I was all set to post a defense of Rush Limbaugh’s attempt to purchase the St. Louis Rams. And on that issue alone, I stand by that. After all, this is America. If Rush wants to own a team, it’s his right to put forth an offer or be part of an ownership group. Similarly, Rush has the right to spew from his pulpit as long as there are enough ignorant bigots that want his hate-filled ideology spoon-fed to them.
While ironic, the fact that an unapologetic racist wants to own a team in a sport that’s 70% black fits into Rush’s whole self-loathing pathology. Good for him.
But Jesus Christ, his “woe is me, i’m so oppressed, liberals conspired against me…” sour grapes routine, following being dropped from the ownership group is comically childish.
When he’s not being a culture warrior, Rush extols the virtues of unbridled, free-market capitalism. Of course, he has reaped the benefits of American corporatism and capitalism for years. While despising every fiber of his disgusting being, I don’t begrudge him his success. After all, it’s America…
However, the fact that Dave Checketts dropped Rush from the purchasing group is purely capitalist. Purely American.
A few points first: I don’t think that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Colts owner Jim Irsay needed to go public with their “airing of grievances” regarding the prospects of a Limbaugh ownership group. (Goodell said Limbaugh had made “polarizing” comments and Irsay vowed to vote against him.)
But isn’t this America? If Limbaugh can equate liberals to terrorists and equate the president to Hitler, what’s wrong with these guys (and many players) expressing their reservations about Limbaugh being part of the NFL.
Irsay has a business to protect. If he thinks Rush is bad for the NFL, that means Rush is bad for his team – his business. He should vote against him. And regardless what Rush says, it’s not baseless speculation. If Rush purchased the Bears from the sleep-walking McCaskey family, I would cease to be a Bears fan and subsequently be much less engaged in the NFL. For instance, through Week 5 of the NFL season, I have attended one Bears’ game and watched every minute of the rest on TV. There’s no liberal witch-hunt by the NFL. It’s pure business.
Rush has made millions as a conservative shock-jock. He thrives on
Favre likes you.
polarization. Polarizing forces are not good for the NFL . After all, they already have destructive assholes like Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder. Thus, from a business standpoint, Checketts + co. did the right thing by dropping Limbaugh from their prospective ownership group. As Checketts said:
“It has become clear that his involvement in our group has become a complication and a distraction to our intentions; endangering our bid to keep the team in St. Louis,” Checketts said. “As such, we have decided to move forward without him and hope it will eventually lead us to a successful conclusion.”
Rush’s response:
“This is not about the NFL, it’s not about the St. Louis Rams, it’s not about me,” Limbaugh said. “This is about the ongoing effort by the left in this country, wherever you find them, in the media, the Democrat Party, or wherever, to destroy conservatism, to prevent the mainstreaming of anyone who is prominent as a conservative.
“Therefore, this is about the future of the United States of America and what kind of country we’re going to have.”
What happened to personal responsibility, Rush? Like Falwell and Robertson blaming gays and liberals for 9/11, Limbaugh can’t resist interpreting his rejection as a historic victimization at the hands of evil lefties.
And you really don’t understand why they dropped you?
Just as a point of reference, George Soros, liberal billionaire and boogeyman of many conservative conspiracy-thories, was part of a group that attempted to buy MLB’s Washington Nationals in 2005. I’m sure he was welcomed with open arms by Conservatives. You know – free market and all that shit.
Major League Baseball hasn’t narrowed the list of the eight bidders seeking to buy the Washington Nationals and some Republicans on Capitol Hill already are hinting at revoking the league’s antitrust exemption if billionaire financier George Soros , an ardent critic of President Bush and supporter of liberal causes, buys the team.
“It’s not necessarily smart business sense to have anybody who is so polarizing in the political world,” Rep. John E. Sweeney (R-N.Y.) said. “That goes for anybody, but especially as it relates to Major League Baseball because it’s one of the few businesses that get incredibly special treatment from Congress and the federal government.”
I can’t beliiiieeeve a government official would try to interfere with this. I mean, in America??
This is not about the NFL. This is not about the Rams. It’s not about liberals. It’s about an occasion on which the free market failed Rush Limbaugh. Instead of living with the consequences of his chosen path, profession, and own words, he wants to blame someone else, and go kicking and screaming all the way home until he pops an Oxy, lights a cigar with a hundo, turns on a gay porn, and falls asleep on a bed of cash.
Poor guy.
In a healthy country populated with an intelligent, enlightened citizenry, Rush Limbaugh would today be standing on the bread line – right behind (or perhaps in front of) Sean Hannity, Michael “Savage” Wiener and Ann Coulter. He probably would have ended up as a used car salesman or a clerk in a liquor store. His opinion would not have been taken seriously by anyone except maybe a sympathetic bartender. Some bartenders are pretty good psychologists not to mention being fairly adept at feigning interest in the most boring of topics.
There is a gentleman named Bill Vaughan who used to tend bar at the old Orange Inn Tap Room here in Goshen, New York. Heaven knows how many hours the poor guy spent listening to me waxing inebriate on all matter of subjects from the deplorable state of American politics to the age-old question as to who was the funniest of the two: Stan Laurel or Oliver Hardy? I would imagine that in a perfect society, no one other than a patient, world-weary and kindly mixologist would ever have bothered paying any attention to the opinions expressed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
It seems to me that all the negative vibes this blowhard (Rush Hudson Limbaugh A.KA. Jeff Christie) has been spewing over these many years has come back to blow back on his face (A classic “Blow Back”). He always tries to give off the airs that he can have anything he wants but as we all witness those with more money and more influence tossed him aside like sack of potatoes and the ultimate insult was that it was done in public (money don’t buy you everything butterball).
Now of course he blames everyone else (Michael J. Fox, Perez Hilton, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Sonia Sotomayor, Hillary Clinton, Olympia Snowe, ESPN, NFL, the media, basically people of color, the handicapped, women and gays) when of course all you have to do is listen to his show and plainly hear his daily prejudices filled sermons. So NFL, I salute you decision, job well done. And to the whaling cry baby perched on his self made pedestal, quit your whining it was your own fault. Don’t we all feel better?
Matt C, I read your blogs regularly, and I must say, this is your strongest piece (in my opinion). You leave me in a position where I have to think about how I feel about Rush, America, and business. I’ve always thought Rush was a loud asshole preaching from his bully pulpit, but more power to the people who can stand listening to him while in their cars or at work. This is America and thank God for that. With all the good, the bad, the ugly, the freedom, we’d like to believe the the cream rises to the top, and the NFL showed that what goes around comes around.