Thursday, September 27, 2007

Has Rush Limbaugh finally gone too far?

Unfortunately, I think not...

From Media Matters

During the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq "phony soldiers." He made the comment while discussing with a caller a conversation he had with a previous caller, "Mike from Chicago," who said he "used to be military," and "believe[s] that we should pull out of Iraq." Limbaugh told the second caller, whom he identified as "Mike, this one from Olympia, Washington," that "[t]here's a lot" that people who favor U.S. withdrawal "don't understand" and that when asked why the United States should pull out, their only answer is, " 'Well, we just gotta bring the troops home.' ... 'Save the -- keeps the troops safe' or whatever," adding, "[I]t's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people." "Mike" from Olympia replied, "No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media." Limbaugh interjected, "The phony soldiers." The caller, who had earlier said, "I am a serving American military, in the Army," agreed, replying, "The phony soldiers."
He's going to come away from this free and clear. He left enough weasel/wiggle room in his statement to say that he meant that liberal groups are either hiring soldiers to voice dissatisfaction with the war or are using people dressed as soldiers (which is illegal) to promote their antiwar agenda. Given the fact that during the previous call he claimed to have the authority to decide who is and isn't a real Republican I have no doubt that he also believes he has the jurisdiction to judge the whether or not one's honorable discharge is valid or not. If he truly believes that then apparently the Viagra is going to the wrong head.

I'm certain that Mr. Limbaugh will survive this scrape at the cost of a few listeners and live to bloviate another day. However if he continues to push the envelope at the current rate he has been he may very well end up with in a slot on satellite radio some day. That of course would require
his sponsors to start pulling their ads due to public outcry ala Imus. While no such campaign has been successful so far, one can always hope.