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The Most Dangerous Man in America?
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11161 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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10 / 1993 |
2,882 Words |
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Rich Lowry
Rich Lowry is editorial associate for National Review. |
Elected with just 43 percent of the vote, pushing initiatives that mean unpopular tax hikes and broken promises, buffeted by the liberal and conservative wings of his party in Congress-President Clinton has no shortage of obstacles. But perhaps none looms so large, hammers on him so incessantly, and has so much fun doing it as Rush Limbaugh.
This past summer, when Clinton was eking his budget package-the self-declared monument of his early presidency-through Congress, Limbaugh was there every day pushing the other way. The radio and television talk show host called the package a reprise of the failed 1990 budget deal, which also purported to slash the deficit by $500 billion, thanks to tax hikes and dubious spending reductions. "You tried and it didn't work," Limbaugh said of 1990's deal. It didn't work so well that we're now back trying it again."
Limbaugh devoted some of his shows to playing tapes of the budget debate in 1990. There was President Bush issuing a call for sacrifice that could have been pulled from Clinton's State of the Union address. And there were Democrats hailing a budget deal that three years later would pretend hadn't happened. Sen. James Sasser (D-Tennessee) in 1990: "At the risk of sounding immodest we are on the verge of getting the largest deficit reduction package in the history of this republic . . . into law." Sasser in 1993: "Now let's bear in mind . . . these deficits are the result of 12 years of the most irresponsible fiscal policy in the history of the United States of America."
Talk about adversarial press. This is one media phenomenon Clinton could do without. Asked on a Des Moines radio station whether his "greatest pleasure as president" is flying on Air Force One or preempting Rush Limbaugh, the president did not hesitate: the latter.
At the White House Press Correspondent's Association Dinner in May, Clinton joked that Limbaugh had defended Janet Reno after tough questioning over Waco by Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) "because she was attacked by a black guy." Limbaugh, objecting to the implication of racism, took to the airwaves to complain. The White House apologized.
Limbaugh is not lightly tangled with; the fervor of his following makes him the conservative answer to the Beatles. Take Dan's Bake Sale: Last spring, Dan Kay, a Fort Collins, Colorado, resident trying to scratch together enough cash to earn his teaching certificate, mentioned during a call to Limbaugh that a friend in
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