Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006 3:46 p.m. EST
Rush Limbaugh: Why Republicans Lost

Republicans lost control of the House, and perhaps the Senate, because they abandoned their conservative principles and in the end stood for nothing, Rush Limbaugh said today.
In his Wednesday broadcast, America’s top talker said that until Republicans begin asking themselves what’s wrong with themselves they are never going to fix their problems.
When things go wrong, Rush said, "you must look inward and ask first, ‘What did we do wrong? What could we have done better? What mistakes did we make?”
Commenting that although Republicans lost, "Conservatism did not lose, Republicanism lost last night. Republicanism, being a political party first, rather than an ideological movement, is what lost last night.”
The Democrats, he said "beat something last night with nothing. They advanced no agenda other than their usual anti-war position. They had no contract — they really never did get specific. Their message was one of ‘vote for us; the other guys have been in power too long.’”
Rush further admonished, "There was no dominating conservative message that came from the [Republican] top and filtered down throughout in this campaign.”
added that if there was conservatism in the campaign, it was on the Democratic side: "There were conservative Democrats running for office in the House of Representatives and in a couple of Senate races won by Democrats yesterday.” He cited James Webb as an example.
He also said it was conservatism that won fairly big when it was tried yesterday, but it was Democrats who ran as conservatives and not their GOP rivals. He added that the Democratic leadership had gone out and recruited conservative candidates because they knew liberals could not win running against Republicans in red states.
Rush quoted Thomas Sowell as explaining that the latest example of election fraud is actually what the Democrats did — they nominated a bunch of moderate and conservative candidates for the express purpose of electing a far-left Democratic leadership.
"The Democrats could not have won the House, being liberals,” Rush said. "Liberalism didn’t win anything yesterday; Republicanism lost. Conservatism was nowhere to be found except on the Democratic side.”
The root of the problem, Rush said, is that "our side hungers for ideological leadership and we’re not getting it from the top. Conservatism was nowhere to be found in this campaign from the top. The Democrats beat something with nothing. They didn’t have to take a stand on anything other than their usual anti-war positions. They had no clear agenda and they didn’t dare offer one. Liberalism will still lose every time it’s offered.”
Republicans, Rush said, allowed themselves to be defined. "Without elected conservative leadership from the top Republicans in the House and Senate republicans are free to freelance and say the hell with party unity.”
That leads, Rush said, to the emergence of RINOs — Republicans in name only.
Republicans in Congress, Rush explained, were held captive by the party’s leadership in the White House. They were put into a position of having to endorse policies with which as conservatives they disagreed.
"The Democratic Party,” Rush went on to say, "is the party of entitlements; but the Republicans come up with this Medicare prescription drug plan that the polls said that the public didn’t want and was not interested in. That is not conservatism. Conservatives do not grow the government and offer entitlements as a means of buying votes. But that’s what the Republicans in Congress had to support in order to stay in line with the Party from the top.
"It is silly to blame the media; it is silly to blame the Democrats; it is silly to go out and try to find all these excuses,” Rush said. "We have proved that we can beat them … we have proved that we can withstand whatever we get from the drive-by media. Conservatism does that — conservatism properly applied, proudly, eagerly, with vigor and honesty will triumph over that nine times out of 10 in this current political and social environment. It just wasn’t utilized in this campaign.”
Rush also blamed the failure to embrace conservatism on Republican’s fear of being criticized from those in the so-called establishment. Republicans, he charged, go out of their way to avoid being criticized, fearing they will be characterized as extremists and kooks.
As a result conservatism gets watered down, and the GOP loses the support of the nation’s conservative majority Rush stated.
Anything can beat nothing, Rush concluded, "and it happened yesterday.”

No one cares what that fat fu*k has to say.

"No one cares what that fat fu*k has to say."

Too true...but he did get something right, for once...Republicans have about as much to do with traditional conservative ideals as Rosie O'Donnell does with modeling swimwear.

Fish on...

Todd

I like the analogy Todd. A little Freudian but that's Ok.

Hey 'rhoid. Go look in the mirror and verbalize your last post.

Sounds typical of Rush's ideology--just can't seem to take responsibility.

AuntyM you're a regular Molly Ivins!

It's always a good day to be an American...but some days, it's just a lot better!

Yesterday was one of those days, and today hasn't been half bad, either!

Fish on...

Todd

Right on the mark as usual Marsha! This isn't your fathers GOP anymore. They got hijacked by the christian right and the centrists were afraid to speak up and had to follow along like sheep.
Too many times the conservatives let a-holes like Limbaugh tell them what to think. As much as I disliked the politics of Ronald Reagan you would have never seen him allow things to deteriorate within his party the way W has.
Guess Rove was not such a genius after all huh?

I tell you, it's like the clouds parted and a ray of sun is shining down now that there's the ability to stop this fiendish monster that has has our country in a stranglehold...

Maybe my luck has changed. Maybe I should go try to catch a fish and buy a lottery ticket.

Oh wait, cant be all that good of luck, seems I got banned from Gamefishin' at some point a short time ago...

