Super Tuesday’s Biggest Loser: Rush Limbaugh

Posted by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review at 6:47 AM on February 6, 2008.

The truly most divisive figure in the 2008 race is not Hillary Clinton, it's John McCain. His ascendancy has ripped the Republican Party asunder -- and his most vicious and vocal conservative opponents include the loudest mouths in America: Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and, especially, Rush Limbaugh.

They don't like McCain because he is a leftwing Republican who advocates policies on campaign reform, illegal immigration, taxes and other policies they find to be insufficiently doctrinaire. The fact that he has promised to continue George Bush's occupation of Iraq for another century is not good enough for them.

On Monday, Limbaugh told his followers that McCain's true mission was to destroy the Republican Party:

"He's going to reach out to Democrats in Congress," Limbaugh said, citing "McCain-Kennedy" and "McCain-Feingold" as examples of McCain-sponsored bipartisan legislation. "This is how he's going to get even with Republicans for defeating him in South Carolina in 2000," Limbaugh said. "The Republican Congress will effectively be neutered."

And:

"It was just six months ago that if a candidate was endorsed by the liberal media we were instantly suspicious of them," Limbaugh said. Now he said, "we've got drive-by media organizations having orgasms about McCain."

And -- despite the fact McCain has a solid record of voting to cede women's control of their reproductive organs to government bureaucrats:

"It's pro-choicers who are voting for McCain. That's who liberals are!" Limbaugh said.

And then there was the amazing spectacle of Ann Coulter saying she would vote for Hillary Clinton if McCain were to become the GOP nominee. (Someone should get her a Clinton 2008 yard sign and bumpersticker, post haste.)

After McCain won the Florida GOP primary last week, Limbaugh and the others went into overdrive to get word down to their followers to vote for Mitt Romney, who, they say, is the "true" conservative. (Who cares if he held positions far to the left of Mccain just three years ago.) Secondly, the Limbaugh cabal also warned their listeners that a "vote for Mike Huckabee was a vote for McCain" -- their logic being that since Huckabee doesn't have a chance, votes for him will eventually accrue to McCain.

Well, the votes are in, and, there's no way other way to say: Limbaugh lost big time:

Sen. John McCain cemented his Republican front-runner status Tuesday, piling up big wins coast-to- coast, according to CNN projections...

McCain capped the night by taking California and all its 170 delegates ...

McCain also won Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Delaware and Arizona, his home state, according to CNN projections.

McCain has gathered 514 delegates so far in his presidential campaign, including Tuesday night's projections. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has 177 delegates, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has 122.

Early in the evening, the pundits were laying odds that if Romney lost California, he would quit the race. After word came around 9:15 p.m. that McCain had trounced him here (McCain 42.2 percent, Romney 33.3 percent, Huckabee 11.5 percent), Chris Matthews and Tom Brokaw were on the set talking about Mitt in somber tones like the guy had just died. No word yet today when Mitt will pull the plug, but it appears to be a matter of time.

As has been stated here before, it is too early to write the obituaries for the conservative movement, but the results from the Feb. 5, 2008, primary do provide evidence that these Reagan era dinosaurs are losing their sway among their own kind.

Tagged as: coulter, mccain, hannity, limabugh, conservat

Jon Ponder is regular blogger for the Pensito Review