Oh, Just Stop It - Part II

The Democrats are at it again, focusing on something trivial and stupid when there are much more important things to be worried about. (Not to say that Republicans haven't had their share, what with the whole "the expression Low-lying Fruit is almost treasonous" comment of last week, but...)

Today, the big hubbub on the liberal blogs seems to be a comment by Rush Limbaugh, to the effect that the Democrat plan to make voting day a national holiday would work to their disadvantage, as most Democrat voters don't work anyway.

I don't listen to the show, I don't like Mr. Limbaugh. I find him blatently partisan, willing to repeat any unsubstantiated rumor or made up falsehood if it portrays a Democrat in bad light, while being willing to forgive almost all Republican actions (except any attempts at actually working with their liberal counterparts).

However, in this case he was making a joke in response to a Howard Dean joke (discussing the 8 hour lines in some Democrat districts' polling places) that "Republicans, I guess, can do that ’cause there are a lot of them that have never made an honest living in their lives."

Democrats are yelling about Rush's comment, Republicans are firing back that Rush is an entertainer (hmmm, just an entertainer? The Voice of the New Republican?) while Dean is Chairman of the Democrat Party. And they're both missing the point, the comments were clearly jokes. Perhaps not particularly funny ones, perhaps ill advised ones, but merely jokes. Let's move on.

(And I'm not even certain they were particularly ill advised, given that each was addressing his core constituency. Dean was speaking at the Democrat "Take Back America" convention, Limbaugh on his right-wing daily radio show. Starting a speech with a joke is a time honored tradition, and taking a light-hearted swipe at the other guy when in a room full of YOUR guys is a good way to get the crowd warmed up and with you.)

Now, can we please get back to discussing the things which really MATTER to America? The sticks and stones, not the names, they can never hurt us.

Copyright (c) June 4, 2005 by Liam Johnson. http://www.liamjohnson.net