief, Limbaugh is up to something wicked. He’s plainly trying to rally white conservatives into thinking that now that we have a black president, blacks are rising up to attack white kids! Christ have mercy, what is wrong with these people?
I won’t have anything to do with it. . .
When will elected officials find the spine to do the same?
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46 comments Add your comment
bob
September 16th, 2009
3:15 pm
Rod who ?
Scott
September 16th, 2009
3:21 pm
One of Rush’s mottos for his program is “illustrating absurdity by being absurd.” Rod Dreher has simply missed the tongue-in-cheek nature of Limbaugh’s comment. Rush habitually takes the kinds of things liberals say and turns it inside out on them. If that had been a bus full of white kids who had beat up a black kid, all the liberal media would be screaming about racism; so all Rush was trying to do was illustrate the absurdity of that by using the same argument when the situation was reversed.
If Rod Dreher didn’t know what he was talking about, he shouldn’t have said anything at all.
Sunshine and Thunder
September 16th, 2009
3:43 pm
It’s pretty clear that Cindy has never listened to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck. But, heck, she knows exactly what they say and when they are being serious or just baiting people like her.
I guess the left won’t quit until they have done a Trent Lott on Joe Wilson who is merely guilty of calling a very wavering and ambiguous president a “liar”.
None of these left nut pundits address the issue of whether or not Joe Wilson is correct.
And none of these left nut media wonks said so much as “boo” when Robert Byrd called someone a white “N” on TV.
Scott
September 16th, 2009
3:58 pm
They also never said so much as “boo” when Jimmy Carter referred to Barack Obama as “this black boy.” Maureen Dowd said that when Joe Wilson said “you lie,” she actually heard him say “you lie, boy.” But when Jimmy Carter used the word “boy” in reality, rather than just in Maureen Dowd’s imagination, not a peep.
andy
September 16th, 2009
4:15 pm
Conservatives and right-wingers have visceral hatred(s) based on their “Loss of White Privlege(s)” and the “Loss of Racial Superiority.” These “Feelings” are a part of their “Belief-System” that is very deeply held and ingrained in the “soul” and “bones” of their human existence, up-bringing and lifestyles. They know it and are too arrogant and ignorant of their self-motivation(s) to ever see it. They simply can NOT help being hate-filled. They have the visceral “need” to hate anyone and anything different to actually survive. That is why they are so very dangerous to themselves, their innocent children and others. Play it forward and duck, they are armed.
Scott
September 16th, 2009
4:26 pm
Andy forgot to mention “limbic-brained,” but fortunately we have psychotherapist and neurologist Jeanane Gar-awful-o to remind us of that other peculiarity of the conservative mind.
Scott
September 16th, 2009
4:40 pm
re. Black and Hispanic Americans Beware!!
Do you take schizophrenia with your paranoia?
Citizen of the World
September 16th, 2009
4:50 pm
I hope more Republicans politicians will disown Limbaugh and make it clear that they do not support his type of political discourse.
Tommy Lee Maddox
September 16th, 2009
4:57 pm
Hey – Black and Hispanic Americans Beware:
Abe Lincoln was a Republican. Those guys in the white sheets, they were democrats.
Ms. Tucker, just say no to drugs.
Eddy
September 16th, 2009
4:59 pm
Limbaugh and Beck would become mostly irrelevant if the Alphabet Media did its job as the 4th estate. But when they report absolutely nothing or investigate absolutely nothing that might be in any way a negative reflection on the Obama administration, Who’s going to do it?
People have a right to disagree with the government. They have a right to speak out and to demonstrate (or is this a reserved right for blacks). Sadly, the wackos now play the race card at every opportunity even when it is not applicable. So if I get the drift of most of the posters here, O can do anything he wants without anyone asking any questions….his admin can triple the deficit without so much as a wimper; he can bailout most anyone or any corporations he deems worthy with no questions, etc……but if you dare to ask a hard question and expect an answer, then you are branded a racist. He can hire anyone HE wants without vetting and then has to back-pedal when his appointee has videos in his own words that make him unfit for any job except in the minds of the O establishment. Green jobs….this dude has never held a real job before. Talk about Repubs blindly following Rush….glance in your mirrors at home and you’ll see the image of a mindless follower and drinker of koolaid.Repeat after me….we do not question our leader! He is our leader so we must follow and obey. He would never not speak the truth. End of the daily recording!
