What Happens if People Misunderstand Rush's Points?

Rush will at times say stuff which he says are "media tweaks" - outrageous things which his long-time listeners know he's just saying for effect, but which the media always reports as if he made them for real.

But what happens if a new listener hears this stuff, and believes he's serious?

However, this comment is about Mike Castle's comment that:

CASTLE: I think the, uh, misrepresentations of -- uh, the lies of, uh, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh on the air were another very significant, uh, part, uh, of all of this. Uhhhh, I think some of the misrepresentations of my opponent's race were a part of it, uh, as -- as well. How they ever came up with the theory I voted to impeach George Bush, I -- I'll never know. I mean... And -- and -- and that was the news for, uh, a couple days, uh, right around the election time by, uh, I think Mr. Limbaugh. But those are the kinds of things that -- that make politics very difficult.

and then Rush said,

RUSH: Yeah, except the problem is I never said it. You know what happened? During that period of time on the program I was discussing this, I got an e-mail from a very prominent Republican saying, "Look, I don't know what you're saying, but Bush 43's office phones are ringing off the hook saying that Castle voted to impeach him, and Bush doesn't like it." I said, "I didn't say that Castle voted to impeach Bush. What I said was that Castle voted to move the Kucinich resolution for impeachment to the Judiciary Committee, which was run by John Conyers, who was calling for Bush's impeachment."

But actually, he had said it. Then, a few minutes later, he corrected himself.

In his first segment, he said this:

Why do we need Mike Castle in the Senate? We already have Olympia Snowe there. We have Susan Collins. We got enough Republicans willing to sabotage the conservative position. Why do we need another one in there? We don't. A vote for Castle -- and I don't mean to focus on this Delaware race. I'm focusing on it because it seems that so many conservative Republican media people have drawn the line in the sand on this race. I don't know if you read the conservative blogosphere, but I mean it's getting vicious out there. I got a note from one of them. I got back from my vacation, I was minding my own business, bothering nobody except Hank Haney on the golf course by not being able to follow through on his instruction, I get back and I get this note about, "Well, where do you come down on this O'Donnell and Mike Castle race?" So I start looking into it, and I was struck by the line in the sand that's been drawn by Republicans here against O'Donnell. I said, "What's wrong with this woman? Why is there such vitriol aimed at this woman? When Mike Castle voted for an investigation of Bush for impeachment, when Mike Castle is akin to an Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins," I didn't understand it.

He did not correct himself until the second segment:

Here's Bob in Rockville Maryland. You're great, next on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I've listened for decades, called scores of times, and wouldn't you know it? The first time I get through I'm going to mildly disagree with you.

RUSH: What's that about?

CALLER: I do agree with the Limbaugh Rule, and I followed it today when I cast my vote in the Maryland Republican gubernatorial primary.

RUSH: Good for you, sir. Good for you.

CALLER: But I would hope for Republicans who want to see the regime stifled and therefore want the largest possible Senate majority, that legitimate cases can be made for O'Donnell versus Castle without distorting the facts. I agree with you that it's a matter of strategy.

RUSH: Well, what did I get wrong?

CALLER: Well, Castle did not vote for Kucinich's impeachment proposal. What he did vote for -- as did other Republicans including Peter King, for example -- was to refer Kucinich's impeachment proposal to the Judiciary Committee where it died a quiet death. So I would hope... As you said it's getting more and more bitter on all this stuff going on in the Internet, and I think unnecessarily bitter.

RUSH: All I can tell you, he voted for the resolution to investigate Bush for the possibility of impeachment.


BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: All right. I see what's happening now. "Rush, you gotta be a little bit more accurate than you are here on Castle. Peter King did the same thing. They voted just to move it to the Judiciary Committee, where it was gonna die. It was called 'moving the ball.'" In early May 2007, Representative Castle attended a meeting organized by Charlie Dent (Republican-Pennsylvania) between several moderate Republicans in the House and President Bush to express their concerns over the war in Iraq. The group warned the president his pursuit of the war in Iraq was risking the future of the Republican Party. He could not count on Republican support for much longer." Castle was already threatening Bush with the withdrawal of Republican support for the war effort.

And Castle voted for the resolution. Now, I said Delaware has only one member of the House, one representative. They've got two Senators but they have one member of the House. I'm just trying to illustrate how small the state is: Some lead, however large, can be overcome. Now, I was also making argument about RINOs. I said earlier here that the problem with RINOs is that they confuse the electorate, and they confuse the electorate over what conservatism is. But RINOs are worse than run-of-the-mill Democrats. A run-of-the-mill Democrat is a run-of-the-mill Democrat, but a Republican-in-name-only, a Republican who votes with Democrats... When you vote for terrible Democrat bills, all of a sudden you get this cover for "bipartisanship," and we all know that bipartisanship means compromising what we believe to go along with Democrats.

That's what a Mike Castle is. That's what RINOs do. They give cover to the whole concept of bipartisanship. We don't need "bipartisanship" right now. Bipartisanship is not on the agenda. It's not part of the recipe to fix what's wrong. The other side is not interested in bipartisanship. I mean, they may be now temporarily because it's election time and they realize they're saddled with a horrible agenda, some of the individual Democrats. Obama's not interested in it, though, and that's all that matters. Now, the Castle vote was to send the impeachment resolution to the Judiciary Committee. That's the process. That moves the ball. Castle voted to do that. What's the controversy? What is the misrepresentation?

So, yes, Rush corrected himself, but in the first segment of his show, he did say Castle had voted to impeach Bush. So if anyone had been listening to the first segment, and then turned it off, they never heard the correction.

Having said that, did the voters care about it? Are all the voters supposed to be listeners of the Rush Limbaugh show?

Now, in this primary, only Republicans were allowed to vote. No Independents. In November, when it comes to voting for the seat itself, will Christine O'Donnell be able to win? Will the Independents vote for her?