Accidental Honesty

Every once in a while, a conservative will say something unintentionally revealing about the state of conservatism (ie. the recent blatherings of Tom Delay). One person who's usually helpful in this regard is Rush 'Excellence in Broadcasting' Limbaugh (when he's not spouting off conspiracy theories).

Here's what ol' Rush had to say yesterday about the Justice Department scandal-

"I’m at a loss to understand why it is that even some people on our side and the conservative media think throwing Gonzales away is going to stop this. Now, they’ll say, 'Well, that’s not what we’re trying to do. We want competence. We are conservatives, and we have high values, and high standards.' This is a battle going on here. There’s an election that’s going to hinge on stuff like this, and everybody the administration throws overboard is a tantamount admission to people that pay scant attention to politics there’s all kinds of corruption going on in there."

Translation: 'Actual corruption is okay; it's the revelations of it we have to worry about.'

Mr. Limbaugh later added: "USA Today’s got a poll: 'Do you think something’s wrong about the firing of eight US attorneys?' 72% said yes. 72% of the American people, a bunch of blithering idiots who have no idea what they’re talking about, but yet they voted, so these polls matter."

A real man of the people, no?

This is, of course, the same Rush Limbaugh who said, following the midterm elections, that "I feel liberated... I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don't think deserve having their water carried." I believe this lasted about 34 minutes before he started grabbing every water-pail the GOP threw at him... And that is also the same Rush whom the National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez calls today "honest" and "an international treasure".

And there you go again-- one moment of accidental honesty and he's back carrying water for his GOP masters. Because it's what's best for America? Or the Justice Department? Or Congress' priorities? No, because it's a "battle" (and, of course, because it'll piss of the 'libs', a major conservative priority). This is the mindset of the modern Bush/GOP cultist in a nutshell.

Will the GOP isolate these people or continue to embrace them? Do ducks have feathers?