Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 04:58 pm
In what can best be described as a delusional rant, on his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh wove a tale of how the Rally to Restore Sanity helps Republicans. Limbaugh called Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, “half baked comedians,” and claimed that they tell, “Putrid jokes.” Limbaugh also predicted that the rally will draw 65,000 people.
Here is the audio courtesy of Media Matters:
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Limbaugh said, “Democrats are looking to a pair of comedians to do what Obama and Bill Clinton, and dozens of other leaders have not done yet this election season, that’s get party members excited about voting, and so these two comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. What? He pronounces it Colbert? It’s not Colbert? Oh. Ok. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert expect tens of thousands of fans to join them at the Rally to Restore Sanity on October 30. Three days before the election.”
He continued, “I hope you all go. I hope every Democrat in the country goes. I hope every union member abandons your precinct, abandons every bit of work you are doing on the election, and goes to Washington, sits around, gets drunk, smoke some doobies, and listens to some putrid jokes told by a couple of half baked comedians. What a brilliant scheme. If I didn’t know better I would say that Stewart and Colbert are working for the Republican, a giant rally three days before the election taking Democrats away from polling places, away from the heavy work and the heavy lifting of getting out the vote. Right on.”
Later Limbaugh claimed that Stewart and Colbert are jealous of Beck and the rally will only draw 65,000 people, “Everybody abandon your state head to Washington three days before the election and spend your time doing whatever, while the Tea Party and others are busy working to produce giant turnout on Tuesday, while you Democrats turn out on Saturday in a meaningless show of what? For a couple of comedians who simply can’t get over the fact that Glenn Beck drew over a half million people, and they’re barely going to get over 65,000, and that’s if Arianna Huffington comes through with the free buses.”
Rush Limbaugh is so out of the loop that he did not know how to pronounce Stephen Colbert’s name, and as usual when we discuss anything that comes out of Limbaugh’s mouth, a few things need to be corrected. First of all, his “fact” that Glenn Beck drew over 500,000 people to his Rally to Restore Honor is a total lie. Objective estimates place the size of the crowd at 87,000-100,000. Over a half of a million people did not attend Beck’s rally. The aerial pictures of the event are enough to debunk this right wing myth.
Secondly, Limbaugh’s claim that on 65,000 people will attend the rally was the gibberish of a delusional old man. The official Rally to Restore Sanity Facebook page lists 223,929 people who have committed to attending. There are going to be a hell of a lot more than 65,000 people there. In fact, attendance for the Rally to Restore Sanity should blow any rally the right wing has put together out of the water.
People like Limbaugh are trying to frame the Rally to Restore Sanity as a Democratic get out the vote operation, because they have to find some way to discredit the event and massive crowd that it is going to draw. Contrary to Rush’s fantasy, every Democrat is not going to D.C. this weekend. There will be plenty of them all over the country working hard to get out the vote for Tuesday.
There is no reason for Stewart and Colbert to be jealous of Beck. The ratings show that they already have more viewers than Beck, so Limbaugh is obviously projecting his own jealousy on to the Comedy Central hosts. Rush Limbaugh is so jealous of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert that he concocted this wild fantasy to try to diminish their success. On Saturday, Limbaugh and the right are going to get a taste of the future, and the future doesn’t like what Rush Limbaugh is selling.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
