Wingnut Lovefest
by digby
Earlier today:
RUSH: I have to tell you, I’ve had so many people… I’ve been off the past couple of days, but, while this has been going on, I’ve had so many people e-mail me so uplifted by what you did in the last 21 hours and what you did leading up to it. So many people are so happy that there finally is some leadership. They’re so happy that, finally, somebody is doing in Washington what they were elected to do, what they said they were going to do. And I just wanted to say, before we started: I’m sure you’re hearing much the same thing, but I wanted you to know that, while you’re getting all these arrows as pioneers do, there’s a lot of appreciation and a lot of love for what you’re doing out there.
CRUZ: Well, Rush, thank you so much. Thank you for that encouragement, and thank you for your leadership. You know, I really hope that over the course of this week we’ll see more and more Republicans step forward. We had quite a few Republicans come down to the floor and support the effort, and I hope we’ll see as many Republicans as possible, and even some Democrats, come together and listen to the American people. As you know… Every week, you talk to 20 million Americans. You know where the American people are on this, and it’s not a close call. Obamacare isn’t working and millions of Americans are hurting, and if the Senate just listened to the American people, we’ll do the right thing and we’ll vote to defund it.
He had some choice words for the media:
CRUZ: And, listen, what I tried to spend much of the filibuster all but begging the media to do… In fact, I explicitly said, “Listen. All right, you guys can’t resist writing something about the process, something about that silliness. But let me just ask you: 50% of what you write, discuss the substance of how Obamacare is the number one job killer in the country, how millions of Americans are suffering, how it’s forcing people into part-time work, how it’s threatening millions of Americans’ health insurance.
“Just write a little about the substance,” and the strategy on the other side is really twofold. Number one: Confuse the voters. Confuse the voters with procedural obfuscation, with complexity, so that they don’t understand what’s going on. And number two: Make it all about personalities. And, listen, others can engage in that game, Rush. I have no intention of defending myself or of reciprocating. It’s not about anybody. It’s not about us. It is about listening to the American people and stopping this disaster, this nightmare, this train wreck that is Obamacare.
I’m sure that in Republican bizarroworld they are reporting that. On planet earth, none of that is actually happening.
Man this guy is scary to me. I think he might really believes this stuff. And all the poor schmucks who listen to Rush probably believe it too.
Rush knows better, of course. He says his business isn’t politics, which is really funny. But he knows what Cruz is doing and he’s decided to help him:
RUSH: Senator, most of your colleagues said exactly what you’ve said in the last 21 hours, and the last two weeks, and the last year, most of your colleagues said years ago what you said. At the moment of truth, they’re not to be found. They’ve sought solace somewhere else. I look at what you’re doing — forgive me for characterizing it — I look at what you’re doing as simply doing what you were elected to do as you said, but you’re also drawing a line. At some point we’ve got to say we’re not gonna allow this kind of freedom to be lost in this country. I think this is what this is about. What Obamacare substantively is is what you’re about.
What Cruz is doing is building a grassroots donor base. If he can pick up a few looney tunes billionaires like Adelson or a Foster Friess he could make a good run at it. I don’t think he can win, but it’s never a good idea to allow anyone this extreme anywhere near real power.
Update: Are Rabin-Havt at Media Matters makes the case that Rush, Hannity and Cruz are on their way out. Could be …
.