David from WI
September 16th, 2009
5:24 pm
Lets also not forget that on of the greatest Americans that even lived, Martin Luther King was a Republican as well.
Not a far left radical at all.
How far will the left fringe take the Democrat party? God only knows.
The bigger the gov’t the less freedom and rights we have. Doesn’t matter who is in the white house or what party, neither has a monopoly on corruption or abuse.
We must fix and streamline the govt because they can not help anyone if they are so out of touch themselves.
If it takes voting out all incumbents then FINE we do it.
In 2010 election time, we need to put the fear of us(voters) in them(incompetent govt)
BravesFan79
September 16th, 2009
5:33 pm
Clearly the school bus incident has nothing to do with Obama being president. It has everything to do however, with the fact that a good % of blacks suck at raising their kids, and young men are not taught to be men anymore, but thugs that take advantage of whatever they can….including women.
I find it amazing that the NAACP and ACLU will protest the “Jenna 6″ or some scumbag rapist on trial JUST because hes a black man, yet fail to talk about the epidimic of violence against women in the black community!
How many people know that Femicide (murder of partner) is one of the top killers of Black women in the US?
Of course they dont want to talk something that would actually HELP regular blacks (especially women), they seek to promote their liberal agenda.
Jonathan Swift
September 16th, 2009
5:44 pm
From “A Modest Proposal”:
“I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled.”
(Don’t worry, I’m not actually recommending cannibalism. Like Rush, I merely enjoy a little satire as a pungent form of wit.)
BravesFan79
September 16th, 2009
5:47 pm
Black and Hispanic Americans beware!!: So you ignore the race war in LA between the blacks and mexicans? Ive personally worked most of the gang infested(black and latino) apt complex’s around Atlanta. One thing i do know it that alot of mexicans join together to PROTECT themselves…. not from the whites… but from the violent young Blacks!
I knew of several incidents off of Clevland ave of a mexican getting jumped by 4 or 5 blacks for $ back around 2005. I have alot of respect for most of the mexicans, they work hard, and have strong family values. Even the mexican thugs stay to themselves for the most part and only victimize other latinos. The young blacks in the hood however…… now they just don’t give a fck…. there’s clearly a lack of morals in black society….. i personally think alot has to do with the crap they play on the radio.
One thing i noticed while working the streets and entering thousands of peoples homes, the young blacks that grew up listening to jazz/ blues in the house seemed to have a MUCH brighter future than the ones that had “shawty wanna thug” blaring in the background. They were more polite, and usually raised by their grand mother who did not let them outside the house to be influenced by the larger % of black kids that did not grow up with the same moral standards. Sad but True.
Black and Hispanic Americans beware!!
September 16th, 2009
6:39 pm
Yes Tommy Lee Maddox I know a lot of things and like duh! who does’nt not know that Aberham Lincoln was a repbulican and white.You need to put the BONG down! bud…Maddox any relation to Lester Georgia’s number one REDNECK!
Black and Hispanic Americans beware!!
September 16th, 2009
6:42 pm
I have a problem with modern Republicans they tend to be racist.
ME
September 16th, 2009
7:18 pm
For the so call HUMAN BEINGS here,Kids fighting on a bus goes with baseball and apple pie.How many blacks and whites died in the 60’s fighting for the RIGHT to vote or ride on a bus.Rush,Sean and Glenn are stuck in there own little world with a few nuts who think everything they say is true and the really sad part is that’s what the media dwells on !
Reality Check
September 16th, 2009
7:55 pm
The fact of the matter is, that the folks stating that the criticism of Barack Obama is racist, are really the folks who were not and are not ready or able to accept the fact that we have a black president. So I guess we are supposed to sit back and relax while Obama leads this nation down the primrose path of destruction without commentary, just because of the color of his skin.
Spartann
September 16th, 2009
8:15 pm
Ms Tucker …I read your artical…and all the comments thus far…but when I attempted to type My opinion, I changed My mind, deciding not to dignify your myopic op-ed…… I do have a question for you ma’me, “Who now is really,,,,,,, illustrating absurdity by being absurd” ?????
RAMBLE ON!!!
September 16th, 2009
8:18 pm
“calling them out for their vile race-baiting, their blatant fabrications and their paranoid idioc”
Is that not the kettle calling the pot black, or what?
