# To the GOP: why are some still licking the boots of Rush Limbaugh? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 30, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688 "2009-01-30T05:21:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/261 "2009-05-08T03:16:22Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, **CMC** ’s post has been up since December. You must be composing a _really_ good response. One that no doubt somehow brings up the fact that Bill Clinton got a blowjob in the Oval office. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/262 "2009-05-08T12:09:58Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#): > > One that no doubt somehow brings up the fact that Bill Clinton got a blowjob in the Oval office. That’s how Vince Foster died, you know. He was giving Bill a blowjob and Bill came so hard he blew Vince’s head clean off. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/263 "2009-05-08T16:52:32Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > I was expecting to see the Republicans to finally see the light and that opposition to Obama would not depend on the dictates of a shrinking reactionary base, I was thinking the Republicans finally got it when they began to dismiss people like Rush Limbaugh. Well, so much for that. I’ve never voted Democrat, but I completely agree. Limbaugh has been an embarrassment for almost his whole career, and I can’t stand to listen to him for more than 5 minutes. I’m embarrassed that the local powerful AM talk station puts him on the air every day. I don’t even need to pull up the issue of his drug addiction; we all have our defects. What really bugs me is his presentation of a “reasoned defense of conservatism” that I can take apart on the fly. He’s also egotistical on a level that really bugs me. I would thank God if he lost his voice, actually. ---
**Author:** ![turner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@turner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turner)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/264 "2009-05-09T01:09:19Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > He’ll be a better Senator than all but three or four current Republican Senators. And that’s being generous. The Republicans are by and large partisan obstructionists who really enjoyed destroying our country since the Reagan years. Personally I’m happy that Al Franken will be a Senator. It makes up for Hillary not getting elected president and watching the foaming at the mouth. And if the Republicans don’t like how the voters of Minnesota voted, well then too bad. > > Unrestrained Republican greed let to the Great Depression and it lead to the current meltdown. Let’s hope that Mitch McConnell is right and that the Republican party is now just a regional party and dies the death it so richly deserves. Hello pot…does anybody remember the last 8 years. Bush used the veto less than any president in the previous century and STILL nothing got through congress. Obstructionist? The only people with a lower approval rating than Bush was the Democratically run Congress. Franken is a bitter, never funny comedian who got elected in Minnesota–so did Jesse “the Body” Ventura. Is he qualified to be senator? Yes he’s over the age of 30, been a citizen all his life (only need to be for 9 years) and was elected–quite possibly–by a majority of Minnesotans. Those are the only qualifications for the job. Does that mean he’ll do a good job? I doubt it. he seems as shallow as a kiddie pool in a drought. Also explain to me how “Republican greed” started the Great Depression? I also like the Stalin comment previous. Let’s see, he’s the guy who nationalized business and expanded government. You’re right. That DOES sound familiar. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/265 "2009-05-09T01:17:57Z")
> [@turner](#): > > Hello pot…does anybody remember the last 8 years. Bush used the veto less than any president in the previous century and STILL nothing got through congress. Obstructionist? Why precisely would a Republican run congress, which is waht it was for the entire time that Bush issued no vetoes, obstruct a Republican president? > [@](#): > > Does that mean he’ll do a good job? I doubt it. he seems as shallow as a kiddie pool in a drought. Yeah. People who graduate _cum laude_ from Harvard with a degree in political science are notoriously over their heads in matters of politics. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/266 "2009-05-09T01:24:34Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Yeah. People who graduate _cum laude_ from Harvard with a degree in political science are notoriously over their heads in matters of politics. _“I am obliged to confess I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.”_ ~William F. Buckley ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/267 "2009-05-09T01:34:32Z")
\*“Who gives a shit?” \* ~Jack Q. Batty ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/268 "2009-05-09T01:36:45Z")
Was that before or after he published his piece about how the white race had a duty and an obligation to dominate in the South, and to bring the lesser folks toward equality at a sober and prudent pace? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/269 "2009-05-09T01:48:12Z")
It was both before he said that and before he subsequently retracted it. As I’m sure you perfectly well know. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/270 "2009-05-09T01:53:47Z")
It was also before his son (and a bunch of other prominent conservatives) endorsed Obama, and was subsequently essentially fired from the magazine Buckley Jr. founded, right? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/271 "2009-05-09T02:40:50Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > It was both before he said that and before he subsequently retracted it. He said what he said. You can’t unring that bell. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/272 "2009-05-09T03:02:43Z")
