Opinion: In his own words: Rush Limbaugh

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From time to time The Ticket publishes an item solely in the words of someone involved in the political process. Some are long. Some are short. Some well-known. Some not. Today’s words come from conservative radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh.

He was reacting to the ongoing controversy of using Barack Obama’s middle name to insinuate connections with something bad, foreign, Arabic, Muslim, you choose. Limbaugh denied using the middle-name tactic, although he wondered aloud about someone saying they don’t want part of their name uttered publicly.

‘All I said was, are we going to let these guys tell us what we can’t say? Obama doesn’t like his middle name being used, so we can’t use it? What are we going to call him? Barack Fitzgerald Obama? Barack Earl Obama? Should we give him some other middle name? I can call the Drive-Bys every day and say, ‘You know, I really wish you wouldn’t say this about me the next time you mention me,’ and it isn’t going to matter.’

There have also been recent reports about the Ohio broadcaster who introduced Sen. John McCain at a large rally with repeated references to Obama’s middle name and reports of the Tennessee Republican party doing the same for a while on its website. McCain renounced the remarks and the Republican National Committee chastised the state party.

Limbaugh offered a reminder about the history of it all:

‘Who first made a big deal of Obama’s middle name? Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb). Who ran around and talked about him selling drugs, and maybe being a coke dealer? Clinton Co-Chair Bill Shaheen. Who started playing the race card? Bob Johnson of BET.

‘Who released the picture of Obama in the turban? Who forwarded that e-mail claiming he’s a Muslim? Clinton Inc. did all of this!’

--Andrew Malcolm