From Dana Point, California
The Republican Governors' Association
Mullings for November 1, 2002 was titled: "Who Will They Blame?" in which we explored who was most likely to take the hit for the coming Democratic electoral defeats.
I have to admit. Rush Limbaugh was not on my list.
This should have been the headline in yesterday morning's papers:
DASCHLE BLAMES LOSSES ON LIMBAUGH:
O'Reilly Threatens to Sue.
It was one of the most amazing public meltdowns since Richard Nixon drove into a mental ditch off the Pacific Coast Highway and began talking about his mother during his final speech to the White House staff.
Here was Senate Majority-Leader-For-The-Rest-Of-The-Week, Tom Daschle, sitting at the head of his conference table - the exact place where he holds nearly daily meetings with the press corps - saying that Rush Limbaugh was the reason the Democrats had such a bad hangover a couple of Wednesdays ago.
Daschle said that Conservative talk radio programs come very close to inciting people to violence:
"What happens when Rush Limbaugh attacks those of us in public life is that people aren't satisfied just to listen. They want to act because they get emotionally invested. And so, you know, the threats to those of us in public life go up dramatically, on our families and on us, in a way that's very disconcerting."
First of all, Daschle has one of the greatest soapboxes in the world: The floor of the United States Senate.
Remember when Daschle delivered that dramatic ADDRESS (not a speech, an ADDRESS) on the economy last winter? It got great coverage.
Remember when Daschle demanded an apology from President Bush for a statement that Bush never made in the first place? He made that demand from the Senate floor. Of course, he was wearing a pink tie, which sopped up at least some of the energy, but I'm betting Rush didn't send him that tie for Christmas, and Daschle wore it on his own.
And he had his daily solo press briefings. If he said anything newsworthy, it got covered.
There are dozens of examples of Tom Daschle attempting - as we have stated here before - to don the Democratic Mantle of Leadership only to have it slip, time and time again, from his scrawny shoulders.
Second, why don't we play a game of Let's Compare. Let's Compare the tone of ANY of Rush Limbaugh's programs with the tone and rhetoric of ANY of the following:
James Carville
Paul Begala
Al Gore
Terry McAuliffe
Maureen Dowd
Barbra Streisand
Hillary Rodham Clinton Rodham
The Nobel Peace Prize Selection Committee
All of the Baldwins
Third, the only person to take this defeat like a man - well, not counting Nancy Pelosi - was Dick Gephardt. He gracefully bowed out of the leadership and handed over the reins - but not the reigns - to Pelosi.
Terry McAuliffe has been in denial about what happened. In fact, McAuliffe hasn't been heard from for more than a week now so he may actually be IN da Nile, for all we know.
Rush Limbaugh exists because millions of people like what he says and the way he says it. But he doesn't have his audience by right. He can't keep his audience by force. He can't demand that people listen to him, much less return day after day.
And there is a reason that the Fox Newschannel prime time programs are cleaning MSNBC's left-wing clock: The times have changed. The public has become more sophisticated. The old Liberals-smart/Conservatives-dumb line of argument doesn't work any more.
We all remember the line from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "The Fault, dear Brutus, is not in our [broadcasting] stars, but in ourselves."
Here's the phrase which precedes it: "Men, at some time, are masters of their fates."
It is a phrase which Mr. Daschle would do well to have tattooed on the inside of his eyelids.
On the Secret Decoder Ring today: Why it was Rush's fault there was no Secret Decoder Ring on Wednesday; a quick explanation of the Nixon thing; another death-defying Mullfoto; and a pretty good Catchy Caption of the Day
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