Should Congress pass a resolution censoring Rush Limbaugh for his "phony soldiers" comment?

Question

The Bush administration also distanced itself from radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who has called U.S. troops who oppose the war "phony soldiers."

Limbaugh had argued with a caller on Wednesday about when U.S. troops ought to be brought home. The caller, who identified himself as "Mike" from Chicago and said he was an a Iraq veteran and a Republican, pushed Limbaugh on whether the occupation in Iraq would last forever.

Limbaugh referred to soldiers who criticize the war and urge that troops be brought home as "phony troops."

"Rush Limbaugh, who, in January, called Vietnam veteran Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., 'Senator Betrayus' for disagreeing with President Bush, has made no secret of his disdain for those who serve and speak out. Where was Rush Limbaugh when it came time to serve his country?"

Limbaugh has not served in the military.

http://www.nbc5.com/politics/14225149/detail.html?rss=chi&psp=nationalnews

Terry: I agree in context that Congress shouldn't be wasting time with this crap, but what's good for the goose......

The Democrats are idiots if they allow Rush to get away with this.

Dixiedog: This has nothing to do with the caller and EVERYTHING to do with Rush's comment. Try again.

Ken: See my comments to Dixiedog.

ok driveranderson, what is the correct quote from Rush then?

Oh...you didn't bother to print it.

Sorry but Rush can't run away from the 'phony soldiers' comment, no matter how hard he tries.

Answer 1

Congress shouldn't be censoring (or censuring or condemning) anybody. But Rush himself made such a fuss over the moveon.org ad, that I can't help but take a little pleasure in this.

The real truth is that Rush Limbaugh's run is probably over, or will be over fairly soon. To use a cliché, nothing lasts forever.

This controversy is more a symptom of his waining popularity and influence. The real question is whether he will burn out like Bill Mahr did (being dropped from ABC, and getting a show on HBO) or peter out like Bruce Williams (going from being very popular, to occasionally made fun of, to nearly forgotten).

BTW, for those of us who would love to enjoy a little schaudenfruede over the destruction of Rush, please note that both Bill Mahr and Paul Harvey make more money than 90% of all Americans. We should all burn out so comfortably!

Answer 2

No! I don't think they should, Rush Limbaugh has the right to speak his mind, and good! That way he exposes himself to be the idiot he really is! Who is he to criticize the military service of anyone, specially like you said: "He has never served in the military". Just like his idol, President George W. Bush and most of his cabinet. He is an ******, like the before mentioned as well as Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter, they all need to contract the services of a mental hospital, they seriously have no idea how much therapy they really need. And while I sincerely mean this as an insult, it is also good advice.

Answer 3

The ones who should be censored are the idiot news people who turned what Limbaugh said into the exact opposite. He was talking about a real phony soldier who was drummed out of basic training after 5 weeks, who never went anywhere near Irak, but who told hairrising storys about atrocities supposedly committed by American soldiers in Irak. In other words a lying phony soldier. As for those Congressmen, thats what they get for only listening to CNN or CBS.

Answer 4

Lets see how many Conservatives find this repulsive, as they were calling for a repudiation of Move On for its ad on General Betray-US, which is actually very accurate. You may not like the headline, but the content isnt a figment of anyones imagination as it turned out on Friday after Bush's Thursday speech, the white house released its own report that was worse than the GAO's which indicated that Iraq met but 1 Benchmark!

Here is the Move On piece. Even the white house figures agrees with it and proved Bush was lying again Thursday night! Show me one lie in it?

Bush wants troops in IRAQ forever guarding OUR oil!! Iraqi oil is not worth one more death!

http://pol.moveon.org/petraeus.html

Answer 5

However ignorant and abusive the comments of Rush are, he does have every right to voice his opinion. I say send his fat *** off to Iraq, give him some real combat time, and then let's see what his opinion might be then.

Answer 6

You misquote Limbaugh like media matters did is Hillary and George Soros paying you?

Answer 7

They shouldn't by my standard; I think Congress has better things to do than comment on someone's exercise of free speech. By their own standard, though, Congress has decided in the last week with this MoveOn fiasco that they think criticizing non-governmental actors' opinions is a good use of their time.

Answer 8

Well you did not actually hear the comment. The remark was about one soilder who was saying a bunch of stuff about the US Army. Only problem is he washed out of bootcamp and was never in Iraq.

See facts get in the way of liberal arguments. Congress ought to pass a resolution against you for spreading lies.

Answer 9

I don't think so. I'm certainly no fan of Limbaugh, but I think that the First Amendment should apply to EVERYONE, regardless of how hateful or repugnant his/her beliefs may be.

Answer 10

media isn't biased against the right... riiiiiiight... you should do your own research - the soldier he accused of being a 'phony' was this Jesse MacBeth loser who couldn't even make it out of boot camp before he got kicked out. i'll look to see if i can find a transcript of yesterdays show (that i was listening to) for you so you can see the exact wording.