Is Rush the new leader of the GOP?

Posted: Monday, March 02, 2009 5:07 PM by Cathy Finkler

By Chris Matthews

Suddenly the man on the radio is the next voice you hear, the Oracle waiting in your car, waiting for noon eastern to tell you what's happening, who the bad guys are, what matters in the fight. Rush Limbaugh says it's about money - about the rich betting punished with higher taxes, the poor benefitting from the Great Society, Wall Street getting unfairly blamed for it all. That's what he's selling: the old time religion of capitalism.

RUSH LIMBAUGH AT CPAC CONFERENCE: So what is so strange about being honest to say that I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation?

The White House is more than happy to treat Rush as the leader of the opposition, based on the reception his speech got at the Conservative Political Action Conference this weekend. President Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs commented on this issue Monday afternoon.

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Watching cable clips over the weekend it seemed to me that there were a lot of people in that room who agreed with him.

So is Rush the de facto leader of the Republican Party? It's what Rush wants, what some on the right seem to accept. It's what the Obama people want. Is it what the Republican voters really want?

Watch a Hardball debate between MSNBC's Pat Buchanan and radio host Michael Smerconish about Rush Limbaugh and the Republican Party.

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Comments

As a lifelong Republican I find it frighteneing that Rush (blowhard) Limbaugh is even being thought of as de facto leader of the Republican party. In my opinion his ideas range from idiotic to to stark raving mad. Most of the time he makes Adolf Hitler look like an open minded liberal.

What is of even more concern to me is that according to Mr Limbaugh tens of millions of republicans and conservatives think like him. If this is indeed true I may have to start giving my full support to the Democratic party or perhaps move to Sicily.

Thanks Chris for your fine work.

David J. Browning

David Browning, Savannah, Ga. (Sent Monday, March 02, 2009 7:26 PM)

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