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Giving Credit Where It Isn’t Due

I agree wholeheartedly with Rod that Rush Limbaugh’s analysis is not worth anything, since it includes such gems as this (via Reeve): Why, putting it somewhat coarsely, why doesn’t the Republican Party get credit for Condoleezza Rice? Once you stop laughing, consider what Limbaugh is saying. The GOP should apparently receive “credit” for elevating Rice […]

I agree wholeheartedly with Rod that Rush Limbaugh’s analysis is not worth anything, since it includes such gems as this (via Reeve):

Why, putting it somewhat coarsely, why doesn’t the Republican Party get credit for Condoleezza Rice?

Once you stop laughing, consider what Limbaugh is saying. The GOP should apparently receive “credit” for elevating Rice to important positions in the Bush administration, which had one of the worst foreign policy records in the postwar era. It so happens that she performed poorly in both positions, and her performance contributed to some of the major failures of the Bush administration. Yet Limbaugh demands to know why the GOP doesn’t “get credit” for including her as an administration official. Who should give them credit? Why does the GOP deserve any credit? The fact that Limbaugh thinks that the GOP deserves “credit” for Rice goes a long way towards explaining why the GOP doesn’t get any.

Try turning this around and consider how it would sound to a Republican or conservative audience. Imagine some outraged MSNBC host demanding to know why the Democratic Party doesn’t “get credit” for Bart Stupak or Tom Donnelly on pro-life grounds, and you’ll appreciate just how ridiculous this complaint is. Pro-life conservatives aren’t going to give the Democratic Party “credit” for the fact that some Democratic politicians profess to be pro-life while belonging to a party that isn’t. At best, most pro-life conservatives view their membership in the Democratic Party as a serious mistake and at worst as a scam designed to lure pro-life voters into supporting the wrong party.

Along the same lines, it’s not as if Republicans ever gave Democrats “credit” for supporting Jim Webb’s election to the Senate. They didn’t see Webb’s nomination on the Democratic Party line as a reason to give Democrats “credit,” but instead considered it a reason to dislike Webb. As most Republicans see it, someone with Webb’s background isn’t supposed to be a Democrat nowadays, so the party didn’t get any “credit” for nominating him. It is difficult to imagine someone in Limbaugh’s position complaining that the Republican Party isn’t given enough “credit” for its antiwar dissenters that aren’t in a position to define the party’s positions on foreign policy. Someone like Limbaugh wouldn’t want the GOP to receive “credit” for this, since he presumably wishes these people weren’t part of the GOP.

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