# White House fires back at Rush Limbaugh



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

By Sam Youngman Posted: 03/02/09 03:56 PM [ET]

The Speaker of the House won't mention his name, but the White House has shown a willingness to invoke the name of radio host Rush Limbaugh whenever challenged.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) won't comment on anything the hero of conservatives has to say - and he has a lot to say - but the White House on Monday was only too happy to respond to Limbaugh's repeated assertion over the weekend that he hopes President Obama's presidency fails.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, who last month blasted CNBC host Rick Santelli from the podium in the briefing room, challenged reporters on Monday to ask Republicans if they agree with Limbaugh's desire.

"Do they want to see the president's economic agenda fail? You know, I bet there are a number of guests on television throughout the day and maybe into tomorrow who could let America know whether they agree with what Rush Limbaugh said this weekend."

Gibbs said he thought "it would be charitable to say he doubled down on what he said in January in wishing and hoping for economic failure in this country."

"I can only imagine what might have been said a few years ago if somebody might have said that on the other side relating to what was going on in this country or our 
endeavors overseas," Gibbs said.

He added that the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, at which Limbaugh spoke over the weekend, seemed to embrace Limbaugh's wish for Obama's failure, saying that Limbaugh's "notion of presidential failures seemed to be quite popular in the room in which he spoke."

After Gibbs launched into Santelli in late February, challenging that the CNBC host had not actually read the stimulus bill he was criticizing, a number of Democrats and Republicans expressed surprise in e-mails to The Hill that Gibbs would elevate such a critic by battling with him from the White House podium.

When asked Monday why he would "elevate" Limbaugh by addressing his criticisms from the podium, Gibbs said Limbaugh "elevated himself."

"He's got, I understand, a fairly popular radio show," Gibbs said.

He added: "I don't think it's a crazy question to ask about the commenting on whether or not somebody that seems to be maybe, for lack of a better word, a national spokesperson for conservative views and many in the Republican Party, what do I think about or what does this White House think about him on at least two separate occasions in front of large and applauding audiences seeking the failure of the president's economic agenda?"

Antonia Ferrier, a spokeswoman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), said Gibbs was trying to create a distraction by responding to Limbaugh.

"What we are seeing is a desperate attempt by Democrats to distract attention away from a multi-trillion dollar spending spree taking place in Washington," Ferrier said. "Creating a boogeyman to change the subject does nothing to alter the fact that there are 9,000 earmarks in the omnibus spending bill, that the economic stimulus bill contained no Republican input or that their budget would increase taxes on all Americans."

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/white-house-fires-back-at-rush-limbaugh-2009-03-02.html


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## HousingCop (May 14, 2004)

*Well seeing that dozens of prominant Democratic members of Congress (Pelosi, Reid et al) for the last 7 years declared GW Bush policies & presidency a failure and told the country that the Iraq war was lost & that we ought to tuck tail and run. I can see why a radio talk show host like Rush Limbaugh has declared Obama a failure so early on in his presidency. BECAUSE HE IS. *

*Not only has the Dow tanked 20% since Obama has taken over, he's been doom & gloom every chance he got to speak at the podium which makes stocks tank even further. Obama has borrowed a TRILLION dollars of money which we don't have to shore up businesses that deserve to fail for their own greediness & bad policies of lending money to deadbeats. If printing money were the answer to bad economic times, the old Soviet Union would have won the Cold War. *

*The last President to inherit bad economic times was Ronald Reagan & he got us out of it by giving small businesses a TAX BREAK instead of what Barak Hussein Obama is proposing, a TAX HIKE. *


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## OfficerObie59 (Sep 14, 2007)

Pat Buchanan appropriately called Bob Shieffer's question to Rahm Emanuel on Sunday's "Face The Nation" a slow soft ball, right down the middle, just below the shoulders: "Who do you think speaks now for the Republican party?"





And you know what? I'm glad he does. I hope Obama fails.


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