Thanks to my mother-in-law, commenter VinceP1974 and @JenFidel via Twitter for alerting me to the fact that Rush Limbaugh highlighted this blog post of mine about Colin Powell and Tom Ridge on his nationally-syndicated programme yesterday.
With an estimated 13.5 million listeners a week, Limbaugh is the
most popular talk radio host in America. Here's what he said, according
to the transcript on his site:
RUSH: Interesting piece - it's a blog -
by Toby Harnden at the UK Telegraph. The headline of his piece here:
"What Right Do Colin Powell and Tom Ridge Have to Lecture the
Republican Party?" Now, these are the questions of a British blogger
who reports out of the United States. He writes this: "Why does
Powell now seem to think he has the right or credibility to lecture
Republicans on how their party should be run?" He voted for Obama, and
he did so very publicly. He saved his endorsement of Obama at a very
propitious strategic moment and did so in public after the Republican
Party had nominated a candidate supposedly ideal to somebody like
General Powell. That would be John McCain. "So why does Powell now
seem to think he has the right or credibility to lecture Republicans on
how their party should be run? Just as he did not just go quietly into
the polling booth and vote for Obama, Powell is not working discreetly
behind the behind the scenes at party gatherings to press his case,"
which is what I just said.
Where are his policy
prescriptions? Where does he stand? What is he doing to organize the
Republican Party, if he's now the leader of it, in opposition to this
radical extremism that is being presented to the country from the
Democrat Party? Now, Mr. Harnden writes, "It's easy to feel some
sympathy for Powell. He was clearly marginalised during the Bush
administration." You know, I really think there are three reasons to
explain Colin Powell. One of them is race. I mean, there's no way he
wasn't gonna support Obama, coming out and doing so publicly. Also
he's angry at Bush and the Scooter Libby thing proves that. But I
think the third element that explains Colin Powell, he went up and, you
know, he was the point man at the United Nations with the slide show
and the official presentation on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction,
and even though we haven't found any, a lot of people believe they were
there, Colin Powell no doubt feels profoundly humiliated and
embarrassed with the people he cares about most, the Washington, DC
political elites.
I think he's on a rehab tour to get his
reputation back, and it's working. The rest of the DC establishment
hates Bush, so it's an easy call, come out and oppose Bush, come out
and oppose the Republican Party. We've all known that the way a
Republican ingratiates him or herself in the DC political structure is
to go on any television show in DC you can find and rip your own party,
and maybe take it a step further: endorse the other guy. In fact, if
the other guy happens to share race with you makes it even easier. So
there's a lot of rehab going on here, but Toby Harnden is right. What
right does Powell and Tom Ridge have to lecture the Republican Party,
especially when they don't put forth any particular position on
issues?
Original Source: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/05/27/rush_limbaugh_toby_harnden_is_right
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