How about leading conservative host Rush Limbaugh, a man who has regularly interviewed the president, vice-president, and numerous other conservative Republican luminaries?
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.”
From the DCCC:
Chairman Chris Van Hollen Condemns Rush Limbaugh’s Outrageous Comment that Soldiers Who Support Withdrawing From Iraq Are “Phony Soldiers”
“Rush Limbaugh’s personal attack on our men and women in uniform is reprehensible. It minimizes the sacrifice our troops in Iraq and their families are making and has no place in the public discourse. Rush Limbaugh owes our military and their families an apology for his hurtful comments that minimize their service to our country.”
UPDATE:
Dems slam Limbaugh on the floor of the House.
Patrick Murphy (Iraq Vet): “Someone should tell chicken-hawk Rush Limbaugh that the only phonies are those who choose not to serve and then criticize those who do. I served proudly, so did two of my fellow paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne who spoke out and died just weeks ago. Generations of American veterans have worn the uniform with pride and we know it is no contradiction to serve your country and still disagree with the Bush-civilian leadership that mismanaged this war.”
There also denouncements from Rep. Frank Pallone and Jan Schakowsky.
DNC chairman Howard Dean denounces Rush Limbaugh’s “phony soldiers” remark.
“Rush Limbaugh should immediately apologize to our brave men and women in uniform for undermining the sacrifices they make every day serving our country. Limbaugh’s comments were un-American, have no place in the public discourse, and show just how far he’ll go to defend President Bush’s failed policy in Iraq. America’s troops deserve better, and Limbaugh owes them an apology.”
In Limbaugh’s mind, and it’s there in the transcript, you cannot be a real republican if you want to withdraw from iraq. It naturally follows, in his thinking, that you cannot be a real soldier if you think the US should withdraw. And he accuses this caller of only hearing what he wants to hear …
LIMBAUGH CALLS TWO DEAD SOLDIERS “PHONY SOLDIERS”
On August 2nd, radio host Rush Limbaugh referred to soldiers who voiced opposition to the
war as “phony soldiers.”
A little over a month later, America lost Staff Sgt. Yance T. Gray, 26, and Sgt. Omar Mora, 28,
two Army soldiers who Limbaugh refers to as “phony.”
Please forward this message to everyone you know from all across the political spectrum and
encourage them to voice their outrage to the divisive rhetoric that divides the country in such a
way that a soldier’s ultimate sacrificed is judged worthy or “phony” based on their political
beliefs.
Call your Congressman, ask them to pass a resolution condemning Limbaugh, just as they
did in response to MoveOn.org. Call a local talk radio show and ask the host if they will
condemn such speech. Call the station director and suggest they cancel broadcasting Rush.
It cannot be said enough that these guys are the scum of the earth. They twist Democrats’s words around to make it seem as if they are criticizing the troops (and by inference are unpatriotic), when no Dem has ever directly attacked the troops.
But these guys do it ALL THE TIME. Goldberg went apeshit when someone criticized Patreus, but posted a letter on his blog attacking ALL military generals. And now of course we have Rush saying that any soldier who doesn’t support the Republican party line is a phony.
I wonder if Congress will pass a resolution condeming his comments. Somehow I doubt it.
See a pithy tongue-in-cheek graphic which asks the viewer to identify the “phony”…but be sure you don’t “Rush” to judgment. Link here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
WOW!
First O’Lielly, and now Limpbaugh.
Looks like they are going to have ot keep defending the spew on a regular basis.
Thank God for David Brock and MediaMatters: They have really made a difference.
This could NEVER have happened in 2000.
I’m impressed this is getting media play. Normally when the right says something stupid, it is ignored. When Kerry botches a joke, it is national news for weeks.
It’s a subtle form of bias.
Ten bucks sez every wingnut will go “well, I really never agreed with what Rush says”.
Then they will listen to him tomorrow when the whole thing blows over.
Last time Limbaugh said something crazy, the wingnuts on this board claimed “he’s not reflective of conservatism” and “I don’t listen to him, so why should it matter?” I believe that was in response to him calling Obama “half-rican American” and “the magic negro,” but it could have been some other morally reprehensible thing he said. Limbaugh remains the most important non-politician conservative in the country. And he receives no scrutiny and no pressure from his racist remarks, least of all from his listeners.
And Rush will say “I was taken out of context, and only a liberal couldn’t understand that harmless joke.”
And the dittoheads will produce a small hurricane with their collective nodding.
I hate to be the one to say this, but isn’t this the same crap as the resolution against MoveOn? I mean why are our congressmen wasting time debating about some bs that was said on the radio instead of debating answers to the Iraq war, among the other more important issues of the day? It’s not that I disagree with attacking Limbaugh for his remarks, but that seems to be the job of media watchdogs like MediaMatters and (gulp) MoveOn, not the DCCC not the DNC and not democrats on the House floor. Those organizations should be putting their efforts toward solving the nation’s problems, not creating arguments for media pundits and newspaper companies. Am I wrong?
In principle, I agree with you, but in this case even a symbolic gesture by the Democrats only highlights how craven the Republicans were for inflating this nonsense to the level of legislative responsibility.
I wonder at times how hard it must be to be a principled conservative these days. Every time you’ve found something you think you can stand on as far as indignation, somebody on your side pulls something stupid that completely cuts you off at the knees.
“At least we don’t condone corruption! Er…we don’t condone gay sex! Er…we don’t condone attacking the troops! Dammit.”
This might be gaining traction in the media. Hopefully it will generate enough outrage in the media that the Democrats can actually do something with it like getting real timetables and / or benchmarks passed.
