{"id":278344,"date":"2010-02-04T19:30:33","date_gmt":"2010-02-05T00:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/?p=65211"},"modified":"2010-02-04T19:30:33","modified_gmt":"2010-02-05T00:30:33","slug":"will-palin-slay-the-limbaugh-dragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/278344","title":{"rendered":"Will Palin Slay the Limbaugh Dragon?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_65214\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 280px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-65214\" title=\"rush-dragon-palin\" src=\"http:\/\/static1.firedoglake.com\/1\/files\/2010\/02\/rush-dragon-palin.jpg\" alt=\"(image: twolf1)\" width=\"270\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(image: twolf1)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Update:<\/strong> And she&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com\/2010\/02\/04\/palin-camp-fires-back-at-washington-post\/?test=latestnews\">backpeddling already<\/a>!  And I have to be wrong about being wrong in record time.<\/p>\n<p>Last year I <a href=\"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/2009\/03\/05\/who-will-slay-the-limbaugh-dragon\/\">wrote a post<\/a> wondering if there was a Republican with the guts to take Rush Limbaugh on.  Looks like Sarah Palin &#8212; to her credit &#8212; has decided to try.  <a href=\"http:\/\/theplumline.whorunsgov.com\/political-media\/palin-camp-rips-limbaugh-hits-his-retard-comment-as-crude-and-demeaning\/\">Greg Sargent<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div class='wbq'>\n<p>In the wake of Palin\u2019s demand that Rahm Emanuel be fired for calling a bunch of liberal activists \u201cf\u2013king retards,\u201d a bunch of people have asked how she will react to Limbaugh\u2019s tirade on the air yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur political correct society is acting like some giant insult\u2019s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards,\u201d Rush said, adding that Rahm\u2019s meeting yesterday with advocates for the mentally handicapped was a \u201cretard summit at the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I asked Palin spokesperson Meghan Stapleton for comment on Rush\u2019s rant, and she emailed me this:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGovernor Palin believes crude and demeaning name calling at the expense of others is disrespectful.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Well, good for her.  If she&#8217;s going to go after Rahm Emanuel for using the word &#8220;re**arded,* Limbaugh deserves the same treatment.<\/p>\n<p>The bigger question, though, is how Limbaugh will react &#8212; and what Palin will do in the wake of it.  As Timothy Egan wrote last year in <a href=\"http:\/\/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com\/2009\/03\/04\/fears-of-a-clown\/?hp\">the New York Times<\/a>, polling has found that Limbaugh is deeply unpopular, and &#8220;a self-described prescription-drug addict who sees America from a private jet&#8221; is hardly the populist image a party wants to project when they&#8217;re trying to ride a wave of populist discontent.<span id=\"more-65211\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Last year I didn&#8217;t think Palin would stand up to Rush, however, so I have to admit I was wrong:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div class='wbq'>\n<p>[S]omeone in the GOP could make a name for themselves taking on Rush, but it would have to be the right person. Newt may think it\u2019s him, but his negatives are probably as high as Rush\u2019s, and they\u2019d just drag the whole thing further into the mud. Jim Baker may have the gravitas, but he has operated in the background for so long he\u2019s not really a household word. My top pick was Orrin Hatch, whose social conservative credentials are good, but so far he has shown <a href=\"http:\/\/www.surveyusa.com\/client\/PollReport.aspx?g=d5d4173a-359e-422e-a60e-0bf2ca957c84\">no appetite for the task<\/a>. Palin, like Jindal, Pawlenty and Cantor, is too much of a lightweight. The only reason anyone listens to them is because nobody\u2019s listening to Boehner, so <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2009\/03\/04\/AR2009030402895.html?hpid=opinionsbox1\">his bellyaching<\/a> is useless.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Does Palin have the guts to follow through, though?  Or is this just a prelude to a Mike Pence moment, when she is forced to kneel and kiss the cyst like so many before her?<\/p>\n<p>Fifty bucks that says Limbaugh has Levi on within the week. Which could lead to the most perversely strange bedfellowing of all time:  Rush Limbaugh and <a href=\"http:\/\/andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com\/the_daily_dish\/2010\/02\/palin-emanuel-pot-kettle.html\">Andrew Sullivan<\/a>, imploring Levi to &#8220;tell it all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Oh, what Rahm hath wrought.<\/p>\n<p class=\"akst_link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/fdlaction.firedoglake.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/share-this\/share-icon-16x16.gif\" alt=\"Share This icon\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/?p=65211&amp;akst_action=share-this\"  title=\"Email, post to del.icio.us, etc.\" id=\"akst_link_65211\" class=\"akst_share_link\" rel=\"noindex nofollow\">&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(image: twolf1) Update: And she&#8217;s backpeddling already! And I have to be wrong about being wrong in record time. Last year I wrote a post wondering if there was a Republican with the guts to take Rush Limbaugh on. Looks like Sarah Palin &#8212; to her credit &#8212; has decided to try. Greg Sargent: In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}