GOP senator calls out Limbaugh and Gingrich; 'liberal media' remain mum
May 29, 2009 3:15 pm ET by Eric Boehlert
Responding to the insulting claim from right-wingers that Sonia Sotomayor is a "racist," at least one prominent Republican said, enough:
"I think it's terrible," Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told NPR's "All Things Considered" Thursday. "This is not the kind of tone any of us want to set when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advise and consent.”
It's an interesting development not only because it highlights how the Republican Party has completely lost control of the GOP Noise Machine, which rejects any semblance of adult supervision. But it's also telling that the Republican senator called out Limbaugh and Gingrich's "racist" nonsense while the so-called liberal media hasn't said boo about it.
I foolishly thought that when Gingrich made his "racist" claim that it would set off a media firestorm of sorts with all sort of commentators denouncing the hateful allegation and pointing out that likening a single sentence from a esteemed judge's speech eight years ago with racism and America's dark history of Jim Crow laws and lynchings, for instance, was beyond the pale and that Gingrich ought to apologize.
Instead, the press simply treated the "racist" attack as straight news. The Times, the Post, all the networks they all did the same thing: Gingrich called Sotomayor a racist. Period. They all acted like it was common place, like that's what happens to all Supreme Court nominees; within hours of their introduction to the public they're labeled racists. That's part of the process. And that Gingrich's wildly incendiary claim was normal.
It's not. It's unprecedented. But the press wouldn't say so. Instead, it took a conservative member of Congress to state the obvious--it's terrible.
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Is that not a Racist statement against white males?
I suppose I'll go to the Clinton News Network (CNN) to check the real facts. In the interim, you can drink more Kool Aid.
You cherry pick your statement, like the complete nitwit you are, and then run around thinking you're making a point.
Read 4 or 5 more paragraphs that go along with your litte cherry-picked masterpiece. You can read, can't you?
You can read, can't you?
Only if it's Fox Nation, I'd wager...
How many times did you rail against what Alito said that was almost identical?
Yeah, thought so - not ever.
I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires. I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate."
I figure some time this weekend or Monday.
BTW Did we really expect anything different from the media.
This is just another example of "if it bleeds, it leads".
The crazier the statements, the more widespread it will be broadcast.
Anything for ratings, truth or journalistic integrity be damned.
Not entirely true, bilbo; they will do anything for ratings, provided it smears Democrats and furthers the right-wing agenda. This explains why they have kept quiet about Cornyn firing back at OxyMan and The Newt; trust me, if it had been a Democratic senatpr firing back at Olberman or Maddow, it would have led...
This is probably one of the most disgraceful episodes we've ever seen in American politics.
I hope the American people are paying attention. This is the conservative party in action. This is what they've become. It's ugly, it's hateful and the corporate media are full enablers of it.
One of yesterday's showed the Faux website. One of the headers asked why the Republicans were not jumping on this bandwagon.
My feeling is that most Republicans wish the media would just shaddup about this.
All the testimony and evidence has yet to splash onto veiwer screens as of yet. We'll see how it plays out
If the conservative media is beyond control it maybe terrifing, nation damaging, a few case studies on meglomania down the road. What it won't be is boring.
I disagree. The Republican Conservatives are using the right wing media. They are appealing to the base; they cannot afford to lose it. Senator Cronyn, and all those who have criticized the rhetoric of Limbaugh, etc. may appear to be above the fray; they are not.
I would love to believe that the Republicans are disgusted by these
people, but the right wing media has been co-opted to the Party's dirty work.
More evidence supporting it or not will be along shortly.
What kind of behavior do you think would support the idea that though the media supports the so called conservatives, they're not able to direct it in the same fashion that they historically have.
Too many of Sotomayor's decisions were overturned by the very court she is nominated to sit for life. She's not qualified.
I am looking for an attorney who is willing to pro-bono file a law suit for slander against Rush Limbaugh. If you have anyone in mind (Nicola, Anthony?), please give me a name asap.
Here are details to share if you wish to pass my email onward:
On May 29th, Limbaugh stated on his show: “There's a group of people that were here before we got here, gang: the Indians, the Native Americans, the chiefs, the redskins. I don't see any of them being put up on the courts. Talk about a richness of experience -- hell, these clowns beat Custer.”
I believe this statement meets the four requirements for slander. Indian People are identifiable and I can find enough individuals who can testify to how being labeled a "clown" by this person who has significant influence among those segments of society likely to continue and increase prejudice against Native Peoples has hurt, is hurting or will hurt their reputations in a variety of significant ways. I would seek both a class-action and individual case suits of actual and future suppression of opportunities and psychological damage, especially children, as a result of this reputation damage. According to the law,“A message that decreases respect for the plaintiff or confidence in the plaintiff or causes disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions about the plaintiff is detrimental to the plaintiff. Even a message that is intended as a joke may be defamatory if at least one person believes it to be serious.”
In 1967, the Supreme Court expanded the actual malice standard for public officials to include public figures as well (extremely prominent private citizens whose prominence allows them to use the mass media to influence policy).
I exposed Limbaugh’s anti-Indianism in my 2004 book, The Bum’s Rush: The Selling of Environmental Backlash (Phrases and Fallacies of Rush Limbaugh, and articulated anti-Indianism in general in my University of Texas Press publication, Unlearning the Language of Conquest: Scholars Expose Anti-Indianism in America. I believe it is time to hold this person accountable and perhaps this may be the vehicle.
Sincerely,
Four Arrows, aka Don Trent Jacobs, Ph.D., Ed.D.
www.teachingvirtues.net
Well, for all you kooks out there, conservatism isn't going anywhere. I'm sorry to disappoint you. And if more of you Republicans out there want to join Arlen Specter, have at it. But before you do, why don't you go back and look at your notes from twenty or thirty years ago and see where you stood on the issues at that time. You might find that what you are criticizing now on the "extreme" right (as you refer to it) is the very same thing you stood for then. Friends, true conservatives are right where they've always been. It is you (the moderates) who have moved, not us. I suspect some of you have succumbed to back trouble.