Newt Gingrich Slams Fail-Mongers Like Rush Limbaugh

On Meet the Press Sunday, former House Speaker and Republican elder statesman Newt Gingrich repudiated Rush Limbaugh's "message of hope" that Barack Obama fails.




Despite the right's whistling past the Limbaugh graveyard, it seems that Gingrich sees the handwriting on the wall. No matter what real or imagined effect the fail-mongering has on Limbaugh's ratings, tying the GOP to the conservative provocateur is a bad PR move.

It will be interesting to see what happens next. Will Newt Gingrich be the next Republican to apologize to Rush, and will he use the Democrats' handy Rush apology generator? I doubt it.

Will this mark the start of a rush of Republicans backing away from Rush? Again, not likely. They haven't shown the requisite sac to do so yet.

I predict that Rush will agree with Gingrich, and try to say that that's what he's been saying all along. This is Limbaugh's game. He shouts the attention-whoring "I hope Obama fails!" part of the quote, then backs away from it in a whisper. Think of the kid in your 5th grade class who would yell "The teacher is a homo!" then impishly follow up with, "a homo sapien!"

For the record,Rush specifically named "nationalized health care" in his initial "Fail" volley, by which I can only assume he means universal health care (Obama is opposed to single payer.) He also told Sean Hannity, in that same interview, that people are only hoping Obama succeeds because he's black. That's the steak to the "I hope he fails" sizzle.

If that's the "nuance" on which Limbaugh wants to hang his hat, I'm happy to let him do it. Most Americans favor some form of universal health care, and even more of them are unlikely to think of our President in the same terms that got Limbaugh ousted from ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown.

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