GOP Congressman Apologizes For Offending Limbaugh Fans
Okay, here’s a tale that sheds some light on the whole question of whether Rush Limbaugh has become the new face of the GOP, something we debated here yesterday.
Yesterday GOP Congressman Phil Gingrey of Georgia made some perfectly ordinary comments to The Politico about Rush Limbaugh. Gingrey said that it’s easier for outside opinion-makers — such as Limbaugh and Sean Hannity — to aggressively attack Democrats than it is for elected GOP leaders, who have to work with the Dems.
“I think that our leadership, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, are taking the right approach,” Gingrey said. “I mean, it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks.” Many interpreted these remarks as the equivalent of telling Rush to “back off.”
Turns out that Gingrey’s measured remarks provoked such a violent outcry that he has now been forced to apologize.
“Because of the high volume of phone calls and correspondence received by my office since the Politico article ran, I wanted to take a moment to speak directly to grassroots conservatives,” Gingrey said in a new statement released by his office. “Let me assure you, I am one of you.”
“I never told Rush to back off,” Gingrey continued. “I regret and apologize for the fact that my comments have offended and upset my fellow conservatives—that was not my intent…Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, and other conservative giants are the voices of the conservative movement’s conscience.”
This is pretty instructive about the political plight the GOP finds itself in. Republican leaders are working to portray Congressional Democrats as the partisan ones amid the wrangling over the stimulus bill and other matters. But the GOP’s shrunken minority is ensuring that the angrier and most aggressively partisan voices of the right become dominant and even representative of the party — especially given its leadership vacuum right now.
After all, Rep. Gingrey simply said that it wouldn’t constitute good leadership, should GOP chiefs “throw bricks” at Democrats — which is perfectly sensible advice, particularly given Republican efforts to paint Dems as the partisans. And he was forced by the ensuing outcry to apologize for this.
Update: In an interview with Sam Stein, key GOP leader Mike Pence distances himself from Limbaugh’s stated claim that he wants to see President Obama fail.
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Phil Gingrey is from Georgia, but he is a doctor and sometimes an “MD” follows his name so it is easy to assume he is a Congressman from Maryland.
Good to see you at the WP. I’m looking forward to your reporting.
Cheers
thx much for the fix.
Early days, early days. I am willing to wait and see what Limpy has to say in 6 months. Actually, I just realized I am willing to wait until Hell freezes over to hear what Limpy has to say!!!
Har har har! Just how dumb are the Republicans? This dumb.
Goody. At this rate they will never have another majority.
How freakin hilarious is it that Palin and Limbaugh are the leaders of the GOP these days?
Good luck with all that….
Marvelous. If elected Repub officials feel they have to kiss the hem of Rush’s ample garments, it’s hard to see that as anything but good news for the Dems.
Wow – want a smart move by the Obama Administration! Propping up Limbaugh as the mouthpiece for the GOP. That is sure to keep Independents and Moderates, who are more than frustrated with the current GOP, squarely the Obama camp. In broad terms, let’s keep this in perspective, Rush Limbaugh has approximately 20 million listeners in any given week. The population of the United States is just under 304 million, so his listeners make up 6.58% of the population, in theory. So if the GOP wants to jump on board with Rush and pander to the far-right, go right ahead. Rush Limbaugh is the GOP, the GOP is Rush Limbaugh! I have no doubt that the Obama Administration is giddy with that message blasting around.
By the way, Greg – who was violently outcrying, that caused Ginney to apologize? Winger bloggers?
Gingrey – not Ginney.
Greg
I have to admit, I was surprised by the immediacy of this retraction, particularly given the seemingly slight infraction Gingrey was ‘guilty’ of. But those of us who interact with the Limbaugh audience understand that they are pretty seriously invested in keeping their enemy/friend dichotomy pure and unsullied by anything cognitively dissonant.
I don’t think Limbaugh can become the “face of the party” other than for a relatively small portion of the electorate and/or for a very brief period of time for the reasons you suggest above. I think that was always so but is even more the case now. The leadership vacuum pushes him, by default, into greater visibility but folks like Pense (not to mention the long tally of RINOs Limbaugh has enumerated) see the electoral pitfalls ahead.
