Rush Limbaugh’s Path to Redemption

A short time ago I wrote a piece on this site titled Rush & Talk Radio Blowing Crossover Clinton Purge. Itaddressed Rush Limbaugh's high risk "Operation Chaos" in which he was calling for Republican crossover voters to vote for Hillary Clinton in Texas and Ohio. It was clear from the discussion of the slogans of Limbaugh and a caller that were discussed bothonone of hisradio programs and in the article that Limbaugh was thinking that by perpetuating the Democratic battle Republicans could win the election in the fall. That is the only reasonable interpretation of his much ballyhooed slogan, "Keep her in it so we can win it." This was a slogan that was countered by the caller's slogan "Take her out and end all doubt," a sentiment with which I strongly agreed. Hillary was weak and staggered and ready to go down it out for the count: only the ropes were holding her up. And had Limbaugh instead called for Republican crossovers to vote for Obama in Texas and Ohio, there is little doubt that she would have been finished then and there. It is possible, and at that time, would have been relatively easy to accomplish the goal of the caller's slogan, "Take her out and end all doubt."

Being rid of the toxic Clintons, once and for all, was, had been, and has been a long-held dream of most people on the right. And at the very moment of its becoming an all but certain “fait accompli” the Right's greatest champion leads a charge to keep it from happening: and even worse, he is joined by a host of other "champions" on the right who should have instead criticized Limbaugh and moved in the opposite direction against his risky notion. Instead, as a group, they became a ravaging pack aiding the Hillary camp in bringing down Obama who has always been the best chance to bring about the end of America's destructive Clinton era. Thereby, in tearing up Obama they have as a group -- with Limbaugh certainly leading the charge -- saved, at least temporarily, Hillary from the all-but-certain ending of her political rise and the continuing increasing of the Clintons’ corrupting influence in America. They may well have put Bill Clinton back in the White House. Some of these new and unexpected "useful idiots" in harming America's interests include unlikely people like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingram, Ann Coulter, and some of the more right leaning regulars on the Fox news Channel.  "Insane" is an understatement of the stupidity and damage this idiocy will have inflicted upon America if Hillary becomes president. If so, it need not and should not have happened. And by following the suggestion below for "expanding" or "extending" Operation Chaos it's not too late to correct the horrendous mistake.

It is true that if McCain wins he will, no doubt, have been helped considerably by Limbaugh's project chaos. But with the eventual outcome of the election at best a 50-50 proposition for the Republicans it was clearly a risk far too great to be worth taking. The cost-benefit analysis just wasn't there. At least, not for the country. Perhaps, it was for Limbaugh in terms of ratings. Great risk requires great caution not fool-hardiness. One takes greater precautions against a weapon of mass distraction or a horrendous disease than one does against something conventional or normal. Hillary is the horrible possibility. Limbaugh casually and cynically treated her like something normal.

And now that she's got a significant chance of winning it all our foolhardy hero is, not surprisingly, starting to back-and-fill. It's dawned on him -- belatedly -- that he might have made a mistake, even a huge mistake. But Mr. Half-My-Brain-Tied-Behind-The-Back won't be admitting that anytime soon. Here are some of the things he and some of his fellow heroes have been saying as he, and they, have begun to back-and-fill:

Limbaugh: "I don't want her to win." And, "She was going to stay in all the way anyway." (My question to him regarding that nonsense is: Oh yeah! Then why the wording in the slogan, "Keep her in it ….," and why get people to crossover vote to do so? Why, if she was going to be around blasting at Obama anyway?  Certainly that was not part of Limbaugh's original calculation. This is back-and-fill -- pure-and-simple.

Hannity on Wednesday March 5, 2008 to a Clinton caller around 4:00 p.m. with respect to the Stop Hillary Express thing said: "It doesn't matter which Dem wins. I'm not so sure she is worse than him. Trust me: let not your heart be troubled …,” Well, Sean, our hearts are troubled. 

Another woman called Hannity and said that she was going to vote for Hillary, and Hannity asked what if she ekes it out? The woman said that she wanted her to win the nomination and not just to stay in. She wanted her to win in Texas and then to win in November. The woman said if that happened she wouldn't be able to trace it back to Texas. Hannity offered, I've got to send you a Stop Hillary Express gift. (I thought that made little sense since the woman said that she wanted Hillary in!)  

