OPINION: Hey Rush, Press "Restart" For The GOP
What if someone in the GOP moved to put a definitive end to the bloodletting?
What if that someone, with his big mouth and even bigger audience, urged lawmakers whose personal shenanigans have hamstrung an already foundering party to step down?
What if talk-o-matic Rush Limbaugh used that microphone to help his party drop-kick the GOP members whose adulterous ways have robbed Republicans of their family values platform and sucked up any airtime that could be used for promoting a policy agenda or bucking the WH's drive for sweeping and expensive health care and energy reform?
Maybe it's time for Rush -- the only GOPer with a following these days -- to do his part to start to lay the groundwork for the party to rebuild -- instead of using his platform to throw the 'R' bomb at SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Because with Sens. John Ensign (affair with a campaign staffer) and David Vitter (appearance on the DC madam's list) and Gov. Mark Sanford ("crossed lines" with multiple women) still in office, distraction is ruling the day for the party.
GOPers may be in the minority in the House and Senate, but they have a majority share these days of the hypocrisy that always hangs over DC and nat'l politics.
-- Ensign, we learn today, tried to pay off his mistress and her family to the tune of $96K, and his atty attempted to cast the cash as a sign of the senator's "generosity."
-- In SC, Sanford is digging in after a censure vote earlier this week, and his survival is widely believed to be a result of the party's reluctance to turn the state over to his young, hapless LG -- not a sign of their faith in Sanford's leadership.
-- And Vitter is up for re-election in '10, after years as a punch line for his use of an escort service.
Isn't it time for GOPers to press the "restart" button? To say there's no tolerance in the party of Ronald Reagan, in this era of rising unemployment and economic instability, for those lawmakers whose personal problems are forcing a chronic distraction from the pressing issues of the day.
But let's be frank. There's no one but Rush to make that plea. The GOPers lack not just a Barack Obama; they don't even have a Bill Clinton or a Ted Kennedy. RNC Chair Michael Steele forfeited his influence several missteps ago. And Sens. John McCain and Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) lack the wide public embrace of the hotheaded radio host.
Sure, it's asking a lot for Rush to rail against his own. But he's done it before. When Rush didn't like George W. Bush's immigration reform proposal because he felt it compromised the party's principles, he was a key voice against it. Someone needs to lead the charge now.
And Rush certainly relishes his role in driving the conversation. So why not steer it in an unpredictable direction? Instead of looking the other way, he could use the foibles and failings of these three men to help the party recast itself as responsible and action-oriented, a pitch that could be used in the run up to the '10 midterms.
It might hurt at first, as Sanford would say. But someone needs to push for a clean slate for a party in crisis. And, after all, he could render the left stunned in the process.
(JENNIFER SKALKA)
So sad, but so true. It's your party Rush. Whatcha gonna do with it?
Hey Jennifer,
What Jennifer no comment about Al Franken's
anti Catholic comments? What about Rev Jesse Jackson's adultery or Al Sharpton's? Anti Jewish comments from both of them over the years? Nice reporting, you're the reason why people have lost faith in the press, but again none of you are biased!
Anthony,
Buddy. Friend. Pal. Come on.
Your Senators and Governors are dropping like flies (dropping their flies?), and all you can do is dredge up Jackson and Sharpton? Weak.
Perhaps your party should spend a little less time complaining about "why people have lost faith in the press" and a little more time figuring out why your elected leaders have lost faith in their wives.
Keep up the good work sister Skalka.
The party of Ronald Reagan?
Would that be the Ronald Reagan who had an affair with Jane Wyman while she was still married, and after she divorced her husband to be with him, refused to marry her until she threatened suicide?
That Ronald Reagan?
Rush Limbaugh? You think the answer for the Republican party is for a 3-time divorcee with a taste for young boys and oxycontin to be the voice of responsibility?
Good luck with that. As a Democrat, I heartily endorse your plan.