Bennett On Limbaugh

You have to give professional Republican Bill Bennett credit for standing up- sort of, almost- to the leader of the Republican Party. Rush Limbaugh infamously declared on his syndicated radio program on January 16, 2009

Why do I want more of it? I don't care what the Drive-By story is. I would be honored if the Drive-By Media headlined me all day long: "Limbaugh: I Hope Obama Fails." Somebody's gotta say it....

We're talking about my country, the United States of America, my nieces, my nephews, your kids, your grandkids. Why in the world do we want to saddle them with more liberalism and socialism? Why would I want to do that? So I can answer it, four words, "I hope he fails." And that would be the most outrageous thing anybody in this climate could say. Shows you just how far gone we are. Well, I know, I know. I am the last man standing.

I'm happy to be the last man standing. I'm honored to be the last man standing. Yeah, I'm the true maverick.

(Of course, we all know that the true maverick is John McCain. Or Sarah Palin. Or now Rush Limbaugh. Any Republican who wants to claim victimhood status.)

As "CNN Political Contributor," Bennett commented (according to The Associated Press) "The locution — `I want him to fail' — is not what you say the first week the man's been inaugurated...."

If you watch Bennett's appearance (video below), however, you might notice him remark also "....Anyway, the rhetoric could be improved.... It's rhetorical- if he's doing the wrong thing, you don't root for him. If he's doing the right thing, sure."

And how does one determine whether he (Obama) is "doing the right thing?" Why, if he does the proper conservative thing, of course! What the former Secretary of Education and "Drug Czar" could have said, obviously, would have been something like: "If he's doing the wrong thing, we'll try to steer him in the right direction; if he's doing the right thing, we'll applaud him. Still, we're not going to relinquish the right, our obligation to the American people, to call the President out if his policies look like they'll hurt the nation."

Bennett might have said that if he really viewed it that way. Instead, the problem he found wasn't what Limbaugh believes- it's that he had the bad manners to admit rooting against the President; a problem with "locution" or "rhetoric." This is especially (though not exclusively) bad form "the first week the man's been inaugurated."

This is, perhaps, the face of modern Republican "moderation" or "bipartisanship." Hopefully, the media won't be taken in, and the American public will see it for what it is.

This from a posting by Moulitsas on dailykos late on caucus night, January 3, 2008, quoting CNN "analyst" Bill Bennett from a rushed transcript:


COOPER: Let's go check in with our political contributors. Bill Bennett, does this change the game a lot?

BENNETT: Well, I think it's, again, a wonder of America here. A remarkable breakthrough this year.

As the other group said, 97 percent, in fact, Iowa rural, white, farming -- farming state. Barack Hussein Obama, a black man, wins this for the Democrats.

I have been watching him. I watched him on "Meet the Press," I've watched him on your show, watched him on all the CNN shows -- he never brings race into it. He never plays the race card.

Talk about the black community -- he has taught the black community you don't have to act like Jesse Jackson, you don't have to act like Al Sharpton.

You can talk about the issues. Great dignity. And this is a breakthrough.Did the right-wing talk show host Bill Bennett actually say of Obama "he has taught the black community you don't have to act like Jesse Jackson, you don't have to act like Al Sharpton."


There are so many things wrong with this: 1)Is the "black community" a monolith? Do all blacks act, think, or even approach a political candidate in the same manner? 2)Why would the black community act like Jackson or Sharpton? Don't they more typically act like Americans? Do most black people look at black activists to determine how they will act (seems a little odd to me)?; 3)What does it mean "to act like Jesse Jackson (and) Al Sharpton? We can assume the Repub flak Bennett is not a big fan of the aforementioned gentlemen, which suggests Bennett is not a big fan of how "the black community" acts; 4)Is it necessary to "teach" the black community something, as Obama allegedly has? Does the "black community" resemble children in their simplistic unawareness? 5)Why does Bennett believe Jesse Jackson (who, for all his faults, seems committed to many progressive causes) and Al Sharpton (who, for all his faults.... well, he has many faults) are identical? Are "they" all the same?

But not to worry. Just as many NBC employees rose up to denounce to management the offensive remarks of Don Imus which resulted in him (temporarily) getting thrown off radio and television, surely, members of the "liberal media" at CNN will demand termination of its contract with Bill Bennett. Sure.