Rush goes nuts!

Rush Limbaugh is very, very upset over the fuss that's being made over his comparison of Bill Burkett to Cindy Sheehan, complaining angrily that his words are being "taken out of context" and that the Left is manipulating Ms Sheehan for it's own dark, sinister purposes. Media Matters (That allegedly relies on: "little pimple-faced kids that are working at wannabe websites who excerpt this program and others, take them out of context") reprints a long excerpt (Runs a full 10 kilobytes) from Limbaugh's defense of his remarks, a defense that repeats his charges, that the Left is exerting some dark sinister influence:

And the influences that have been exerted on her and the way she is being used, I think it's despicable on the part of the left the way they're doing. I avoided it.
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They have made her a star in her own mind and this attention that she's getting I'm sure is helping to assuage her loss.
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...the media is exploiting her like she is a genuine spontaneous eruption. They are not telling the truth about how this woman has been shepherded by [former ambassador] Joe Wilson.
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...then went on to make the point that all she is is an opportunity like Bill Burkett was an opportunity, to bash Bush, like the Jersey Girls are an opportunity to bash Bush. Like Valerie Plame is an opportunity to bash Bush and bash Rove. Like the Jersey Girls were. She's just the next in line. And here's what I said on August 15:

LIMBAUGH (clip): The fact that they are too eager, I mean, Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real, including the mainstream media's glomming onto it. It's not real. It's --

And Limbaugh's conclusion from all this?

Meaning, the whole thing is staged! The whole event is staged.

And why are the evil Lefties doing this?

Because they cannot beat us in the arena of ideas.

What ideas are those? The whole power of Cindy Sheehan's protest is precisely that Bush can't answer her question "What was the 'noble cause' that my son died for?" If Bush could provide a straightforward reason as to why American soldiers continue to fight and die in Iraq, there wouldn't be a protest! Ms Sheehan would not have attracted attention at all had her question not been shared by millions of other Americans.

They cannot answer what I am saying about Cindy Sheehan. They cannot answer what my accusations about the way she's being used are. They don't deal even go there, dare even go there, so they have to try to discredit me in the eyes of people who may not listen to this program or other people in the media, who are supposedly reporters, who are supposedly curious, who supposedly would wanna get to the bottom of something. If something like that's really being said, find out about it. But no, just accept what happens to be written in other places on the World Wide Web.

Of course, the beauty of writing on the Web is that links can be provided back to the original source, so while we can highlight and call attention to certain phrases, we cannot and have no intention of obliterating or wiping out what the original words were. As to the idea that we on the Left can't answer Limbaugh's charges against Ms Sheehan, his accusation appears to be that Ms Sheehan is the helpless and unknowing puppet of the Left, that she is being led around by the nose, that she's being manipulated by dark and sinister forces that are motivated by nothing more than the desire to "bash Bush". Sorry, but I was there when Ms Sheehan spoke in New York City earlier this year and Ms Sheehan has worked closely with a friend of mine, Celeste Zappala (Who also lost a son while he was fighting in Iraq) and neither one of these ladies are the type to be led around or manipulated by anyone. Neither one is ignorant or is the helpless dupes of anybody. The suggestion that either one of them is less than fully conscious of or less than fully responsible for their actions is insulting and demeaning.
Limbaugh then makes a puzzling statement:

But nobody can call attention to her lies

Lies that Ms Sheehan herself has told? Nowhere in this screed does Limbaugh specify what Ms Sheehan's "lies" are. Limbaugh then rants and raves and froths at the mouth about how the Left is "coming apart". Ha! You wish!