Rush Limbaugh takes on ... the Republicans?

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Rush Limbaugh rails against Bill Kristol in this image taken from Limbaugh's site.

Featured Topic | Posted 43 weeks 3 days ago

Rush Limbaugh takes on ... the Republicans?

One of the loudest voices against the presidential candidacies of John McCain and Mike Huckabee is one of the loudest voices anywhere. Rush Limbaugh has spent recent days criticizing the two Republicans and complaining that they're not real conservatives -- much to the ire of conservative pundits like Bill Kristol, David Brooks and Michael Medved.

Who will go down first -- talk radio or the conservative establishment? And what does that mean for the GOP coalition?

Ben likes: South Carolina's big loser was talk radio

Michael Medved/Townhall.com

For more than a month, the leading conservative talkers in the country have broadcast identical messages in an effort to demonize Mike Huckabee and John McCain. If you’ve tuned in at all to Rush, Sean, Savage, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, and two dozen others you’ve heard a consistent drum beat of hostility toward Mac and Huck. They've insisted that McCain and Huckabee deserve no support because they’re not “real conservatives.”

Well, the two alleged “liberals,” McCain and Huckabee swept a total of 63% of the Republican vote in deeply conservative South Carolina. Meanwhile, the two darlings of talk radio — Mitt Romney and, to a lesser extent, Fred Thompson — combined for an anemic 31% of the vote.

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Kevin Sullivan/Independent Liberal

I find the war over John McCain’s conservatism very fascinating. Here you have a guy with a consistently conservative record who wants to kill bad guys, balance the budget and cut wasteful spending, yet he’s dog meat to many among the conservative intelligentsia. He has taken an independent position on issues he holds dear, such as campaign finance and the environment. But when did conservation and good government become unconservative?

If you listen to Rush Limbaugh, you’ll learn that it isn’t about one or two issues. For them, it’s “ideological” with John McCain. The instances where McCain has bucked the party line seem less consequential. This isn’t about conservatism, it’s about discipline.