Black and Hispanic Americans beware!!
September 16th, 2009
8:42 pm
BravesFan79 what you are complaining about is crime plan and simple not racism. It is not racism when african americans kill each other in the streets it’s stupidity also that is problem with governments run by blacks americans they tend to be soft on crime because most of the culpirts are black they feel sorry for them so many crimes go unsolved or they get a slap on the wrist also blacks tend not cooperate with the police and they will not snitch on each other so thugs walk the streets in black neighborhoods freely and guess where they usually live ?in government subdsized housing free with their baby ma ma’s. The last time I checked less than 25% of black americans are married and that is a big problem too. I think it is time for a white person in the mayors office and another black mayor is not what we need right now. We need law and order in the city of Atlanta. Sounds to me like you need to move to a better neighborhood.
Black and Hispanic Americans beware!!
September 16th, 2009
8:44 pm
Jesus Christ is a liberal!
Kevin
September 16th, 2009
8:51 pm
Cynthia, you honestly have the cojones to label someone else as a race-baiter?
The extent of your hypocrisy would be humorous, if it weren’t so dangerous.
Kevin
September 16th, 2009
8:55 pm
One other thing-
If you think that I will, for one moment, cease to state my opposition to Mr. Obama’s POLICIES simply because of a threat of racism, you are sadly, sadly mistaken.
You guys have lost all credibility around the use of the word “racist”. It’s lost all meaning. It no longer threatens me.
So keep throwing it out there. I absolutely, unequivocally couldn’t care less if you or others choose to label me as such. I know I’m not, and that’s all that matters.
What Policies?
September 16th, 2009
10:16 pm
You people kill me…..so Kevin you agree the insurance companies have the right to deny coverage because of cost or pre existing conditions or at a price most Americans can afford. Kevin what wrong with creating green jobs for all americans …hell we don’t make anything enymore. Kevin what is wrong with every american getting a free college education.People like you care more about a black man being president than american people being murdered every day by a broken health system. So Kevin when is the best time to reform health care in america? when only the richest 1% of the population can aford health care and the rest of us are religated to an early grave? Kevin you need to stop listening to Glenn Beck and Rush and Satan…. think for yourself for once for god’s sake be a man boy.You remind me of white boy that would rather die that let a black man save him..no you are not a racist you are a bigot!
Cam Winston
September 16th, 2009
10:37 pm
Oh, good lord, the guy endorsed Barack Obama. Cynthia, that sort of dishonesty is part of the reason you were demoted as you’ve become the brand of the AJC, as it spirals down the drain.
That’s what you get for reading left wing blogs (which is where you read this story….I’m guessing Andrew “Trig Truther” Sullivan).
Kevin
September 16th, 2009
11:32 pm
What Policies?
You need to stand down, friend.
You don’t know me. You don’t know what I believe in. And you sure as hell don’t need to be callilng me a bigot.
BravesFan79
September 16th, 2009
11:32 pm
Thank you Miss Tucker for allowing us to have a sensible argument on here without being overly politically correct about things and deleting anything that “might” be offensive.
After all, this is America, and not socialist Europe where their freedoms are disappearing left and right. I like Obama as a man, if more people strived to be like him the world would be a better place.
But i am scarred that hes leading us down Europe’s path of socialism and more govt control just like whats happened in Europe. Don’t think so? why did he appoint Czars that used to be over “diversity” for the EU? Why is the EU seeking more and more control over prisoners/ court cases…. etc? Why is the govt pushing for the ability to have martial law?
Were going to see some crazy stuff in our future that would make any stupid black/white race war look like child’s play. I think all these cries of “racism” are just ment to divide/distract us so they pass more and more laws overnight that limit our freedoms.
perfect example: how the “hate crimes” legislation was at the last minute tied to the Fighter plane proposal.
Czars socialism Europe
September 17th, 2009
1:19 am
A race war is no laughing matter…America has more terrorist groups than the middle east. Do you remember Timothy Mcveigh? so stop worrying about Euorpe and worry about america and the repbulican party and the trouble they are stirring up in small town america. The KKK,The Arian Nation listen to every word you say and will act on it. Bravesfan79 don’t think just because you live in the USA that we are immune from a civil war or civil unrest that would make the Vietnam war seem like boot camp. Gun sales are on the rise and Gun shows are poping up everywhere and guess what? no back ground checks.Bravesfan79 not all america’s enemines wear turbins some wear hoods and call themselves the Klan.People please stop getting your news from Rush Limbaugh and Fixed news. JIM CROW is dead.We are not afraid anymore. I am willing to die for my cause are you? The republicans are now the new american terrorist group.
