Right-wing Melt-down

Wow. Since Super Tuesday I’ve been listening to right wing talk radio. Something important is happening on the extreme Right. The talk radio hate mongers, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and others, are rabidly attacking McCain, and apparently are also rapidly loosing their relevance to their right-wing listeners. You’ve probably heard that Anne Coulter has said she would campaign for Hillary before she would vote for McCain. Well, she meant it – here’s a link to the video of her comments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuTqgqhxVMc .

Their issues with McCain are as follows:

• Rush: “He wants amnesty for illegal immigrants.” (McCain/Kennedy Act)
• Rush: “He’s for putting limits on free speech.” (McCain/Feingold campaign finance reform)
• Hannity: “He won’t abolish the ‘death tax’.”
• Hannity: “He says he’s pro-life, but said he wouldn’t repeal Roe vs. Wade”. Rush: “Pro choicers are voting for McCain - That’s who independents really are!”.
• Hannity: “He didn’t support the Bush tax cuts, and has used class warfare language about ‘benefiting the rich.’”
• Coulter: “He opposed drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve.” Coulter was outraged that he posed with Governor Schwarzenegger at a solar energy plant “of all things!” “I mean why didn’t they pose in front of an abortion clinic?!”
• Coulter: “He opposes torture at Guantanamo.” Coulter is happy to call it torture, by the way, and supports it. “We’re supposed to worry about putting a little water up a terrorist’s nose?”
• Hannity: “He’s bad for Republicanism.” Rush: “We’ve watered down the party. “ Rush: “The party leaders have betrayed the conservatives.”
• Coulter : “Hillary would be stronger on the war on terrorism.”

Given that McCain has picked up the lion’s share of the votes of their conservative listeners, it appears that very few are heeding these warnings.

My first thought was that this was a plot to make McCain more palatable to independents by distancing him from the far Right. But this stuff is too savage for that. They will only further suppress the conservative vote. They don’t want anybody to vote for McCain, even if it means ruining the Republican Party for 30 years to come. Rush said specifically that today. And today Mitt Romny dropped out of the race. So it’s McCain. Assuming McCain loses the general election to Clinton or Obama (NOT a safe assumption) we just might be witnessing the demise of the “neoconservative” movement.

DeadElephants! Long may they stay that way.

-Jeff