Rush's Apology Needs Some Viagra

I will leave you with Cole's take on Limbaugh's lawyerly apology:

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/03/03/limp-apology/

For anyone who thinks Limbaugh has learned anything, let's go into the Wayback machine to 2006:

Yeah, I'm sure he's learned his lesson this time, though.

Conservative politics is usually based on, if you will excuse me, "dick measuring".  It is about winning the moment, getting the other guy to back down, proving that you are the bigger dick - sorry HAVING the bigger... anyway...

This is Nixonian/Atwater/Rove stuff and it's been working for them for a long time.  They prefer to emasculate their opponents and then crow about it.  Again, this was the career of Andrew Breitbart.  This is why they are good at politics but bad at governing.  Ask Michael Dukakis about it.  Ask Al Gore.  Ask John Kerry or Max Cleland.

But at this moment, that tactic is backfiring on them.  Part of it is that Obama just doesn't get into the mud with them.  Clinton would.  He used to call them out and get pissed.  Frankly, that would be my response, too.  And it's not always a bad one.  Ask Gingrich how he fared against Clinton from '95-'99.  But Obama simply absorbs as much as he can and lets his minions fight back.  They come at him with a meat cleaver, he responds with a scalpel.

The other part is that the dick measuring school of political warfare only really works with more trivial issues and issues where you have plausible support.  This whole contraception thing is just a replay of the Terri Schiavo debacle.  The GOP thrives on these conflicts, but it's almost like they get hooked on the conflict and the conflict becomes the end and not the means.  So they keep doubling down on their positions.

What's fascinating is that they all know they've gone around the bend on this one, but I have a hunch they will have a hard time changing the subject.  They are locked into this political battle and while Limbaugh's lawyer's apology shows how much they realize they are headed down the wrong road, I will be surprised to see them drop the issue soon.

As people have noted, Sandra Fluke was not talking about sex at all when she discussed her birth control pills.  She was talking about women's health.  But Limbaugh and others just can't help but release their enormous ids upon the debate.

Maybe they've learned.  Maybe they've realized that this issue will kill them in November, that millions of "soccer moms" or whatever we're calling them these days are turning against the GOP.  First Komen, now this.  But if the Democrats keep pushing on this button, they will double down.  They will go back on the attack.

They can't help themselves.