Black & White and Cardinal Red All Over

Dick Cheney Sides With Rush

Birds of a feather, as they used to say. Imagine our surprise at hearing Dick Cheney telling us that he prefers the Rush Limbaugh kind of republican over the Colin Powell kind of republican. This testimony speaks volumes to Americans and would probably go a long way to explaining the reasons for the declining fortunes of the republican brand. A thirteen percent approval rate for Darth Dick kind of puts the anchor around the neck of the party image as they are treading water after the sinking of the USS Chimpy.

Colin Powell was damaged goods for a number of reasons but the largest reason was his complicity in the fraud at the UN where he set up the case for war. He knew that what he was saying did not meet his standards but he vas the good soldier in the Bush army and did what he was told. After resigning, he came clean about what he did. It was too late to rectify the damage done but he began the process of cleaning out the poison in his system with that confession. There is no doubt that Darth Dick did not approve of this soul cleansing and probably even saw it as a distinct weakness in Powell. The rest of us reasonable people saw it for what it was: an attempt to make good on a serious error in judgement. The icing on that mea culpa came with Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama over John McCain last fall. Cheney must have been beside himself.

Fat Ass Rush, on the other hand, has kept up the drum beat of rightwing reactionary rhetoric feeding his base with the red meat of racist hysteria, anti-American sentiments, and twisted bullshit logic since he became a spokesman for republicans a decade or two ago. He could be counted on to use his radio show to browbeat reluctant republicans back into place, demonize anything not done according to the GOP playbook, and trump up some good old fashioned racist hatred when all else failed to rally the home folks into action.

If we take a look at the score card that Rush is holding we can see a number of issues that run contrary to popular opinion but that fit right in that 21% who still call themselves republicans.

• Rush has stated that he thinks that Obama is prolonging the recession as a payback to black folks. He thinks that the unemployment is intended to be a backdoor way to get more benefits from the government and, thus, pay reparations to blacks for the centuries of slavery. 
• Rush was critical of the Pizza Parlor popularity tour that Eric Cantor and other dimbulb republicans recently held trying to listen to what the American people had to say. Cantor called it a “listening tour” but the next day Rush blasted him and said it should be a “teaching tour.” The next day, Cantor backtracked and agreed with Rush.
• Rush has come right out and said that he wanted the policies of President Obama to fail. The rejection of the NeoCon values that Rush holds so dear was a bit much for him and he decided that America was wrong in that rejection. It is obviously more important for Rush’s values to win out even if the country disagrees with him so he wishes for the failure of those policies and, thus, the country in hopes the people will turn again to the failed policies Rush advocates that led us over the cliff in the first place.
• Rush even came out and said that the only reason that Powell supported Obama for president was because of race. He said he should get out of the party instead of trying to reform it. They were happy with the mess they made of things and saw nothing wrong with the road they were traveling on.

There is no question that Rush is the kind of republican that Cheney supports and absolutely loves. The trouble will come if moderate republicans take Rush’s advice and get out of the party. Cheney certainly wouldn’t care and neither would Rush. Ideological purity is more treasured to this NeoCon cabal than actual governing anyway.

If they become Democrats, the republicans will become a permanent minority party because it was the republican moderates that helped the NeoCons and Religious Right take over the majority mantle and without them there are not enough rightwingers to be a majority anywhere except maybe Texas. But who cares? Aren’t they talking about seceding from the Union anyway?

links:http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/10/cheney-limbaugh-powell/

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/11/sessions-limbaugh-unemployment/

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/06/cantor-limbaugh-listening/

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/20/limbaugh-obama-fail/

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/06/limbaugh-powell-2/