I really had no idea how bad it was, though, until I heard Coulter go bananas on Hannity's radio program on Super Tuesday two. She was on with Pat Caddell as the other guest at about 5:30 p.m.  I have never heard Ann rave so irrationally and out of control emotionally.  Neither Ann Coulter nor Rush Limbaugh is irrational or stupid -- normally. So it's rather disconcerting to listen to their blitherings in this instance concerning the Hillary candidacy. Hannity claimed that the reason Hillary closed in Texas in the last four days is that programs like his were pointing stuff out about Barak Obama. This, of course, puts him squarely, if wobbly, in the boat with Limbaugh, along with people like Coulter, Beck, and Ingram. It’s The Right’s newly failing hero pack.

 Then another caller talked about how she and her husband felt sick over voting for Hillary, and she told Hannity that they would be disgusted if she got in. Surely, millions of us feel like that. Hannity said he would too and said I don't know why, but I can't do it. I am torn. Imagine that: Sean Hannity being torn about whether or not to crossover vote for Hillary! That's just more back-and-fill garbage.  That's just covering his butt. And it's not good enough: not least, it's not going to be good enough if Hillary wins. He's with Limbaugh. He's in the boat. He and the others have been brutalizing Obama. And he's been doing it every day for weeks. What's his insufficiently ambiguous single vote compared to the millions that he and the others are influencing week after week? They are helping Hillary big time.

On Tuesday, March 25, 2008, Limbaugh pushed a little more back-and-fill garbage when he said, "Don't count the Clinton out. They can get the nomination: it's very plausible. Don't count out that the Clintons will steal the nomination with the super delegates." Really, Rush! And if so and she becomes president, then you, Rush, you take the hit.  All the back-and-fill in the world won't keep that from happening. 

Then Rush said, "I love it, as commanding officer of Operation Chaos." This was another of those occasions when Limbaugh seemed nearly to be out of control jocular, and it was definitely a boisterously mocking, as only he can do with such easy expertise. He was joking and laughing about the situation in the Democratic Party and his role or participation, to whatever extent it was, in helping to bring it about. After weeks of promoting what amounts to one very big and dangerous hootenanny it was still just a big laughing matter to Rush who was just "loving it." Or was this really a case of "me-thinks he laughs too much?"  Was it really an attempt to camouflage some real disquiet on his part?

It is very disturbing to watch all this as Hillary's chances are, day by day, increased as a result of it. It makes one think of a group of fraternity boys engaged in a drunken and frenzied party the night before the big game, and totally disregarding and paying no heed whatsoever to the consequences, or the terrible hangover that may occur the next day -- to say nothing of the effect that their irresponsible actions may have on them and the team as they, as the hobbled leaders of the sixth man (fans) contribute to causing their team to lose the big game against their most hated rival. 

And now that the drunkenly orgiastic partying is coming to a close that awareness seems to be beginning to dawn on them.  And so they are beginning to make excuses and downplay the consequences of their actions and folly. And they try to avoid taking responsibility for the worst of those consequences: outcomes they are, perhaps too late, beginning to recognize they may have played a major role in bringing about. So they are beginning to back-and-fill.

But it's not too late to recover -- if they take the corrective action mentioned below. 

Hannity, suggesting that the relentlessness of the right-wing attack pack has not been a significant impact said "It doesn't matter." Then he immediately set out on another round of pounding Obama. After doing that for quite a while he talked about the possibility that he (Obama) would be her VP and then Hannity said that "This is like our Super Bowl -- we look at it following all this stuff going on." Then came the distancing: "Obama was angry -- she pulled out every dirty trick she could." There was nothing about Hannity's and his fellow pack-members own role of constantly pounding and tearing at Obama (Some Stop Hillary Express!): especially, no mention of Limbaugh's idiotic crossover vote for Hillary campaign, the so-called Project or Operation Chaos.

As for Limbaugh himself, a presumably definitive answer to his take on the project's evolution came on Friday the 28th of March in response to a caller who asked a question specifically about this issue of Limbaugh’s project chaos backfiring and resulting in a Hillary victory in November. That’s a Clinton restoration to the White House, folks: in case some of you project participants may have missed it, as Rush seems to have done. Or did he just not give a damn, as long as he got a ratings boost? At the very least he failed to adequately weigh the catastrophe entailed in such a restoration, and that failure alone, all by itself, amounts to an incredibly bad judgment by, what will become, the formerly great one—if Hillary becomes President. If that happens, he will certainly for ever be diminished in my eyes. And, I am confident, in the eyes of many others as well.  The caller asked, "What if it backfires, Rush?"

