The kings and queens of conservative talk radio thrive on displays of anger and outrage. They summon it easily, and they direct it most frequently at Democrats. The godfather of talk radio, Rush Limbaugh, has already called Sen. Hillary Clinton a "whore" and Barack Obama a "Halfrican."
Being good partisans, Limbaugh and friends typically spare their fellow Republicans from similar treatment. But sometimes discord emerges, or even erupts, in the family, as it has in the past few days. Suddenly their outrage has narrowed, almost vindictively, to the man now moving hastily toward their party's nomination: Sen. John McCain.
On Monday, January 28, the day before the Florida GOP primary, which McCain won over Mitt Romney, Limbaugh said, "If, this autumn, voters must choose between Clinton and McCain, they will face, at least stylistically, an echo, not a choice."
Equating a Republican with Clinton is obviously a low blow, and Limbaugh's comment, it turned out, was just the opening salvo to a steady stream of vitriol that crackled over the transistor this week and scattered across the airwaves. Hugh Hewitt, another well-known conservative radio host, wrote dejectedly on his blog, "It is hard to hide the fact that this would be a second Bob Dole campaign, with less energy and fewer conservative principles. Many, many Republicans have to be worried not just about losing the White House but about a dispirited party and a down-ticket wipeout."
The chorus against McCain from certain elements of the party has no doubt grown louder as his candidacy has gained traction, attention, and front-runner status. Florida, as a closed primary state, was supposed to serve as a buffer for those who felt McCain was out of step with the party base; it did not. The departure of former Sen. Fred Thompson, an avowed conservative, and the reduction of the field to a largely two-man contest between McCain and Romney has only exacerbated the audible alarm. The New York Times endorsement of McCain last week didn't help, either.
But the ferocity of the charges being leveled at McCain is noteworthy, not only for its sheer decibel level but also for what it potentially means for the Republican Party. Conservative talk radio clearly sees McCain as being too moderate, even liberal, on social and economic issues, such as his opposition to the first round of Bush tax cuts. More to the point, they say his candidacy represents a fracturing of the Republican base and that Romney is a better pick. But many Republican voters still support McCain, as evidenced by Florida.
So what gives? One argument is that conservative talk radio, representing the bastion of the party's strength since the 1980s, is out of step with a country that is weary of George Bush. A second argument is that talk radio is not out of step at all; rather, voters have simply been willing to compromise when picking from a lackluster field. A third possibility, more foreboding for Republican chances this fall, is that the base has fractured. Division is never good for a party, but it is especially worrisome for Republicans, who typically rely on an energized base to drive voter turnout.
The last time the Republican Party was so strongly divided over its candidates was 1964, says Denison University political science Prof. Emmett H. Buell. That year, conservative Barry Goldwater won the nomination, alienated moderates and liberals, and ultimately lost to President Lyndon Johnson. Goldwater made no effort to reunite the party; McCain, however, has.
"McCain will have a difficult but not insurmountable task of uniting the party around him," Buell said. "This would be a tough act for any of the candidates. The Reagan coalition has come off its wheels. McCain is not all things to all Republicans, but neither is Romney or Huckabee." The one fact that will most likely help his cause: his polling against Hillary Clinton. Romney and Huckabee lose by large margins when matched against Clinton; McCain, according to at least one poll, beats her by a single point.
To better understand the origin of talk radio's beef with McCain, we've waded through recent audio from the morning shows of some of the country's most popular conservative hosts. Die-hards like Limbaugh and Beck have spoken the loudest and harshest; others, while expressing concerns with McCain, have tried to distance themselves from the caterwauling.
Rush Limbaugh
(Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
Limbaugh has said that a McCain nomination would mean the death of the Republican base. He has attacked McCain personally, charging that senators don't get elected because "they have the biggest egos," that he is "180 degrees out of phase," and that he has lied about Romney's record.
