| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Rush Limbaugh and the Phony "Phony Soldier" Scandal
Since when did it become a bad thing to call a phony a
“phony?” Well, since Rush Limbaugh referred to a phony
soldier as a “phony soldier” and the antiwar crowd thought it
could make hay with it. The idea that Rush Limbaugh would
denigrate U.S. troops on the air for millions to hear, and in
such an egregious way that it deserved congressional
condemnation, is absurd on its face. What’s perplexing is how
they ever thought they could get away with something so
blatantly ludicrous.
Ask yourself a simple question. If you are a soldier fighting
in Iraq and you need a bit of a morale boost, who would you
choose to listen to? Would it be conservative radio talk show
host Rush Limbaugh, who daily and untiringly talks up your
mission, its inherent nobility and the need for it to be seen
through to successful completion, or . . .
Or would it be the rogues’ gallery of spineless Democratic
politicians who on a regular basis say things like the following:
Harry Reid (in his usual lugubrious, hopeless tone): “Now, I
believe, myself, that the secretary of state, the secretary of
defense -- and you have to make your own decision as to what
the president knows -- that this war is lost and that the surge is
not accomplishing anything, as indicated by the extreme
violence in Iraq yesterday.”
John Kerry: “If you make the most of it, you study hard, you do
your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do
well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
John Murtha: “Our troops overreacted because of the pressure
on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.”
Dick Durbin: “If I read this to you and didn't tell you it was an
FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in
their control, you would most certainly believe this must have
happened by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime,
Pol Pot or others, that had no concern for human beings.”
Seems rather obvious, doesn’t it? With congressmen like
these, who needs Tokyo Rose? (Or Baghdad Bob? Or Al-
Jazeera?) So there’s no need to even finish this column, right?
Unfortunately, that’s wrong. If we weren’t all currently living
on the planet Bazongo, where all logic and truth are turned
upside down by a certain political faction, then maybe we
could just let it ride. But the lies, smears and distortions just
keep coming and, like a game of political whack-a-mole, one
has to put the kibosh on them as they arise.
This time it all started when Limbaugh used the phrase
“phony soldier” on his radio program one day in reference to a
guy, Jesse Macbeth, who claimed that he and other soldiers had
slaughtered innocent civilians in Iraq, but who, it turns out,
had never set foot in Iraq and had never even completed basic
training before being drummed out of the Army. Sounds like a
phony soldier if there ever was one. And of course, before
Macbeth was exposed as a phony, he became a hero to the
antiwar crowd who perpetually turn over every rock seeking
out any evidence that will allow them to portray American
soldiers as war criminals.
Anyway, almost before you could say “turn tail and run,”
Media Matters, a left-wing, so-called media watchdog group,
posted a story which it headlined “Limbaugh: Service members
who support U.S. withdrawal are ‘phony soldiers.’” Within
hours, congressional Democrats were engaging in a rhetorical
beat-down of Rush based on the Media Matters distortion.
How in the world could they not believe this would blow up
in their faces just like the “General Betray Us” ad? Don’t they
understand there’s an army of conservative new media out
there salivating over the prospect of exposing left-wing lies and
distortions? For crying out loud, Dan Rather got busted over a
font. How, then, could the Dems (dims) think they would get
away with smearing Limbaugh over this when it is so easy to
simply go back and listen to what he actually said, which is not
open to interpretation or spin?
There can only be two possible answers: 1.) The Dems
assume either the stupidity or, to be kind, the intellectual
laziness of their target audience for this latest dog and phony --
er, I mean pony -- show; 2.) they didn’t bother to check the
facts and just took Media Matters’ word for it.
Either way they don’t look too swift, but, rather, like a crew
that is almost deliberately plumbing the depths of what seems
possible for congressional approval ratings, single digits now
being within easy reach.
None of this is to say that Republicans are now shoo-ins for
the ‘08 election. Many voting Americans are definitely stricken
with war weariness and that is certainly tied to the
Republicans. But most Americans aren’t inherently antiwar,
they are anti-losing the war. Nor do they cotton to dishonest
smears that try to make U.S. soldiers look like war criminals.
Nor do they think much of craven, defeatist politicians who try
to cash in on “phony” scandals for political advantage.
Lord help us if a majority of Americans give in to their
more injudicious impulses and put a certain party in the
presidency next year.
