RUSH: Last night CNN’s Larry King Live: State-Run Media do not like Scott Brown. They don’t like him because he’s an attractive Republican. They’re going to go after him the way they go after Sarah Palin. David ‘Rodham’ Gergen said this on Scott Brown.
GERGEN: He was embraced by the social conservatives. He wants to put a lot of restrictions on the way abortions are done, he’s very much against gay marriage, he’s against a lot of other things. He was also very much against deficit spending. He was very much against the health care bill. But along with his sort of, you know, populism and his real authenticity he reminds me a lot of Sarah Palin in some ways. I don’t think he’s Sarah Palin in pants but I do think he has some of that same charismatic quality.
RUSH: Ohhhh. That means they’re worried about him because they’re scared to death of Sarah Palin. Next on the panel discussion was John Avlon, who is a columnist for the Daily Beast. And this is what he said.
AVLON: Independents voted for Barack Obama because he promised to transcend all the old politics of left versus right, black versus white. Independents are angry. And liberal House leadership I think did misread the 2008 election as a liberal ideological mandate. Put Republicans shouldn’t get too far ahead of themselves, either. If you look at the conservative populism that’s out there and look at the heroes of conservative populism, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh — independents don’t like them. Scott Brown was able to win independents in a state that’s 51% independent. That is what’s happening, that’s what Republicans and Democrats need to do to survive.
RUSH: Okay, so we’re back now to this. It’s the independents, and the independents hate conservatives, they hate me, hate Palin, but even after Gergen says Brown is Palin, they still hate Palin, so they voted for Brown. They voted against the machine. The liberals at the Stassinopoulos Post — Arianna’s place — and all these other paces will not be able to understand, it will not permeate, people do not want this kind of overreaching expansive intruding government. They just don’t want it. That’s the message here. That’s what the machine is. The public policy unions, get ’em out of there, stop their influence. Now, the AP takes its swipe at Scott Brown today: ‘Brown Doesn’t Always Match the Everyman Image that he put Forward — As he campaigned for the US Senate from the back of his green pickup, Scott Brown portrayed himself as an independent-minded everyman and moderate candidate fighting the Democratic ‘machine.’ But as a Republican in Massachusetts, Brown sometimes found himself to the right of his own party.’ (gasping) They’re trying to say he’s a right-winger now.
‘He once proposed an amendment which would have allowed emergency room doctors to deny emergency contraception to rape victims based on the doctor’s religious beliefs, which drew the ire of fellow Republicans.’ This is a fallacious charge. It is so fallacious Brown has filed a criminal complaint against the Coakley supporters for making this claim in campaign fliers and advertisements. It did not happen, and the AP knows it did not happen. And if they don’t know it didn’t happen then they’re lousy journalists — well, we know that’s the case anyway. ‘He has criticized the federal stimulus program as ineffective, but said he would not return the money. And in the final weeks of the campaign, Brown benefited from the financial backing of conservative groups like the Tea Party movement which pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into television ads for him.’ And this runs counter to his everyman image how? The tea party is made of every man, every woman. It’s okay for the unions to shower money all over the place but somehow it’s not good and it paints Scott Brown a different image.
‘Like former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and even Barack Obama in 2008, Brown is getting a boost from his own limited political resume, according to Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. In the absence of a strong record or public profile, voters felt free to read into the candidates whatever they want. ‘There is a virtue of not being a known commodity and not having tons of experience in the national spotlight,’ Zelizer said. ‘With Palin, people knew nothing about her when she was introduced … and that was an asset at first.”’ Yes, you see, ladies and gentlemen, like Sarah Palin, Scott Brown might seem to be wonderful at first but once we get to know him we will loathe him as much as we loathe Sarah Palin. Obama is the king of empty suits, the king of empty resumes, 150 days experience in the Senate. All of his experience is teaching ACORN and learning from ACORN.
Back to the AP story. ‘Brown was able to craft his own image in the public mind in large part because of an initial lackluster response from Democrat Martha Coakley … Only after Brown picked up momentum and polls reflected a tight race did Coakley respond, but it was too little, too late.’ Oh, yeah, yeah, see, if only Coakley and the Democrats and their lickspittle media had gotten their researchers on the job earlier, if we’d gotten this kind of story out earlier, we coulda taken him out. ‘While he’s portrayed himself as an independent-minded candidate on the campaign trail, Brown’s campaign has pulled in support from deep-pocketed lobbying and interests groups, from US Chamber of Commerce, the Tea Party movement, and the Iowa-based conservative American Future Fund.’
Okay, AP, how does getting support from a truly grassroots movement not match up with Brown’s image as an everyman? But everyman they’re singing plain as day. ‘During the campaign, Brown portrayed himself as stronger on national security. He also campaigned alongside former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, but a month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Brown was one of three Massachusetts representatives to vote against a bill that would have granted paid leave to state workers volunteering for disaster relief with the American Red Cross.’
Now, this is just too much. This is hilarious. What hypocrisy. It’s clear that Brown cares nothing about national security if he’s against paid leave for state workers volunteering for the Red Cross? You people are going to have to do better than this. The American people have caught up with you, AP and the State-Controlled Media. ‘He’s also positioned himself to the right of his party’s 2008 presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain.’ That would not be hard. ‘Brown said he doesn’t believe that waterboarding is torture.’ To the right of McCain, doesn’t consider waterboarding torture? Every complaint they have makes it sound like he’s an everyman to me, folks.