On the other hand maybe it's a blessing in disguise.

And who again is it that cares about what you say??? Todd>? Your pet monkey? You are a real piece of work there Ichy...

Ich, looks like you hit a nerve picking on GP's idol. Get some sleep GP. Oops, I meant to say "Rush say's get some sleep GP".

KKK...Now that it is raining so hard and you can't mow lawns you can sit on the computer all day and repeat the same old tired cliches and insults to people who could care less about what your "game" is. People like you who constantly remind everyone how you are going to mop the floor with them with your wit and grasp of the issues usually suffer from penis envy....Maybe you can go out and rake some leaves and think up some new material for all those here that give a sh!t about what you have to say....

Gpa is an expert on penis envy all the sudden...

It has him glued to "Sit and be Fit" and "Murder She Wrote" all day long.

Nice spanking Granpa!

AuntyM, I noticed comparing the receipts from my trip to the gas station shows the following:
on Monday I paid $2.33/gal,
today I paid $2.51/gal.

Looks to me like the dem's are already screwing up the economy.

Oh well maybe in the spirit of cooperation with I-937 perhaps I can get a retro fit green power air turbine for my V-10 1 ton.

D2,

WOW! I musta REALLY slept in! It's January already and the newly-elected Congress is already in session... huh?

I think what it REALLY means is that now that Bush has essentially been neutered by the results of the election... he's tellin' his big oil buddies that they'd better get back to GOUGING the American people at the pump while they still can!

Sounds like that "Footballisgay" kid or "steelheadkid" or whatever his name was a few weeks/months ago.... (time goes by too quick, tough to remember past occurences)
He's the little douchebag who took up arguments with everyone, especially saying how we are all "gay and football is gay too and we are all gay for talking about football cause it's gay."

granpa: If you hate what we talk about/who we bash on and what we spend our time on then why did you ask us? What was wrong with shutting the f up and not saying anything? Seriously what does your stupid little argument do for you, or for anyone for that matter. Just cause some dips**t (thats you granpa)thinks its dumb to talk politics and bash on people, people aren't going to stop talking about what they talk about on this board. "Oh that granpa dude doesn't like us talking about this so lets not talk about it." Not going to happen. If what we say doesn't exactly please you then why do you reply to it and b***h about what we say?

Obviously some people care about this section of the forum (Aunty M, Sardonicus) Many people talk politics dumbs**t so don't bash on those who do...You'd be pissed with a lot of people then if you hated everyone who talks politics.

Granpa could not have said it better.

Hey KK at least you got a break in the weather, time to fire up those lawn mowers.

What cracks me up is that you are so stupid that you can not see I am throwing the democratic blame storming logic back in your face.

Better stick to pulling weeds.

"I think what it REALLY means is that now that Bush has essentially been neutered by the results of the election... he's tellin' his big oil buddies that they'd better get back to GOUGING the American people at the pump while they still can!"

4Salt, it's interesting that you wrote this, as I've been thinking on it a bit, and came up with a similar theory over the past week.

Here it is:

From the war in Iraq, the economy, the pork barrel spending, the growth of corporate welfare, the massive federal expansion and spending, explosions in coroporate scandals, not to mention personally hypocrital scandals of many on the right, and many more decidedly un-conservative programs and activities of the current crop of Republicans, the last election cycle has shown that those in charge of the Republican machinery are either so incredibly imcompetent...

...or they're not.

They knew that they were throwing the entire party, and the half of America that supports the party, firmly, and with unerring accuracy, directly under the proverbial bus...along with the credibility of not only the entire government, but the entire nation as well.

Why?

Are they so utterly incompetent that they actually thought this was a good way to go about making good, and were horribly wrong, or did they do it on purpose, or at least with the full knowledge that it would happen?

There are too many smart people that were involved, too many smart people that couldn't have missed the multitudes of warning signs along the path that they have taken...so why did they take the path?

I think it may tie in to what 4Salt said above, whether or not his specific observation was accurate or not.

Assuming they weren't so woefully incompetent and mistaken, and blind to reality, that they actually thought they were doing the right thing, what does this leave as the other possibility?

The other possibility is that they didn't care.

They did it for greed, setting themselves up to be in the money, the rest of the world, including their millions of supporters, our country, the truth, and everything else...be damned.

It was "get while the gettin' is good", and while they knew it couldn't possibly last, they knew they could rape and pillage all that is good about our country, and the world for that matter, as much as possible before it all came crashing down...around everyone else but them, the architects of this massive destruction.

Those architects are either so bad at making decisions that would benefit the nation and the world, or sly like foxes.

Is the whole situation an Enron-like play, but one that bilks the entire world, rather than just the millions of Enron stockholders? To them, is the whole f'n thing just a game to win, with the rest of the nation and world just playing pieces to them?

Thoughts?

Fish on...

Todd

If that's what you've been thinking, Todd, then you've been reading my mind as well. Too many of them are too sharp to make such a series of incompetent mistakes. I think it was no mistake. They were "dumb" like a fox and determined to loot the world for as much as they could get for themselves. Using that yardstick of success, they haven't done half bad.

