Rush Limbaugh Misses the Boat…and Why I’m No Longer a Dittohead

Unfortunately, Rush didn’t take his time away from the airwaves during the holiday break to thoroughly research Gov. Huckabee’s record. Rush came back from his break repeating the same tired accusations that already have been disproven. One wonders why Rush would over-commit to such a disturbing action as saying that Gov. Huckabee is not a conservative while seemingly embracing the “johnny-come-lately” to the cause, Mitt Romney.

Yesterday, Rush made some very strange comments, especially when viewed in the light of truth rather than propaganda. I’ll discuss some of Rush’s statements and provide objective background for you.

RUSH: Let me deal with the latest here involving Governor Huckabee that happened on the break. When we were last together on Friday, December whatever it was, I had finally decided to react to a statement made by an alleged Huckabee campaign advisor in Washington.

If you’ve read my previous post on this subject you know that this wasn’t a campaign advisor it was a supporter of Gov. Huckabee’s campaign. This is a crucial difference that Rush refuses to acknowledge. It just doesn’t play as well in trying to do damage to Huckabee’s campaign if the person who allegedly makes the anti-Limbaugh comments is just a supporter rather than an official part of the campaign.

Then on Christmas Eve — by the way, I did not reply to Governor Huckabee’s e-mail — I thought long and hard about it, and I’ll tell you why I didn’t reply.

I didn’t reply because I wanted to avoid the possibility that any little phrase that I used in the e-mail — because I’m a polite, nice person — could be taken out of context and waved around the by the governor and somebody on his staff and say, “Okay, it’s over. We’ve made peace with Limbaugh,” when there was no need to make peace, which was my first point. I don’t need to talk to Governor Huckabee. This is not beanbag here. This is the big leagues. I don’t need to talk to him. My feelings are not hurt. I’m not taking any of this personally. So I wanted to avoid any chance the campaign could wave some piece of paper around claiming it was an e-mail from me that he had said, “I’ve made peace with Limbaugh. Everything is cool now.”

Huckabee personally reached out to Rush to clarify and make amends about this situation and Rush refused to respond for fear that it could somehow benefit or boost the Gov.’s campaign. Rush has proved to be childish and petulant.

RUSH: It’s the big leagues. I don’t know who you’re talking about parsing Huckabee’s words. While he was in the lead, the Drive-By Media was promoting this guy left and right. Now they’ve moved off of Huckabee. They wanted Huckabee to win Iowa. They want Huckabee (or wanted Huckabee) to get the nomination, for reasons not in any way related to the fact that they love Huckabee. The reason that the Drive-Bys and Democrats are so excited about Huckabee is because — and I’m telling you this from their perspective, folks. This is not my opinion. It is my opinion of what liberals think and the Drive-By Media. But they hate the religious right. They despise activist evangelical Christians, because activist evangelical Christians frighten the bejeezus out of liberals — and, of course, there’s no bejeezus in liberals, and so they’re empty after they’re frightened. So here comes Huckabee, and they’ve been looking for ways, folks, to get rid of the influence of the Christian right for years in the Democrat Party and in the Drive-By Media. So here comes Huckabee. He’s running as an evangelical. He is running using identity politics.

Identity politics is: “Vote for me, I’m an evangelical! Forget everything else you know about me. Forget what my issue stands are. Forget my record. Forget my past. I’m a Christian!” That’s identity politics, and usually the left does that: “Vote for me, I’m the black guy!” “Vote for me, I’m the gay guy!” “Vote for me, I’m the lesbo!” “Vote for me, I’m the woman!” Mrs. Clinton has tried identity politics in playing the gender card, for example. Now, we Republicans and conservatives generally don’t do that, but Huckabee did. So the Drive-Bys, the media said, “Whoa! Here’s a chance. We build this guy up; we get him the nomination, and then in the general election we destroy him, and in the process of destroying Huckabee…” See, they were not parsing his words. They were ignoring his words, Rick. They weren’t paying attention to his record or anything. They were helping him along with the identity politics business. Their intention was to destroy him — and, in their minds, the entire Christian right once and for all if they could get him the nomination. Now they’re promoting McCain.

Rush fails to separate fact from fiction yet again. Gov. Huckabee is not engaged in “identity politics.” He has brought together a varied coalition of individuals who are interested in social causes, Fair Tax, winning the global war on terror, economic opportunity and a host of other traditional GOP and conservative principles. Yes, Huckabee is demonstrably evangelical and that does attract other evangelicals. Not exclusively because he is “one of them” but because by virtue of their shared worldview, they embrace the same philosophy and have similar priorities. This is not identity politics but rather philosophical kindredness.

RUSH: I’m sure by now you’ve all heard of what I think was a Clintonesque performance, Governor Huckabee, at a press conference, unveiling an attack ad against Mitt Romney and then pledging not to run this attack ad, hoping to appeal to the voters in Iowa who are sick and tired of negative ads.

After protracted mischaracterizations of Gov. Huckabee, Rush then launches an ad hominem attack by comparing Huckabee with Clinton. Gov. Huckabee has adequately explained the way in which he pulled the attack ad from the air, yet Rush can’t help but try to buttress his fading credibility on the Huckabee issue by calling Huckabee Clintonesque.

All of this leads to why I can longer in good conscience consider myself a ‘dittohead.’ Rush has veered away from conservative orthodoxy by attacking the one true conservative in the race. He has distorted Gov. Huckabee’s record, repeated discredited arguments, overlooked the faults of the other candidates, directly attacked Gov. Huckabee and those of us who support Gov. Huckabee, and shown a disinterest in the truth. Rush is carrying water for someone. I’ll leave it to you to decide for whom, but there is no way that an independent thinker could possibly embrace these false ideas about Huckabee and parrot them for millions of listeners to hear when there is a plethora of information available which dispels each and every one of them.

If Rush is so willing to do this to one of our own, and those of us who support Huckabee, how can I possibly align myself with someone who is so intellectually lazy (or obstinate) as to continue using false allegations and disproved charges in attacking a candidate who is truly conservative. Rush Limbaugh is not the arbiter of genuine conservatism. I know that may come as a shock to him, but it is true. Conservatism existed prior to Limbaugh and it will exist long after Limbaugh’s star goes supernova and implodes upon itself. Limbaugh has shown such a callous disregard for truth in this instance that I can not bring myself to trust him on subsequent issues. Time will tell whether I am an exception or whether Limbaugh has permanently damaged his credibility with social conservatives.