Why the left doesn't need a Limbaugh

[nancylebov]

From Easily Distracted

Who brought Joe McCarthy down in the end? Not somebody playing “dirty”, down in the same gutter with McCarthy, but someone who waited for their moment and caught McCarthy in a decency trap, who revealed the man’s fundamental unfairness and viciousness in part by being scrupulously decent themselves. How did Archibald Cox defeat Richard Nixon? By walking the straight and narrow. Being decent and fair and meticulous isn’t intellectual wankery: it’s hardball.

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Welch didn't bring McCarthy down all by himself; one major element was Edward R. Murrow's show, which wasn't gutter viciousness, but was showbiz. Let a thousand flowers bloom.

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

Television brought McCarthy down, more than anything else.

The Left don't need a Limbaugh, or a Hannity, or a [i](ptui!)[/i] O'Reilly, but they may need a Drudge, and they certainly need someone who can do on an ongoing basis what Franken did in [b]Lies[/b] ... and a medium to get the message out in. Someone to stand up [i]every time[/i] the above-mentioned - or Coulter - or Bush&Cie - lies and call the boogers on it.

They do need someone who can be as entertaining as Limbaugh is when he isn't simply annoying (which, granted, is most of the time these days, but he seems to entertain his people...)

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Strictly speaking, if McCarthy hadn't tried to lock horns with the DoD he might have made a go of it.
I'm not saying decency didn't play some part in it, but, as has often been shown in history, you never fuck with your army.