What a Rush

I remember when the phrase, "rush," first came into vogue back in the 1970's. It referred to drug use, of course, that first over-the-top-of-the-hill feeling that users reportedly experienced when they got high. It also came to mean any sudden, positive excitement, like the first Indiana Jones movie or mega-roller coaster ride or performing onstage in a rock band for the first time. As in, "What a rush!"

That comes to mind as I originally intended to take it very easy tonight and just write about the latest total moron in the news, someone so inept that they put their cat in their bong to calm it down and (this is where the story gets, uh, fuzzy) appeared to have smoked the bong with the cat in it.

It's a new Dr. Seuss book: The Cat in the Bong Comes Back. "Would you smoke it with a cat? Would you smoke it in a hat?"

How stoned was that guy? I mean, smoking out of a cat bong...what a rush!

But the real Rush of the week is the gift that keeps on giving:



Per one of Josh Marshall's equally entertained readers:
You know what's great about all this Rush nonsense? It looks like the Democrats, from Robert Gibbs to Rahm to the DCCC, are finally using some of the techniques of bitch-slap politics against the

Republicans. If GOPers are put on the spot and agree with Rush, they're taking an unpopular position about the direction of the country. If they disagree, they're immediately forced to grovel and look weak doing it. Only in this case it's sort of like the bitch-slap theory combined with jujitsu, because the Dems are actually getting Rush to administer the slaps. I'm about your age, and I'm not sure I've ever seen the Dems have the confidence to make Republicans look weak like this.

The Dems have put up the "I'm Sorry Rush" apology widget. How fast was that? And just in case anyone thinks that "Drac" Limbaugh is somehow cuddly, Media Matters has a historic library of Rush's nasty mouth, going back to when he called 13 year-old Chelsea Clinton the White House dog.

But Rush was right about one thing. There was a great desire among maybe almost 50% of the country to want George W. Bush to fail, starting with a desire for him to lost the post-election shenanigans to Al Gore, since he had lost the popular vote. DeRosa World has a nice endorseable list. My personal faves:

I wanted President Bush, Jr. to fail to steal the surplus the Clinton Administration left him.

I wanted President Bush, Jr. to fail in raping our tax code.

I wanted President Bush, Jr. to fail to privatize Social Security.

I wanted President Bush, Jr. to fail in mocking climate change.

I wanted President Bush, Jr. to fail in letting Osama Bin Laden escape.

I wanted President Bush, Jr. to fail getting re-elected in 2004.

I wanted President Bush, Jr. to fail in shredding the Constitution.

I wanted President Bush, Jr. to fail in sanctioning torture.

I wanted President Bush, Jr. to fail causing a second Republican 'great depression'.

I wanted President Bush, Jr. to fail in looting the Treasury days before he left office.

There's more goodies. In fact, this may be the most entertaining week in non-election politics since Bill Clinton called Newt Gingrich's bluff and turned the tables on his smugness.

There is no star in the Republican Party the equal of Rush. Palin, Jindal, Steele, Romney. I mean, c'mon; Huckabee is the smartest, Paul (i.e. some descendant of his) is the future. Christ and Huntsman and Flake and maybe Owens all show promise. Cantor is a joke, McConnell is relatively toothless (and lucky to still have a job), Boehner doesn't seem very bright. Coleman is dead man walking, Santorum is over, Delay is over, Gingrich is a legend in his own mind, Giuliani is over. Thompson... McCain...

Jeb?

Gotta wonder what they're smokin'.