Patrick
September 17th, 2009
2:26 am
The only people who comment on editorials are people that are incapable of forming their own opinions. This person’s entire job is to be “controversial” so you people will read her column and argue and fight. This so called “journalist” doesn’t care if you agree or disagree. She only cares that you read her column so she can keep her job. You people are really a very sad group.
And to clarify, I am commenting on the pathetic losers that comment on editorials, not the editorial itself. There is a difference.
Nick
September 17th, 2009
4:29 am
Ms. Tucker, your views are so far out of step with mainstream America, you just can’t handle the truth. You are a lunatic and as fringe as they come. I will pray for you.
Mike
September 17th, 2009
4:32 am
Thanks for the comments everyone. Your postings will be used in a social studies class about why do students parents feel the ways indicated in these posts. It will be interesting to see if these adults are teaching these attitudes to their kids. I am trying to imagine the all american family sitting around eating popcorn and watching rush and beck on the 50 inch led. Always blame someone else for what is wrong in this country.
DeborahinAthens
September 17th, 2009
6:35 am
What’s really scary is when Rush, Neal, or Sean say something that is blatantly false. If one tries to call in and call them on it, good luck! They are not journalists, so they don’t have to vet their stories, and the more dumb folks they get riled up the more listeners they have. When I’m driving and can’t get NPR, I listen because it’s important to know what they’re saying. Just reading a couple of books can debunk most of the ignorance they spew.
mike
September 17th, 2009
6:52 am
Maybe someday a liberal pundits will stand up to Cynthia Tucker’s incessant race-baiting and demagoguery.
I can only laugh at the idea the Tucker thinks she is any different than Limbaugh and Beck. What a hypocrite.
mike
September 17th, 2009
6:54 am
DeborahinAthens –
“What’s really scary is when Rush, Neal, or Sean say something that is blatantly false. If one tries to call in and call them on it, good luck! They are not journalists, so they don’t have to vet their stories, and the more dumb folks they get riled up the more listeners they have”
You really think Tucker is any different? Only one of the “dumb folks” you describe is really ignorant enough to think that.
Bozo the clown
September 17th, 2009
7:43 am
Anyone really think that Georgia and mainstream America have anything in common?
Jimmy62
September 17th, 2009
7:49 am
I don’t like Jimmy Carter or just about anything he’s ever done. Does that make me a racist?
Ramzad
September 17th, 2009
8:11 am
Liberals!
We are spending too much time recognizing people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glen Beck. They are not worth it. These are guys who were washed until hate radio threw them a bone called identity. These are nobodys that could not fid their way out of a paper bag to help with third grade homework. We, however, have serious work to do helping to improve this country. After eight years of Republican frauds the Nation is in shambles. Our schools do not educate. We are all becoming indentured servants to the Chinese. We can’t make a decent car. Our banks have become criminal syndicates. Our young men and women are dying at the rate of almost five per day in two wars, one of which is our modern Vietnam. Getting a sick American to a doctor takes an act of Congress and a pretty slice of the defense budget. Much of our big cities look like Dickensian hovels. Gunshots are shredding the national psyche. Our engineers are spending more time redesigning Twinkie boxes than solving differential equations, and one low a low bite Republican congressman has just spat into the serving plate of national discourse. Liberals, are you all crazy? Why are we still talking about these hate mongering dog and pony shows? We are in charge. Get over it and roll up your sleeves.
politicsandamericanpie
September 17th, 2009
9:12 am
@Ramzad, we might need to roll up our sleeves but that one sound-bite Senator’s 3 seconds disrupts the work flow until it stops. There is no such thing as bipartisanship. The right fringe won’t allow anything to be signed despite thousands of hours and compromise. To he$$ with the American people as long as they can show the President who is boss.