But his biggest criticisms have been on matters of policy: tax cuts, campaign finance, big government, immigration. He said recently on his show: "What a racket McCain is running....McCain comes out with this lie about Romney in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday, and there's no way a Romney camp or group can run an ad on television here in Florida refuting it because you can't do that 30 days before a primary under McCain-Feingold's restrictions on free speech, but the candidates can go out there and say what they want. So Romney had to do the replying himself. He put a video up, and they were quick getting it out...It's hilarious. Hey, Senator McCain, you can't say anything about any candidate within 30 days before the election. McCain-Feingold ought to extend to the candidates, too, don't you think?"
Following McCain's primary win in Florida, Limbaugh weighed in on the candidate's credentials: "All the candidates on our side, for various reasons, are uninspiring or worse — and so, just as I predicted, the base has fractured....Senator McCain's been able to cobble together enough votes to win a few states....But to pretend that [he] is the choice of conservatives when exit poll data from every primary state show just the opposite..."
Glenn Beck
(Michael Caulfield/WireImage/Getty Images)
Glenn Beck, nightly star of the Glenn Beck Show on CNN Headline News, has hammered McCain on his economic policies, specifically his support for measures to curtail global warming and his opposition to the first rounds of tax cuts. He has also said that McCain is "more dangerous than Hillary" and that he flip-flops on social issues.
Beck on McCain's global warming policy: "You know, the same way he should get credit for the war, you should give him the same amount of credit for wanting to spend as much as $1.2 trillion a year by 2050 on something that can't possibly affect temperatures by a measurable amount. That's not me saying that. That is—I mean, even if the global warming theorists are 100 percent right, look it up. 1.2 trillion a year, and it doesn't work. And just remember that when he's telling you that he's a fiscal conservative."
Beck on McCain's tax cut record: "Now, with that in mind look what he said about tax cuts in 2001. He said: I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of the middle-class Americans who need tax relief. This is the classic rhetoric of the left. Tax cuts only benefit the rich. Be honest. If John Kerry would have said that, quote, word for word, and he did, if Hillary Clinton said that quote, and she did, you would be hammering them on it, hammering them."
Sean Hannity
(Douglas C. Pizac/AP)
Sean Hannity, the conservative half of Fox News's Hannity & Colmes, recently spoke with Newt Gingrich, former GOP speaker of the House, about McCain.
Hannity: I am getting a lot of E-mail, there are a lot of people who feel now that it may be inevitable that Senator McCain is going to be the nominee for the Republicans but yet he has alienated a very big part of the Republican base and that is the conservative movement on significant substantive issues.
Gingrich: I would say if he is the nominee, that every conservative in the country better do everything they can to help elect conservatives to the House and Senate...because I think it's very important that we understand that this would be an administration on most days that is very unreliable from our standpoint. Let's be fair. It would be better than Senator Obama. It would be better than Senator Clinton. But for all the values that created the modern conservative movement, from Goldwater to Reagan to the Contract With America, this would not be an administration that had any interest in those kinds of values.
Michael Medved
(Eric Draper/The White House/AP)
A USA Today columnist and host of the Michael Medved Show, Medved has been one of the few steady defenders of John McCain among the panjandrums of conservative talk radio. Appearing on MSNBC, Medved was asked by Tucker Carlson to explain the "hate" among radio hosts toward McCain. Medved replied:
"Well they're acting like liberals, and I know that's a terrible thing to say about people I like and respect — I have great respect for Rush. But he's acting like a liberal on this. Liberals allow personalities and emotions and feelings over issues, substance, and policy. And that's what they're doing here. Because if you actually look at the three essential elements of the Reagan coalition: security, economics, and social issues — McCain is solid. He is very conservative. He is a traditional Reagan Republican, and there is no policy reason, there is no issues reason, for people to be so hostile to him and to call him all these names and to bang on him day after day after day. I actually believe that talk radio is hurting itself more than they're hurting Senator McCain."