Well, using that theory as a working hypothesis, where does that leave the partisans who still support the Republicans?

I hope that they didn't see this coming, and somehow hope that they would somehow benefit from this...after all, they were duped worse than the rest of us who did see it coming, and were making noise about it.

Are they too prideful to admit that they were used like a rented mule to allow the hypocrites to steal from them as well as the rest of us?

How long will they hang on to their partisan support, when they, too, get absolutely nothing from it, other than the disdain of the rest of us?

The evangelical leaders have already heard the truth, right from the top..."we used those sad saps to get votes, and pandered to their lunacy just to get what we wanted"...how long for the rest of the supporters?

Fish on...

Todd

I called it well before they invaded Iraq. It was to bleed America dry. Thus the no bid contracts, the electricity scam and on and on. But how do you pull something like this off without the media et al jumping all over it? You need something very big, something nobody would or could question without being labeled "unpatriotic".

The thing that is so surprising to me about it is that there is a significant portion of our population who not only didn't see it coming, but actively stuffed their thumbs in their ears and closed their eyes when the rest of us pointed it out to 'em...

What exactly was their motivation? For the last remnant of hard core believers, what is their motivation now?

Do they still hate Bill Clinton's success so much that they're willing to take it in the ass, along with the rest of the country, just so that they can blame it on him?

Fish on...

Todd

Well, I've contended all along that policymakers love an uneducated electorate...it's easier to tell them what is good for them, and then just do it, especially when it is not good for them.

It's easier with an ignorant electorate to pacify them with gas-filled gifts, or throw the fear of Allah into them with made up fears of mushroom clouds, and then line their own pockets with the fruits of the ignorants.

That, unfortunately, ain't likely to change unless more folks decide to take an actual interest, beyond blind partisanism, in the workings of not only our nation, but of the rest of the world, too.

Ahh...the bliss of ignorance...sometimes it's tough to have a brain.

Fish on...

Todd

AM, I have no idea what's in store...I think I know what I'd like to see happen, but unfortunately I don't carry a lot of weight with enough legislators to push it through myself!

The "gas" I was referring to was more in the vein of "hot air"...gifts that have little meaning or actual value, beyond the symbol. I wasn't referring to petroleum...because there have been no gifts to anyone but the big three oil companies in that regard.

If the goal is to make petroleum consumption drop, which would obviously solve a ton of problems, especially national security issues and pollution, then they have to require better efficiency from automakers...every time it comes up, they say they can't do it, and every time they've been required to do it, they do it almost out of hand.

Step one is an "energy task force" that is not secret, and not made up of oil company execs.

Step two is a plan for the reduction of consumption.

Step three is funding the plan, and step four is implementing it.

It's sounds a lot like the Iraq problem...staying the course is a total loser, and saying we have a plan, or are getting better, when we have no plan, no plan is being implemented, and no end is in sight...that won't work.

Goal, plan, funding, implementation, monitoring, tweaking if monitoring shows that the implementation of the plan is not accomplishing the goal...that's how problems are solved, whether the problems be a war in Iraq, or an energy policy domestically.

Fish on...

Todd

That's why we need a real energy task force, not a secret one made up of oil and auto execs, one that focuses on how to make it better, not how to stave off the inevitable so they can make money now.

Fish on...

Todd

Right on. I like that GP

Hey
K K K

WOW You can call people out and want to talk in person. well Lets say you and I meet. and talk about the remarkes you make to insult me. (water bird in a bridal dress)Lam ass remarks and insults, com on lets chat face to face or are you one of the and I quote " best from behind a keyboard" candy asses.

Aix........
"as far right as I can get"
Wasn't that slogan used in Germany prior and during WW2.

You name yourself Wood Duck and have a little pissy-pants tantrum when someone pokes fun at it?

Sticks and stones.
Grow up.

What I thought you all are a bunch off chicken **** cowards

Aw you guys break it up. Seems to me some one was talking about an issue for a moment there. Something about removing our addiction to imported fossil fuel or something like that.
Until your elected representatives and the electorate grow some back bone and prohibit cars in in the downtown area of cities it won't fly. Legislate everyone that wants to go downtown onto public transit. Lord I can hear the screams of rage now. Of course you must first create a body moving system that works, and makes the wait for a mover no more than 15 to 20 minutes.
Will definitely require some significant change from the taxpayer, but what's new.
Will give a whole new context to the term 'road rage'.
Bring on the Mono-rail and a Japanese style bullet train to boot. Imagine; salmon swimming across the hiways on a rainy day and no cars to hassle them. lol
Add up how much your vehicle (just one of them)costs you to feed. All the little things plus the fuel,and be willing to spend nearly that much to create a people mover.

Aw shucks not all BGls are evil. Some try to do good things in spite of their natural proclivity to be nihilists. You know the one about 'there's magic in the first step' hell lets begin. Start in Olympia. let em lead the way. Only public transit to move around the halls of Olympus. That way they could truly be leaders. lol I know, too much Henneseys. hic
Maybe we could recruit Tim Eyeman to beat the drums and lead the dance.