Rush Limbaugh, pushing Operation Chaos, says indictment would take Obama down too

Commentary by Kay B. Day

Is there anything as zany as this presidential election? Rush Limbaugh is coming under fire on the nuclear level for encouraging voters—even Republicans—to pick Sen. Hillary Clinton in upcoming Democratic primaries such as Pennsylvania’s on April 22. According to his website, Limbaugh views this move and others, dubbed ‘Operation Chaos,’ as justifiable politics. The talk radio titan says Democratic strategist Bob Bechel is coming up with plans to jinx OC. That’s a little iffy. Bechel loves to repeatedly claim credit for coming up with the idea of superdelegates. I don’t know if I’d be all proud about that big idea. Limbaugh figures the DNC deserves chaos because the media has given one DNC candidate a free ride.

I think Limbaugh’s having a field day with this. He’s getting record amounts of ink, sound bites and pixels with his latest anti-Democratic Party hijinks, and he’s got OC merchandise for sale on his website. There's a transcript on Limbaugh's website. In response to rumors of a lawsuit against him for encouraging Republicans to vote for a Democratic candidate, Limbaugh told one caller, “Well, then, if I am indicted, Obama’s going down with me.” The caller reported a piece of campaign literature, saying, “I have a door handle flier here that I picked up off the sidewalk near my friend's apartment, which says right on it, Republicans and independents can vote in the Democratic primary."

I’m fairly certain the U.S. constitution would prohibit any political party mandating any voter which candidate to pick. Somebody might want to tell DNC chair Howard Dean that. It'd be great really if he'd just read the constitution.

Meanwhile, back on the funny farm also known as American politics, rest assured this race will continue to heat up. If I were Sen. Clinton, I’d be glad for any assistance Limbaugh offers. Because the only candidate the media is fawning over and sparing any criticism whatsoever is Sen. Barack Obama. Clinton's had more than her share of negative ink, including a recap of Monica Lewinsky's blue dress with ABC and other mainstream outlets giving us far more information about that dress than we need to remember. Obama's certainly got Chris Matthews steamed up. Matthews might want to take a look at the voting records of all three candidates before he completely falls off his rocker.

Sen. John McCain isn’t paying any of this much attention as far as I can tell. There was a cover story about McCain in The Florida Times-Union on Sunday. Matt Soergel did the beautifully written story about men who were imprisoned in a Vietnam POW camp with McCain. As the definitive Republican nominee, McCain can be grateful he’s being spared the negativity flying between the DNC candidates right now. And he can rest assured that whoever he faces in November, it will be a zany, challenging fight. Read Soergel’s article.

McCain will be tougher than Dean and company envision.



Question: Which candidate received more favorable and less negative coverage than others in early campaign coverage? Check out the research at the Committee of Concerned Journalists website.



[Presidential Candidates, Operation Chaos, Election Coverage, US Presidential Election ]

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