The One Thing Absolutely No One Wants: "More Civilized Public Discourse"

The Rush Limbaugh Controversy rages on and on and on. If you've lived under a rock for the last few weeks, Limbaugh called Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a slut, among other things.  See my previous blog post if you'd like more information.


Right now the Progressives and Liberals seem to have the upper hand.  The brilliantly orchestrated advertiser boycott is working and at least 13 advertisers and two radio stations have jumped off the Limbaugh ship.  Limbaugh has been forced to apologize.  And while the conservative loyalists are attempting to bail water, the progressives have hit Limbaugh with a broadside torpedo.


Again and again and again and again we heard President Obama, Limbaugh's departing advertisers, Democratic Party operatives and pundits,television hosts and even comics all exclaim, "All that we want is a more civilized public discourse!"


This is, of course, pure unadulterated BULLSHIT!  No a single one of them wants "more civilized discourse." They just want to cower their opponents and, if possible, silence them.  They would be pleased if their opponents were civil, as long as their allies were as vile, hateful and uncivil as ever.


My PROOF?  I dare you to find a single person, advertiser, corporate entity, pundit, commentator or comic that is condemning the hate speech coming from his or her side of the aisle.  Find me one that condemns both sides equally.  Don't worry, you're not going to find one, because their isn't one!


Today, in another of this episode's most bizarre moments, President Obama inserted his two daughters into his attack on Rush Limbaugh.  Below are the quotes from The Hill Briefing Room story this afternoon:

President Obama said he called Sandra Fluke, the college student at the center of the latest Rush Limbaugh controversy, after thinking about how his own daughters would have handled the criticism.

“I thought about Malia and Sasha,” Obama said Tuesday at a news conference. “And one of the things I want them … to be able to do is speak their minds in a civil and thoughtful way, and I don’t want them attacked or called horrible names when they’re being good citizens.

I want to tread lightly here and carefully respect both Malia and Sasha.  But the President's comments raise a serious question.  Is it possible that while he wouldn't want Limbaugh to his beautiful daughters "sluts," it would be perfectly OK if Bill Maher called them "T***s" or "C***s?"  I only make this assumption because President Obama has yet to even mention these misogynistic slurs from his million dollar campaign donor.  Limbaugh's slurs were mild compared to Maher's.

But certainly President Obama isn't alone is his one sided outrage.  David Friend, CEO of Carbonite(r) actually set the stage for President Obama when he, too, invoked his two daughters as a reason he cancelled advertising of the Rush Limbaugh Show.  Here is his statement (from an interesting essay on this issue on Red State):


"No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. Mr. Limbaugh, with his highly personal attacks on Miss Fluke, overstepped any reasonable bounds of decency. Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show. We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse."


Gosh! And look. Friend used the patented "more civilized public discourse" excuse, too!  Wow! He's covered all the bases!


Except for the base called "truth." Friend missed that one.  For many years Friend has made heavy political donations for President Obama's election and re-election campaigns.  Curiously he was and remains a heavy advertiser of the Ed Schultz Show.  Schultz, if you remember, was suspended by MSNBC and forced to apologize for calling Laura Ingram a "slut," the exact term Limbaugh used to refer to Fluke.  Friend, exactly like everyone else, is only offended when his political opponents use vile speech.  He's super cool OK when his allies use the identical speech.


This works on both sides of the aisle.  No one in politics has been the subject of more hate speech than Michelle Bachmann.  Amazingly Bachmann appeared on MSNBC this morning and was grilled relentlessly as to why she won't condemn Limbaugh's hate speech.  Bachmann correctly pointed out that no one had ever been the victim of more hate speech than she has, BUT, she still refused to condemn Limbaugh.   The MSNBC announcer certainly never apologized for the hate spewed from her network associates, either.  STALEMATE.


Here's where I stand. Either it's wrong 100% of the time or it's not.  I don't like today's hate speech, but I've never said speech should be censored.  I'm from the school that says you can and should argue the points, but I don't think you should ever silence the critics.


In other words, I don't need the pig to get out of the mud, but I feel no need to climb in there with him.