Yet Limbaugh does and will command a lot of power within the movement because of his influence on which Republicans get nominated, who gets funding, and who gets the organizational support or lack of it (Annenburg’s Jamieson and Cappella – “Echo Chamber” is a good source here).
So, he can continue to bully to some effect but the danger for him (and the Republicans more broadly) is the sort of inertial shift in community consensus that happened with Coulter’s hero, Joe McCarthy.
By the way, you’re a very fine writer…simple, concise, easy to read.
I wish the nativist, conservative movement well. May their spokesmen, Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, Beck, Savage, and Levin, serve them well in their continued efforts to destroy the country.
Throw in a little Jonah – “I haven’t had time to fully research this yet as certain toilet functions have occupied the majority of my time, but if I recall correctly…”
Ooh, and don’t forget Poland, sorry, I mean Lou Dobbs.
If Rush is the official spokesclown for the GOP, I expect them to become even more irrelevant and marginal than they already are.
The democratic party need intelligent opposition, not radical right wing lunacy.
Will real conservatives (the fiscal conservatives, remember them?) start a new party?
Bernie L. — thanks much, appreciate that, and likewise.
William F. Buckley Jr. is dead, and is already rolling over in his grave.
Rush Limbaugh….the voice of the GOP….fitting in soooo many ways…
It is looking like the winter of discontent for the GOP. First Carl Rove’s Amnesty Tour 09′ at Miami, now this. I actually thought Rep. Gingrey’s statement was right on. Will the real leadership of the GOP please stand up?
“William F. Buckley Jr. is dead, and is already rolling over in his grave.”
Hell, we already have Barry Goldwater’s casket hooked up to a generator. The RPMs that carcass is putting out is keeping the lights on in a subdistrict near Tucson.
As for the GOP’s plight, they had better find a new “base” and soon, because catering to rednecks and thawed-out cavemen is no way to win elections, son.
I love that Republicans are so lost that they take their marching orders from an ‘entertainer’ and are scared to death of his ‘fans.’ This is how far the GOP has fallen.
And I challenge every Democrat to simply read Limbaugh’s transcript into the record, without attribution, and changing ‘Obama’ for ‘Bush’, just to see how fast the Republicans and their supporters rain down on those Dems for being un-American.
Let them make our points for us.
I’m glad that the reactionary right is showing their true colors. Let me take a page out of their play book: Patriotism!!! If a Liberal or Dem said that they hoped that Bush failed like Rush said he hoped Obama would they would be called Un-patriotic!!! So it looks as if he has hung himself with his own standards. Congratulations Rush you have now reached a new low! LMFAO!!!!!
Imagine how popular you could become if you actually stuck to your guns and stood behind what you said. A politician with integrity. Gingrey needs to grow a pair. But…I’m all for the bickering and infighting as I’m not a Republican.
On the larger issue of “bipartisanship”, Jonathan Schell has a clear-eyed piece on the pitfalls ahead. From the final paragraph:
“In this era, political safety can spell danger, for himself and for the country and world. As he faces the Himalayan problems of the twenty-first century, he should look on his stratospheric approval ratings with a wary eye. They could mean that he is adjusting too much to the rogue mainstream and not adjusting it enough to the real world.”
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090209/schell/print
Guess the only kind of pill Rush doesn’t know how to take is a chill pill. Fine. Let him continue to shoot his party in the foot.
There are no Republican leaders but Rush. Why don’t they just make it official? Rush/Palin 2012!
LOL — Rush is the “conscience” of the GOP. Try to sell that in 2010, GOP. You have become an irrelevant, regional, fringe party. The place where the religious kooks, dead-enders, rednecks, militants, cult members, etc., go to hang out. Not for serious people trying to fix their country in a mature and thoughtful and strategic way.
Rush/Hannity ticket sounds good to me. LOL. Free Oxycontin for everyone.