E.J. Dionne in Crisis: Rush is Winning

RUSH: Here’s the E.J. Dionne, Jr. column, Washington Post today: ”Rush and Newt Are Winning’ — A media environment that tilts to the right is obscuring what President Obama stands for and closing off political options that should be part of the public discussion. Yes, you read that correctly: If you doubt that there is a conservative inclination in the media, consider which arguments you hear regularly and which you don’t. When Rush Limbaugh sneezes or Newt Gingrich tweets, their views ricochet from the Internet to cable television and into the traditional media. It is remarkable how successful they are in setting what passes for the news agenda. The power of the Limbaugh-Gingrich axis means that Obama is regularly cast as somewhere on the far left end of a truncated political spectrum. He’s the guy who nominates a ‘racist’ to the Supreme Court (though Gingrich retreated from the word yesterday), wants to weaken America’s defenses against terrorism and is proposing a massive government takeover of the private economy.’ He’s not proposing, he’s doing it, E.J.!

E.J., your premise is wrong. We’re not turning state-controlled media to the right. It’s just that I, maybe Newt now and then, are the only ones saying what we say. Everybody else in the state-controlled media is an echo chamber. Whatever dictation you get from Axelrod or Gibbs, you’re right, but there’s an alternative voice out there and it stands out simply by virtue of its stark contrast and difference. I mean, what would be so hard, E.J., about you realizing and reporting that Obama is taking over the private economy? He’s not proposing to. He’s doing it. What would you call a guy who gave a speech — somebody counted it up the other day — his speech assuring the country what was going to happen to General Motors after bankruptcy, 34 times he used the word ‘I.’ He never said we’re going to get legislation to get this done. I, the president, the president and the White House statement that came out, the president has deemed the plan put forth by GM workable. We’ve got a miniature dictator-in-waiting here, in his own mind, and he is taking over the private sector.

E.J. Dionne, Jr., is alarmed. ‘Steve Forbes, writing for his magazine, recently went so far as to compare Obama’s economic policies to those of Juan Peron’s Argentina.’ I don’t need to point this out, but I think I did that first, too, when talking about industrial policy and automobiles, and Forbes is right. This is out of Juan Peron’s Argentina. The only thing we’re waiting on is for Michelle to become Evita and Michelle has now weighed in on Sotomayor, and Victor Davis Hanson at National Review has a brilliant take on this. He is also convinced that anger is what is inspiring and motivating the Obamas and the Sotomayors of the world. They are angry. Even though she’s been appointed to the Supreme Court she’s still mad at the way she was treated at Princeton. Michelle is still mad the way she was treated at Princeton. That was the subject of her thesis. These people have chips on their shoulders. First lady of the United States, and she’s still mad, president of the United States, he’s still mad. I don’t doubt this at all. In fact, I mentioned that to Sean Hannity in the second installment of the interview that will run tonight on the Hannity show on the Fox News Channel, second installment at nine o’clock. By the way, thanks to all of you with the wonderfully nice e-mail notes about that interview, very kind.

Back to E.J. Dionne, Jr. here: ‘While the right wing’s rants get wall-to-wall airtime, you almost never hear from the sort of progressive members of Congress who were on an America’s Future panel on Tuesday. Reps. Jared Polis of Colorado, Donna Edwards of Maryland and Raul Grijalva of Arizona all said warm things about the president — they are Democrats, after all — but also took issue with some of his policies. … As it happens, I am closer than the progressive trio is to Obama’s view on Afghanistan. But why are their voices,’ meaning these Democrats in Congress. Have you ever heard of these people before I mentioned their names? ‘– why are their voices muffled when they raise legitimate concerns, while Limbaugh’s rants get amplified?’ Poor E.J., he just doesn’t understand, even though he is a member of the state-controlled media, he doesn’t understand how it works.

Let’s see, ‘For all the talk of a media love affair with Obama, there is a deep and largely unconscious conservative bias in the media’s discussion of policy.’ That is just incomprehensible, how anybody could view the state-run media today and conclude that it has an unconscious conservative bias. E.J., have you noticed when all these outlets that you decry use videotape or audiotape of me, have you noticed what they do with it? They satirize it, they pound it, they criticize it, they loop the video, they try to make me look like the biggest buffoon on the face of the earth. They are now running bulletins at MSNBC of what I say, but here I am, CNN just announced the latest approval numbers, I’m at 30%, I have a 30% favorable rating, and yet I am dragging, according to E.J. Dionne, Jr., the state-controlled media to the right. (laughing)