Herman Cain’s comments on Rick Perry prompt a Rush Limbaugh slap-down

Talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh, who wields significant influence among the Republican grassroots, laid into GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain on Monday afternoon – accusing the presidential candidate from Georgia of participating in a “mainstream media” conspiracy to destroy the prospects of his rival, Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Limbaugh also criticized Cain for admitting that he should have said something at a recent Republican debate in Florida when members of the audience booed a gay soldier.

Cain is already attempting to detach himself from the Perry story:

“I am not attacking Governor Perry. Some people in the media want to attack him. I’m done with that issue,” Cain said.

You know about the Washington Post piece:

In the early years of his political career, Rick Perry began hosting fellow lawmakers, friends and supporters at his family’s secluded West Texas hunting camp, a place known by the name painted in block letters across a large, flat rock standing upright at its gated entrance.

“[-------]head,” it read.

In a Sunday interview on CNN, Cain called Perry family’s handling of the issue “insensitive.” He also told Christiane Amanpour that in retrospect, he should have said something in support of the gay soldier during the Republican debate.

From a transcript on the Limbaugh web site:

RUSH: I’m gonna tell you, this is really disappointing to me. Herman Cain. I liked Herman Cain — like Herman Cain. The Washington Post has it as a Macaca story about Rick Perry. Apparently back when Rick Perry was a Democrat… There’s this woman at the Washington Post who’s written a story that, with traditional journalism, wouldn’t even pass the first review by an editor. But apparently back in the eighties when Perry was a Democrat, he and his dad would go hunting at someplace and there is a rock that had the N-word on it that somebody had painted over.

They’re trying to say that Perry’s a racist, and Herman Cain has jumped in and basically joined that chorus — and it is absurd. It’s painted over and they tried to paint cover it up and then they eventually turned it over so people wouldn’t see it….

So here you have the Washington Post with an unsupported nonstory, and here comes Herman Cain piggybacking on it trying to capitalize on it, essentially letting the mainstream media (in this case, the Washington Post) set the narrative. It’s exactly what I mean. There’s this… I don’t know if you call it a fear or just a mistaken belief that the power in media still exclusively resides in the mainstream media, and it’s those people that you have to get on your side; those people you have to use to get your message out, or what have you, and so that leads to pandering to them.

Cain is doing it in this case. The Republican leadership in both the House and Senate are renowned for doing it throughout all of our lives. Even some Republican presidents have done so.

There are no on-the-record sources for this. Cain is out there saying that Perry’s rock stuff was “insensitive.” Perry and his dad tried to cover it up and Herman Cain is out there saying that Perry’s insensitive. ….

Limbaugh also played a clip of the boos at the GOP debate in Florida:

RUSH: What is that, one or two people? One or two people. Now Herman Cain has joined this. Herman Cain is saying, “I should have defended that gay soldier booed during the GOP debate.” So what is it about the lead that some people cannot handle? Cain ends up being launched into the top tier as a result of his performance in this debate and now his whole demeanor changes. He’s gotta weigh in on all this stuff. He acts like he’s reached the top tier, and now he has to act like what he thinks a top-tier candidate would do. That is really misreading this.

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

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