Rush, Hannity, Beck aren’t talking ‘tongue-in-cheek’ about anything. Those disclaimers are on their shows to cover their tracks. When the Great Experiment of America fails, won’t it be sad to look back and see it was Rush- full of bigotry, hatred and vote rigging that brought about its demise. And that truly is not giving the man too much credit. Just look at what happened when Gingrey called him out… Gingrey, a U.S. Representative, MY representative, went sniveling back the next day. When I wrote him a letter saying that Gingrey was right and Rush wasn’t owed the apology, Gingrey wrote me back to say that he couldn’t afford.to offend all those listeners and they deserved his apology. And that’s Rush’s power. Millions plus listening platform, more than the registered Republican Party. So do something about King Rush? Nobody can touch him and he knows it. We should pray for an Imus moment where he’ll self-implode.
Scott
September 17th, 2009
12:28 pm
“Rush, Hannity, Beck aren’t talking ‘tongue-in-cheek’ about anything. Those disclaimers are on their shows to cover their tracks.”
Guess sarcasm and irony are dead. They have an honorable pedigree in literature, but now they have been rendered politically incorrect, by people who take things entirely too seriously. Language is poorer now. We are all humorless.
Spartann
September 17th, 2009
1:40 pm
Enter your comments here
Patrick said: “The only people who comment on editorials are people that are incapable of forming their own opinions”…..He also said…..”And to clarify, I am commenting on the pathetic losers that comment on editorials, not the editorial itself. There is a difference.”………….. Humorous and nonsensical as his words are, I might applaud Patrick’s effort to rise above the fray if it wasn’t such a failure…..
Kim Brady
September 18th, 2009
1:51 am
I have watched Glenn Beck and listened to Rush Limbaugh and they are both idiots who don’t care what affect their hate mongering may have on people who “don’t get” their tongue-in-cheek rants. Please, give me a break. All you have to do is read the signs that people were waving on the Washington Mall on Saturday and it’s obvious that race has a lot to do with opposition to Obama’s policies. (I suppose you think that Limbaugh’s “Barack the magic negro” wasn’t racist either?) Wake up and watch something besides FOX News for a change.
Scott
September 18th, 2009
11:00 am
The song “Barack the Magic Negro” was a parody of a column in the LA Times by a black columnist named David Ehrenstein. The title of the column was “Obama the Magic Negro,” published on March 19, 2007, and Ehrenstein’s argument is that Obama is not a “real” black person, because his articulateness makes guilty whites comfortable. “If he were real,” Ehrenstein writes–remember that Ehrenstein is black–”white America couldn’t project all its fantasies of curative black benevolence on him.”
The song was also a parody of a comment made by Joe Biden, which was that in Obama America had for the first time a “clean, articulate” black candidate (as opposed to all those other previous unclean, inarticulate black candidates, such as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or Shirley Chisholm).
So who’s the real racist here? Ehrenstein and Biden for writing this kind of stuff, or Rush for making fun of it?
Listen to the words of the song:
Barack the Magic Negro lives in DC
The LA Times, **THEY** called him that …
The black columnist for the Los Angeles Times, not Rush Limbaugh, called Obama a “magic negro.”
Scott
September 18th, 2009
11:14 am
My favorite sign from the 9/12 march was “It doesn’t matter what this sign says, you’re going to call it racist anyway.”
QED
Samoys
October 3rd, 2009
1:29 pm
lot about you
Reh Dogg
October 11th, 2009
12:25 pm
I hope that all of you idiots understand that Rush Limbaugh is absolutely correct. These so call conservative pundits are nothing but moderates who suck up to Liberal democrats. How stupid are you people?
Liberals and Moderates really need to get a grip on life. I don’t want Big Government telling me what I can and can’t do. I don’t want Big Government taking away more and more of my liberty and freedom. I’m a minority being a black conservative male and I want all of Obama policies to FAIL.
No God in schools but children are allowed to sing praises to Obama. Have they forgotten what this country was built on? Our U.S. currency says In God We Trust not In Obama we trust. He lies constantly and I’m ashamed of all my black brothers and sisters who are ignorant to believe everything Obama say and does. Or simply don’t care because he looks like us. I’m sick to death of my people being taking for a ride by big Government. too many of us just don’t get it. we will never advance as long as you let someone else take care of you instead of striving to do better for yourself. when I heard those ladies on TV who are homeless and they were going to participate in the program to help them get a home. I was embarrassed by the words they spoke. how could they not know where the money was coming from? But as Rush said these women are model citizens in Obama utopia world.