Laura Ingraham
(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Ingraham, a former Reagan administration speechwriter and the host of the Laura Ingraham Show, has called McCain "the Democrats' favorite Republican." She blasted the candidate for defending campaign finance laws in a recent Supreme Court case brought by a Wisconsin right-to-life group, which argued that the law limits freedom of speech.
She has also tossed in some pointed character shots. After Wednesday night's GOP debate, for instance, she attacked McCain for attempting to misconstrue Romney's record on the war in Iraq. Playing a clip of the exchange, she said, "This is cuckoo land....I am terrified at hearing this, this actually scares me, if he can interpret what Romney says as he has, how is he going to interpret the bad guys?"
Bill Bennett
Bill Bennett's Morning in America
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Bill Bennett, radio host and commentator for CNN's "best political team on television," has taken a more agnostic position on McCain, though he acknowledges the uproar from his cohorts. "He is likely on his way to the nomination, but he has got to mend his fences with conservatives, because you do not want a convention with a lot of unhappy people," Bennett said on CNN on Tuesday. "The anger and bitterness at John McCain is extreme among a lot of conservatives."
On Wednesday, Bennett criticized McCain for his behavior at the GOP debate. "The blow he took at Romney was way below the belt...he should apologize for it...He absolutely should not have done it. It just wasn't fair. Honor is his launch word."
Hugh Hewitt
The Hugh Hewitt Show
Author-blogger-talk show host Hugh Hewitt, who has thrown his allegiance to Mitt Romney, dismisses McCain as a maverick too inclined to cut deals with Democrats and abandon Republican principles. Commenting on his blog during Wednesday night's debate, Hewitt wrote:
"The first half of the debate was Romney's on points. Romney began by listing the series of assaults on conservative values championed by McCain including McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, the McCain-Lieberman global warming regulatory monster, the opposition to exploration in ANWR and the votes against the Bush tax cuts. McCain's responses are the same we have heard again and again, and they do not wear well."
Hewitt says McCain's attempt to hitch his candidacy to his military experience and judgment is a one-trick pony that might fail in November and have a lasting impact on the party's corps. "Next Tuesday's contests will be a measure of the strength of the GOP's conservative wing. If it remains strong, it will keep the Romney campaign competitive with wins across the country except in the Northeast. If it shrugs its shoulders, the Reagan Coalition will have finished its run. Indeed, if the Arizona maverick triumphs next week, don't be surprised if John McCain selects a Rudy or Joe Lieberman as a running mate as an "all in" play for the muddled middle of the country.
Mike Gallagher
(LM Otero/AP)
Gallagher, one of the most-listened-to radio talk show hosts in the country, has recently called for an end to the "GOP infighting" over McCain, arguing that it could lead to a massive embarrassment in November. "There is an undercurrent that has been intensifying in recent days," Gallagher said, pointing to a recent Bob Novak column with the title, "Is McCain a Conservative?" "Those of us on the right have been engaged in a big giant game of gotcha: You're not conservative enough...you're really a liberal, you're a RINO. It dawned on me as the field of candidates continues to narrow. It's come down to a real ugly spat inside the Republican Party about who is the more conservative of the bunch when it comes to the Republican candidate."
He continued: "I can't speak for other radio hosts in America; I don't want to even begin to criticize the colleagues of mine who are now fighting with each other over whether John McCain is a true conservative or not....[But] I can control what comes out of my mouth, and I am going to ask you a very simple pointed question for those who are eviscerating, vilifying, crucifying John McCain: If he gets the nomination and its John McCain against Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, what are you going to say then as a Republican?"
Neal Boortz
(Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
Boortz, a fiscally conservative libertarian radio host, has generally sided with Mike Huckabee for the former governor's Fair Tax proposal. After McCain's win in Florida, he wrote about the senator on his website: "Look, I'm sure he's a genuinely nice guy...and there are many things that he gets right. I believe that McCain recognizes the threat we face from radical Islam, and is prepared to continue the fight. It's hard, though, to ignore his vote against the Bush tax cuts, his antipathy to free political speech and his unwillingness to do something about the Mexican invasion."