Here is the gist of the suddenly-not-so funny, post-drunken party, back & fill routine he gave on the radio that Friday:

First, he said that regardless of Operation Chaos she (Hillary) would be in it. That’s just the opposite of the overwhelming pre-Super-Tuesday 2 consensus on that if she had lost. And it’s even the opposite of his own logic for launching the project in the first place. Clearly, based on his own slogan, it was to “Keep her in it ….”  I.e. presumably, he feared she wouldn’t be in it if she lost. Otherwise why launch the project? What’s its purpose? Now he says its purpose is creation of chaos. But that wasn’t the original purpose. This is back-and-fill unworthy of Rush. He should just fess up to a major screw-up, at least to himself, and go for the redemption expansion outlined below.  

Second, in response to the chance that she might win he said there is always a chance that this or any strategy will backfire. 

Yes, Rush, indeed, you do always have that risk. And that is precisely why one has to consider the seriousness of the consequences if you make a mistake and your plan backfires on you. This is what Limbaugh and his fellow would be champions and pack-mates didn't do. And we may end up with Hillary as president because of it. If you may have to deal with a nuclear accident or nuclear attack or pandemic killer you have to take far greater precautions -- the highest level of precautions that you can -- to keep it from happening. Hillary was always the nuclear attack; she is the pandemic threat. From a political perspective: hers was the attack against which the highest precautions were required. What we got instead from Limbaugh and his fellow Obama bashers was the utmost in stupid foolhardiness. 

If Hillary doesn't become president it won't matter. And if McCain becomes president they may even be able to take some credit for helping bring about that outcome. But since, so far at least, they have not been strong supporters of McCain they may not be entitled to much of it.

Third, Limbaugh said, if Obama had needed a boost we would have put Operation Chaos to work for him. And then a little back-and-fill statement by Limbaugh to the effect that if Bill and Hillary get it, it will be at the price of block black vote fracturing. And,"The point of Operation Chaos is chaos." 

But, no Rush, as previously noted, it was to win it. Remember your own slogan, please, "Keep her in it so we can win it." And even if it was simply a goal of creating chaos what does that say? It says that eliminating the Clintons wasn't all that important to you. 

Fourth, Limbaugh also said, contrary to most knowledgeable pundits, "even if she lost both Ohio and Texas the Clintons weren't getting out." Wrong! There is little doubt, Rush, they would have bowed out or else been forced out -- something even better.

Fifth and finally, in some major butt covering Limbaugh said, "I'm not the Republican Party and I'm not the candidate. If they can't win it after all this chaos has been created it's their fault." Interpretation: It's not my fault. Don't blame me. I am not going to take responsibility for or let you hold me responsible for my screw up. 

Not a very conservative position, but then neither was keeping Hillary alive. And it blurs the most important point. That is, it’s not so much whether or not the Republicans can win it. Rush's operation may well have increased Republican’s chances from something like 43% to 47%. But the important point is whether or not Hillary wins it. If that happens, it will be your fault, Rush. And your many sorely disappointed fans will hold you accountable. How will you feel, Rush, about your decisive role in restoring the Clintons to the White House?

The bottom line is if Obama or McCain wins Limbaugh and his following champions are off the hook. But if Hillary becomes the president they ought to take the hit and be punished.

But they can still find redemption. If they act now. They even have the luxury of treating the necessary action as an expansion or an extension of Operation Chaos -- importantly, not a repudiation of it. Now's the time to just admit to yourselves that you were wrong and get people to crossover and vote for Obama in Pennsylvania. He is behind there, and there is a greatly increasing risk that he might lose this thing to Hillary. It is an appropriate extension of Operation Chaos to make the switch. But it must be made now. Limbaugh did say, after all, had Obama been behind going into Texas and Ohio he would have supported Obama and not Hillary. So it is a rational and justified extension of Operation Chaos given the increasing possibility of the horror of a Clinton presidency. So bring it together folks, and do it now. Hopefully, the champions will lead that new charge. But if they won't, we should do it without them. Crossover and vote for Obama in Pennsylvania and any other states where that is possible from this point on. There is still an opportunity for us to contribute and "Take her out and end all doubt.” How about leading us with such an expansion of Operation Chaos in Pennsylvania, Rush? Launch a campaign of switching to crossover voting for Obama till Hillary is out without a doubt.

William A. Walker Ph.D. (a.b.d.)    a.k.a. Infinite Rainbow