Free In Idaho!

I do so enjoy when Bill Whittle gets one going.  And he has definitely got one going here… you almost want to hear that announcer voice say “Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear as we find our hero”, calling out and trashing one of the more lettered kooks you’ll run into.

We can no longer afford to let this anti-American garbage pass unchallenged. As a kind and secure people, we tend to let a lot of this go under the bridge, but this kind of crap gets more and more traction, and those days I think must come to an end for a while.

Now normally I do not employ personal ridicule, but I was writing in the heat of the moment and I thought it was no less than such a puerile attempt deserved. These people need to be challenged, factually defeated, thrashed, and mocked.

There was a time when common sense was prevalent enough that arguments this absurd would be laughed at on the street. I mean to return to those times, one self-righteous idiot at a time.

An excellent piece, as Whittle’s usually are.  Go, Read, Laugh, Enjoy.

I don’t know if you had the opportunity to listen to Rush yesterday, but if you missed it you missed one of his excellent, impromptu expositions of patriotic conservatism that he does so well.  And yes, it came in the midst of his discussion about Huckabee’s attack on him.  In case you missed that as well, the Huckabee campaign made the mistake of putting Mr Limbaugh down as a Beltway-New York City elitist, and making some comments about conservatism that were completely off the wall.  Now, Huckabee is no conservative, despite some of the 2nd Amendment things he’s said that have some folks excited.  But being a Christian and good on guns is nowhere near enough to be considered “conservative”, nor is it enough to grant you the title “Republican nominee for President of the United States”, and that is, after all, what we’re aiming at here.  For Huckabee to take after Rush in the manner that he did, almost makes this a Howard Dean moment.  Stick a fork in him…

Other blogs have already started working through the escalating verbal battle, and of course, Limbaugh’s own website has much of the actual transcript posted.  But what struck me yesterday was this bit about conservatism, and I think it bears highlighting, because we need to hear it again and again

As you know, I’m a conservative, and I make no excuses for it!  I do not try to hide it.  There is not one thing about conservatism that embarrasses me.  I do not apologize for it.  In fact, I celebrate it.  I try to promote it, and I believe that individual liberty, national security, homeland security — which would include secure borders — faith, respect for the sanctity of life, the rule of law; I think these are fundamental conservative principles.  Belief in the individual to triumph over the odds in life.  I didn’t invent these principles.  They have been learned over time. 

They’re based on human experience. The Declaration of Independence is our founding document, and it makes clear that we as human beings have certain unalienable rights that have been given to us not by man, not by any government, but by God — and within this context, the Constitution sets forth both the powers and the limits of the federal government, the purpose of which is to secure and advance our God-given rights, not to diminish them.  This is where I’m coming from and where most of you are coming from in this audience, and we want a candidate for president — and ultimately a president — who shares these fundamental understandings.  So when I raise questions about public reports regarding a candidate’s record or position, I’m comparing the record and position with our founding and conservative principles and my own beliefs.

It’s good to be reminded of that, because this primary has seen a tremendous number of people who are willing to toss their core principles overboard in order to play for the win.  The “anybody but Hillary” mentality has so polluted the campaign on the GOP side that we have candidates out there running more on their so-called electability than they are on principle.  We laugh at Hillary’s Christmas commercial, and the crass way she goes about promising program after program in order to buy her votes. But at least she is trying to run on her vision and plan for America, based on her core belifs. She’s not afraid to be a socialist. But we don’t have Republicans expressing conservative ideals or presenting a future vision for the country based on those ideals. Instead, we have big talk show hosts on the air daily, flopping on their backs for candidates who are truly weak on basic conservative principles (Hannity).  French kissing RPaul because you agree with him on a point (Beck)?  Give me a break! But Rush has been different, and I believe we need to be reminded of what’s at stake here

..So when I raise questions about public reports regarding a candidate’s record or position, I’m comparing the record and position with our founding and conservative principles and my own beliefs. It is not personal.  When I talk about Huckabee’s illegal alien position, tax increases, the release of hundreds of criminals, the rhetoric about our war effort, it isn’t personal. 
 
 
BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Again, when I raise questions about public reports regarding any candidate’s record or position, what I am doing is comparing the record and position with our founding conservative principles.  I am a conservative first. I am not a Republican first. It matters. [ed:my emphasis]  When I raise questions about, say, about Governor Huckabee’s positions on illegal aliens, tax increases, the release of hundreds of criminals via pardon and his rhetoric about our war effort, sorry, I’m trying to develop an understanding of the guy so I can determine for myself whether he is in fact the kind of conservative you and me want as our president.  I’ve not “attacked” him.  I have studiously avoided it.  But I’ve raised questions — and, of course, in this climate, questions will be considered an attack, but I’m going to keep asking the questions if I believe it’s warranted to do so. 

And when you see answers to those questions, and the candidate comes up lacking, as Huckabee has (and as most of the others have to one degree or another), you need to be willing to say “this guy isn’t the right man for the job.”

There are no perfect candidates.  But conservative principles matter.  How far from yours are you willing to stray?