Chastizing Rush

Well with Romney backing out of the race, it looks like the Republican Nominee is going to be John McCain. And, as you well know, Limbaugh, Hannity, and others have been very critical of McCain, to the point of calling him a liberal and suggesting that voting for him is a wasted vote. Well today these talk show hosts are chastised by Rich Galen over at Townhall.

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and the others are doing the work of the New York Times and the rest of the popular press by railing against McCain all day, every day.

It appears on the surface that their goal is to make Conservatives stay home next November 4 and hand the White House to Hillary or Barack.

But the reality is they are doing it because it means good ratings. When their listeners get tired of hearing them beat up on McCain, they'll switch to something else.

Certainly I wouldn't mind if Conservatives stayed home on November 4th, but I don't think that is their goal. It is more the latter combined with the theory that if they beat up McCain they can get a pledge from him to be more Conservative.

I don't think Rush is likely to change his mind - reading him, you get the idea he sees this as a fight for the soul of the Republican Party.

This to me is the big point. The failure of establishment Republicans -- whether they be members of Congress, Washington, or New York editorial writers, even some talk show hosts who live and work and socialize in that community, the failure of these people -- to uphold the principles of conservatism during the last decade or more has resulted in the mess that they now complain about. George Neumayr, writing today a column -- he used to be the editor of the American Spectator -- makes a great point. He said, "Once the Republican Party decided..." This was largely due to abortion, by the way. "Once the Republican Party decided to be a big-tent party, its days were numbered; its identity forever changed," because the definition of "big tent" was to bring in people who normally would not be in the tent, . . .

So from Rush's perspective, this isn't a fight he can afford to shy away from.

I also note this ominous line later in his comments.

Because I'm going to tell you something, folks: what's happening in our party today is not only do the establishment Republicans want amnesty for illegal immigrants, they want amnesty for Democrats.

Why exactly do Democrats need Amnesty?