This might be gaining traction in the media. Hopefully it will generate enough outrage in the media that the Democrats can actually do something with it like getting real timetables and / or benchmarks passed.
Hey, Dana Perino and John McCain have disagreed and denounced Limbaugh’s remarks, respectively. We may make that conservative racist pay yet.
Jesse MacBeth.
Micah Wright.
Anti-war veterans who were heroes of the anti-war movement.
Until it turned out they were phony soldiers.
Add in Scott Thomas Beauchamp, who made up all kinds of stuff that the New Republic couldn’t be bothered to check out before publishing.
And Pablo Paredes, whose job on a Navy ship was to run the defensive systems (NOT offensive), and was highly unlikely to be assigned shore duty, but deserted — and ended up NOT being aboard his ship to serve and help when it ended up being sent to help tsunami refugees in Indonesia.
I’d call those four phony.
J.
Oh, and Oliver, between this and the O’Reilly stuff, you definitely earned your paycheck from Media Matters this week. You’ve done wonders promoting their/your agenda here.
J.
That’s funny, if you read the transcript from Rush’s show none of those names are brought up during the call in which Limbaugh made the remark …
We’ve now met Jay’s little army of straw men. Where’s my lighter fluid, MF’er?
Jay Tea,
Jesse MacBeth was a “hero of the anti-war movement”?!?
Help me out. I never even heard of the guy until the right wing blogs started hollering about him. Can you point to any organization other than “The Socialist Alternative” that promoted MacBeth as a “hero”?
Shorter Jaytea: Booogey boogey boo!!!!
“I’d call those four phony.”
Maybe, but Rush wasn’t talking about them. He was talking about ANY solder who opposes the war.
But you’ve certainly earned your paycheck from Rush Limbaugh for trying desperately to throw up a straw man.
Oh that’s right, if you’ve never heard of him, that means he couldn’t exist, I suppose.
No he wasn’t – right after the call he started talking about Jesse Macbeth, something that Media Matters dishonestly omitted.
Is it too much to ask you to go somewhere other than Media Matters for your information on this? Like, I don’t know . . . reading a transcript of the entire thing?
Ken, you gotta look at the time this piece was published: 3:44 Thursday afternoon.
Oliver was, in all likelihood, at his desk at Media Matters when he wrote this. Why would he want or need to use any other source of information? Hell, it very well might have been hand-delivered to him.
This is just an extension of Media Matters’ press release. To treat it as anything more is ridiculous.
J.
“Oliver was, in all likelihood, at his desk at Media Matters when he wrote this. Why would he want or need to use any other source of information? Hell, it very well might have been hand-delivered to him.
This is just an extension of Media Matters’ press release. To treat it as anything more is ridiculous.”
You realize you have no evidence for that. You have assumptions, and that’s it.
I listened to the comments Rush made. He was talking specifically about an actual”phoney soldier” who had claimed to be in Iraq and was dis-ing the military but had actually only made it 40 days into bootcamp. He was not taking about soldiers who disagreed with our Iraq policy. You all need to go to the source before you believe everything you hear. You believed it because you want it to be true. It isn’t.
That’s bullshit. Just before the ‘phony soldiers’ crack, Limbaugh told a caller that he couldn’t be a real republican because he was in favor withdrawal. During the actual call in question, the caller accused the left of never talking to “REAL soldiers.” To which Rush agreed by adding the “phony soldiers” crack. Both Rush and the caller clearly assume that if you oppose the war, you can’t be a real soldier. The phony soldier comment was in the context of the left never talking to “REAL” soldiers, only “phony” soldiers. Well, asshole, there are plenty of “real” soldiers advocating for withdrawal. Rush is an ass.
“I listened to the comments Rush made. He was talking specifically about an actual”phoney soldier” who had claimed to be in Iraq and was dis-ing the military but had actually only made it 40 days into bootcamp.”
Didn’t he later he used Murtha as an example of a phony soldier?
Well, gee, Murtha called some of our soldiers ‘cold-blooded killers’ before a single hearing on the Haditha matter had been opened.
Most of them were later exonerated, and Murtha refuses to apologize.
No, that doesn’t make him a ‘phony soldier’ but it does make him despicable.
Heh, Murtha just shows how you leftists ’support the soldiers’, and shows why these crocodile tears from Media Matters on behalf of the troops is just a silly, transparent scam.
Oh that’s right, if you’ve never heard of him, that means he couldn’t exist, I suppose.
In that case, why do you support known lunatic Jack Thompson?
Heh, Murtha just shows how you leftists ’support the soldiers’, and shows why these crocodile tears from Media Matters on behalf of the troops is just a silly, transparent scam.
So…you’re saying if that one “leftist” says something erronious about the troops, then all “leftists” hate the troops? REEEEEEEEEEEAL good arguement there, slick.
Find me one leftist that loves the military.
Like Dick Durbin maybe, who compared our troops at Gitmo to the Khmer Rouge?
Or maybe John Kerry, who said our troops acted like ‘Jengis Khan’?
Or Jane Fonda, who smiled as she sat in a N. Vietnamese AA gun?
Yeah, being a leftist pretty much means ‘loathing the military’ as Bill Clinton said.
Stop pretending you guys love the military, no one believes it.
Oh that’s right, if you’ve never heard of him, that means he couldn’t exist, I suppose.
Uh, no, Mr. Wizard. If I haven’t heard of him that means I’d like Mr. Tea to back up his claim that he was “a hero of the anti-war left”, if that’s OK with you.
Here’s the phony soldier Rush was speaking about… http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,274097,00.html
Oops. It’s not Moveon.org so you lefties won’t read about how your hero was sentenced to prison for falsifying his service record.
Hence the “phony soldier.”