Since when did it become a bad thing to call a phony a
“phony?” Well, since Rush Limbaugh referred to a phony
soldier as a “phony soldier” and the antiwar crowd thought it
could make hay with it. The idea that Rush Limbaugh would
denigrate U.S. troops on the air for millions to hear, and in
such an egregious way that it deserved congressional
condemnation, is absurd on its face. What’s perplexing is how
they ever thought they could get away with something so
blatantly ludicrous.
Ask yourself a simple question. If you are a soldier fighting
in Iraq and you need a bit of a morale boost, who would you
choose to listen to? Would it be conservative radio talk show
host Rush Limbaugh, who daily and untiringly talks up your
mission, its inherent nobility and the need for it to be seen
through to successful completion, or . . .
Or would it be the rogues’ gallery of spineless Democratic
politicians who on a regular basis say things like the following:
Harry Reid (in his usual lugubrious, hopeless tone): “Now, I
believe, myself, that the secretary of state, the secretary of
defense -- and you have to make your own decision as to what
the president knows -- that this war is lost and that the surge is
not accomplishing anything, as indicated by the extreme
violence in Iraq yesterday.”
John Kerry: “If you make the most of it, you study hard, you do
your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do
well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
John Murtha: “Our troops overreacted because of the pressure
on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.”
Dick Durbin: “If I read this to you and didn't tell you it was an
FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in
their control, you would most certainly believe this must have
happened by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime,
Pol Pot or others, that had no concern for human beings.”
Seems rather obvious, doesn’t it? With congressmen like
these, who needs Tokyo Rose? (Or Baghdad Bob? Or Al-
Jazeera?) So there’s no need to even finish this column, right?
Unfortunately, that’s wrong. If we weren’t all currently living
on the planet Bazongo, where all logic and truth are turned
upside down by a certain political faction, then maybe we
could just let it ride. But the lies, smears and distortions just
keep coming and, like a game of political whack-a-mole, one
has to put the kibosh on them as they arise.
This time it all started when Limbaugh used the phrase
“phony soldier” on his radio program one day in reference to a
guy, Jesse Macbeth, who claimed that he and other soldiers had
slaughtered innocent civilians in Iraq, but who, it turns out,
had never set foot in Iraq and had never even completed basic
training before being drummed out of the Army. Sounds like a
phony soldier if there ever was one. And of course, before
Macbeth was exposed as a phony, he became a hero to the
antiwar crowd who perpetually turn over every rock seeking
out any evidence that will allow them to portray American
soldiers as war criminals.
Anyway, almost before you could say “turn tail and run,”
Media Matters, a left-wing, so-called media watchdog group,
posted a story which it headlined “Limbaugh: Service members
who support U.S. withdrawal are ‘phony soldiers.’” Within
hours, congressional Democrats were engaging in a rhetorical
beat-down of Rush based on the Media Matters distortion.
How in the world could they not believe this would blow up
in their faces just like the “General Betray Us” ad? Don’t they
understand there’s an army of conservative new media out
there salivating over the prospect of exposing left-wing lies and
distortions? For crying out loud, Dan Rather got busted over a
font. How, then, could the Dems (dims) think they would get
away with smearing Limbaugh over this when it is so easy to
simply go back and listen to what he actually said, which is not
open to interpretation or spin?
There can only be two possible answers: 1.) The Dems
assume either the stupidity or, to be kind, the intellectual
laziness of their target audience for this latest dog and phony --
er, I mean pony -- show; 2.) they didn’t bother to check the
facts and just took Media Matters’ word for it.
Either way they don’t look too swift, but, rather, like a crew
that is almost deliberately plumbing the depths of what seems
possible for congressional approval ratings, single digits now
being within easy reach.
None of this is to say that Republicans are now shoo-ins for
the ‘08 election. Many voting Americans are definitely stricken
with war weariness and that is certainly tied to the
Republicans. But most Americans aren’t inherently antiwar,
they are anti-losing the war. Nor do they cotton to dishonest
smears that try to make U.S. soldiers look like war criminals.
Nor do they think much of craven, defeatist politicians who try
to cash in on “phony” scandals for political advantage.
Lord help us if a majority of Americans give in to their
more injudicious impulses and put a certain party in the
presidency next year.