Another bell from Buckley that could not be unringed (in this case it was against the bush administration) [http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGY0MDE1MDRhYzcxMzc2ODExMTMzZjgyZmZhNzljN2I=](http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGY0MDE1MDRhYzcxMzc2ODExMTMzZjgyZmZhNzljN2I=) > [@](#): > > The importance of the law against revealing the true professional identity of an agent is advertised by the draconian punishment, under the federal code, for violating it. In the swirl of the Libby affair, one loses sight of the real offense, and it becomes almost inapprehensible what it is that Cheney/Libby/Rove got themselves into. But the sacredness of the law against betraying a clandestine soldier of the republic cannot be slighted. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/273 "2009-05-09T03:28:02Z")
BTW the thing Buckley did “wrong” there was to agree with many on the left that the uncovering of Valerie Plame was a criminal act. I’m almost sure Buckley got a lot of heat for it from the right so it was fun for me to see him go into extreme contortions to defend Scooter and the Bush gang in later articles. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/274 "2009-05-09T03:46:33Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > He said what he said. You can’t unring that bell. Did I try to unring it? He said what he said based on how he felt at the time. He subsequently came to believe he was wrong, saying that ‘it was absolutely the right thing to do’ with regard to government interceding on behalf of civil rights. He also came to favor legalization of marijuana and to feel, once the facts were in, that the Iraq war was a mistake. He had no problem changing his mind when facts or circumstances dictated it. I thought the ability to change one’s mind was supposed to be an admired quality around here. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/275 "2009-05-09T03:55:38Z")
ETA: P.S. - He never did retract his view of the Harvard faculty. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Alienhand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@Alienhand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alienhand)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/276 "2009-05-09T04:00:24Z")
Yale alumnus and a Bonesman saying something bad about Harvard? I’m shocked, shocked I tell you. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/277 "2009-05-09T04:08:13Z")
And I would quite agree, up to the point that I have long held that we should not be ruled by privileged and well-born white men. Its just that I don’t offer him any exemption. He was quite content with the ruling class status he shared with such men, he was simply aghast that they didn’t share his brand of Calvinistic Catholicism. He was witty, erudite, and unflinchingly wrong. But polite! ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/278 "2009-05-09T04:24:17Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I thought the ability to change one’s mind was supposed to be an admired quality around here. We are still waiting for examples of your mind changing. So, nothing to admire from you yet. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/279 "2009-05-09T04:28:27Z")
> [@turner](#): > > The only people with a lower approval rating than Bush was the Democratically run Congress. This is false. The Republican-run Congress **also** had a lower approval rating than Bush, as in [this 2005 poll](http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-10-17-bushapproval_x.htm) where Bush was at 39% approval and the Republican-majority Congress at 29%. Moreover, towards the end of his administration, polls were giving higher approval ratings to Congressional Democrats than to Bush or to Congressional Republicans, as in [this December 2008 poll](http://www.gallup.com/poll/113449/Republicans-Congress-Less-Popular-Than-Bush.aspx) where Bush achieved a 29% approval rating, Congressional Republicans 25%, and Congressional Democrats 37%. > [@turner](#): > > Does that mean he’ll do a good job? I doubt it. he seems as shallow as a kiddie pool in a drought. Your inability to correctly report even straightforward facts about approval rating polls does not inspire a whole lot of confidence in your ability to evaluate the merits of politicians. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688/280 "2009-05-09T04:35:55Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > And I would quite agree, up to the point that I have long held that we should not be ruled by privileged and well-born white men. Its just that I don’t offer him any exemption. He was quite content with the ruling class status he shared with such men, he was simply aghast that they didn’t share his brand of Calvinistic Catholicism. He was witty, erudite, and unflinchingly wrong. > > But polite! Well, first and foremost he never tried to rule anyone. And he counted among his friends and admirerers people from all political persuasions, religious beliefs and walks of life. He was never one to allow any of these factors to interfere with his admiration or friendship. And a slight correction: he was witty, erudite, and only occasionally wrong. He was indeed polite. > [@GIGObuster](#): > > We are still waiting for examples of your mind changing. So, nothing to admire from you yet. Not so at all. Why, just the other day I changed my mind about your honesty and integrity. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-gop-why-are-some-still-licking-the-boots-of-rush-limbaugh/483688.md?page=15)