RUSH IS RIGHT (BUT WRONG) :

This above all (Balint Vazsonyi, 6/11/02, Washington Times)

In recent days and weeks, Rush's consistency has been getting him some harsh admonishment from callers and correspondents - the reason for this article. People are upset when he agrees with the president (he mustn't), and when he disagrees with the president (again, he mustn't).

The likely reason is that people have lost their footing. With every passing day, it becomes more difficult to countenance the president's wholesale abandonment of Founding principles in the name of election strategy. Should conservatives advocate that the administration do the right thing for America now, or obey Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment? And it is easier to vent one's frustration on a radio talk show host, than on the . Perish the thought.

Even Rush Limbaugh himself does not pretend that he's a particularly smart man. He's an ideologue (a fairly shallow one) and an entertainer (a great one). As such he has every right to tweak the administration and President Bush when he thinks they've strayed off the reservation. If all he did was serve as a mouthpiece for the GOP, his show would suffer for it.

However, there is a price to be paid when the conservative media decides that a president is not "conservative enough" for them. Bill Clinton was elected president in large part because conservatives, and I know and shall never forgive several of them, decided that George Bush's was not a presidency worth saving. Instead they voted for Ross Perot or Clinton (as Bill Safire famously admitted) or just stayed home. That too is a right, but the exercise of that right had consequences and those who "sent a message" to George Bush in 1992 must accept the responsibility for the eight years of Bill Clinton they got in exchange. So what precisely was the point of that message?

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 11, 2002 6:53 PM