I think a big part of what is going on here is the party establishment has a real problem with the regressive base.
They are divided, not easily unifying like they have in the past, demanding more after seating a lot of reps in the House. This has made things difficult as even solid Republican positions offered by the Dems, and Obama in particular to the annoyance of the progressives, are simply not enough.
I like to refer to these people, who consider Limbaugh a solid authority, Repuglicans, as opposed to the more moderate members of the party. Moderate, in this context is still pretty hard core, but the extremes we've seen this cycle are damn aggressive compared to past ones. Ugly.
Limbaugh, and to a lesser extent, his talk peers, have been whipping those people up and the optics on that aren't good.
Risks are high too. SCOTUS is on the line, and I've personally kept that as a focus as the next two picks will solidify a lot of things for a long time, the rest of our lives for most of us here.
The GOP knows this, and even though Roberts is young, and perfectly willing to pick cases to legislate from the bench, his picks won't do a lot of good with moderate or liberal replacements.
On the other hand, if the GOP gets these picks, they can continue to erode the New Deal and other progressive programs, whether or not they've got real power in Washington.
Problem is that rabid base. Obama has done a good job reaching out --too good for my blood, but that has played out nicely. Most ordinary people are very unhappy with Congress, and let's face it. Congress is disfunctional at best right now, and the Tea Party, AKA Repuglicans, are a big part of why that is true.
Electing asses to tease with legislating morality, in return for economically regressive votes favoring the wealthy and big business isn't working out so well right now. Times are tough, and social issues are expensive as hell.
Perhaps that cost is too high and it's time to push back on things a bit. I can think of no better way to do that than a muzzle on LIMBAUGH.
Actually, that's not true. I think it's a smart play, if happening, but it could really backfire. I assume he will remain on air, for reasons given above, the primary one being the money is good, even if it's "tail wind" money, like LIMBAUGH being the loss leader draw for other profitable and unimpacted hosts.
Given that, he could play nice and just build a lot of anger, playing the victim and those people will listen, and they make the phone call, write the letter, buy the product, and most importantly, cast the vote.
Managing that risk is where I think this is going. With a slug of sponsors walking, now is a key leverage time.
Monday is going to be interesting 
Posted on March 4, 2012 - 09:40 PM
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