Rush Limbaugh, The Leader of the Simple: A Draft Dodger Calls Combat Troops Phony.

Here's the link to the above.

OK, we all know that the whole Conservative/Liberal thing has to do with brain function, at least that's what scientists at New York University and UCLA say. I'll let you do the obvious jokes here.

But I'm beginning to think that hard-line Conservatives might just be a whole different species.

Let's take Rush Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" line.

Rush issued a mea no culpa, said it was taken out of context and that he was only talking about one man as being a phony soldier. And now the right-wing garbage chutes are putting things out like this.

On Monday, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) stepped onto the floor of the Senate and strongly denounced talk radio host Rush Limbaugh for what have proven to be out of context statements made by the conservative personality on his program last Wednesday.

That is from NewsBusters, their slogan is "Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias". Now keep in mind this "out of context" excuse.

And from a place called The Conservative Voice, ditto. Sorry.

Talker Rush Limbaugh is under fire for being falsely accused of saying that any U.S. soldier who comes out against the war is a “phony soldier.” He did not, of course, say such a thing. Rush was actually talking about a man named Jesse Macbeth who was touted by anti-war activists as a soldier who came out against the war, but it turned out later that Macbeth never served in the military at all.

Still, despite that Rush is utterly innocent of these scurrilous charges, members of the Democrat Party and assorted extreme leftists like Media Matters, a far left opinion group focused on the media, have used the “phony soldiers” line as a rallying cry against the right. These far left advocacy groups are desperately trying to lead people to imagine that conservatives, Republicans and war supporters are disingenuous with their support for the troops. These far left groups are at the same time trying to say that it is they, rather than the right, who really respects the troops and they who would never support “phony soldiers.”

Here's the transcript, see if you think Rush was talking about one man named Jesse McBeth. courtesy of Media Matters.

LIMBAUGH: There's a lot more than that that they don't understand. They can't even -- if -- the next guy that calls here, I'm gonna ask him: Why should we pull -- what is the imperative for pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? They can't -- I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "Well, we just gotta bring the troops home."

CALLER 2: Yeah, and, you know what --

LIMBAUGH: "Save the -- keep the troops safe" or whatever. I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.

CALLER 2: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.


Rush sent out a video clip of the call in order to make his case but cut out 1 minute and 35 seconds of it.

During the September 28 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, in response to Media Matters for America's documentation of his recent description of service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq as "phony soldiers," Rush Limbaugh claimed that he had not been talking "about the anti-war movement generally," but rather "about one soldier ... Jesse MacBeth." Limbaugh further asserted that "Media Matters had the transcript, but they selectively choose what they want to make their point." To support this claim, Limbaugh purported to air the "entire" segment in question from the September 26 broadcast of his show. In fact, the clip he then aired had been edited. Excised from the clip was a full 1 minute and 35 seconds of the 1 minute and 50 second discussion that occurred between Limbaugh's original "phony soldiers" comment and his reference to MacBeth, the full audio of which can be heard here .

I think we can all pretty much see that Rush did indeed call any troops that disagree with the war in Iraq "phony soldiers". Pretty simple stuff isn't it?

This is where the brain function difference or species difference comes into it. Check out the comments on the NewsBuster piece.

Of course they are protecting Dingy Harry. Because they know that Limbaugh never said what Reid says he did. If they thought this was a real scandal, they would have front-page stories on it every day. The broadcast media would be having hourly updates, complete with the diagnosis that "this is not going away."

I just had Rush on in my car, and he did a segment on how MoveOn et al have now corralled a group of Iraq vets who oppose the war. They have made a $60,000 ad that says Limbaugh accused them all of being phony soldiers. Taking the cue from Rush, the soldier speaking tell Rush to shut up until he is willing to come and call him a phony to his face.
These people will not quit. They are determined to give this story legs, even if they have to use prostheses.


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Chris -- exactly. I think you hit it on the head. The instinctive reaction here for the media, when they smell a potential problem, is to protect the (their) Democrats.

Then perhaps, some in the media are specifically concerned, about protecting the front runner, HRC, as Noel suggested - even though I don't see why Noel referred to it as "a more cynical view." I say that because, it would surprise me if many in the MSM, here, sensed a problem with the connection between Media Matters and the Clintons, as they historically are only concerned about conflicts of interest when they can stick it on the other party.

Read all the comments over there and I think that you will see that the opposition is a pretty delusional, easily-led bunch. And for some reason these people scare the crap out of our Democrat leaders.

The media protecting the Democrats, these guys are whacked.

I just ran across some excellent related materal by Michael Mccord.

I'm puzzled by this: How can anyone be surprised at this given Limbaugh's venom toward anyone, serving or not, who disagrees with him on Iraq? He's slimed two decorated Vietnam War combat veterans — Republican Sen. Chuck Haegel of Nebraska and Democrat Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania — for daring to think the Iraq war has been a disaster of historical proportions and trying to change the course of madness. His legacy of endlessly trumping up the Swift Boat lies against John Kerry in 2004 speaks for his dedication to a cult-like truth only he has access to.