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Talk-radio hosts turn heat up on Republicans
Immigration debate forces a wedge between usual allies
Jonathan Weisman, Shailagh Murray, Washington Post

ALSO TODAY: HIILARY CLINTON AND BARBARA BOXER THREATENING TALK RADIO. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DEMS AND REPS. NOTHING ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

It was a casual shot across the bow, a shrugged comment last week from Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss.: Advocates of an immigration overhaul would have to "deal" with talk-radio hosts who he said don't know what is in the legislation but want to kill it nonetheless.

The return fire to that passing comment has been withering, as some of the nation's most prominent conservative talkers turn on a man they once defended adamantly.

San Francisco's Michael Savage, who hosts "The Savage Nation," accused Lott of dispatching Nazi storm troopers against his critics. A National Review blogger tagged the senator "Vacant Lott."

"When I hear a United States senator say that what I do for a living is a 'problem' that the government has to 'deal with,' you can interpret it any number of ways," Rush Limbaugh said on the air. "He's either saying, 'Well, we're going to have to come up with our own ways to overcome them' or 'We're going to just have to wipe them out.' "

Democrats have long borne the scars of such tongue-whippings from the AM dial. But now conservative Republicans are feeling the lash as well.

"I've had my phones jammed for three weeks," Lott said. "To think that you're going to intimidate a senator or any senator into voting one way or the other by gorging your phones with phone calls -- most of whom don't even know where Gulfport, Miss., is -- is not an effective tactic. But it's their right to do that."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the immigration bill's chief architects, suggested on Sunday that opponents of the deal border on being racist.

"We've been down this road before -- 'no Catholics,' 'no Jews,' 'Irish need not apply,' " Graham said on ABC's "This Week."

Those quotes suggest that Republicans favorably disposed to the immigration bill are more interested in calling its opponents names than debating the bill's merits, said conservative blogger and talk show host Hugh Hewitt, who declared he has read the entire immigration bill.

"They are not giving sophisticated answers to sophisticated, penetrating criticisms," Hewitt said. "They're attempting to silence the debate."

But the conservative response to Lott may be symptomatic of a broader disenchantment with the Republican Party, said Michael Harrison, editor and publisher of Talkers magazine, which chronicles talk radio. The immigration debate is a bellwether, he said, but conservative criticism is brewing on issues from education to spending to Iraq. Last week, the magazine granted its annual Freedom of Speech Award to Savage for his criticism of President Bush, the first time Harrison can remember honoring a talk show host for speaking out against someone of his own political persuasion.

Republican politicians "assumed they owned conservative talk radio," Harrison said. "But support of conservatives by talk radio was only being borrowed as long as conservatives felt that Republicans served the conservative movement."

Republicans backing the immigration bill were mindful this week of Lott's experience -- and contrite. Asked about the radio response, Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., joked, "I ain't saying a thing" before adding: "When we want to be on talk radio, we find a way to get on, because we like their views and we like their audience. So when we don't like their message, we ought to be willing to take the pain."

But to the bill's opponents, it's not about grinning and bearing it, as Martinez is doing. It's about accepting the judgment of the GOP's base.

"Talk radio was sort of the watchdog on this," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. "Who else was watching out? Who else was reading the bill?"

THEY THINK THEY ARE SEEING PASSION WITH THIS IMMIGRATION BILL. IF THEY TRY TO DUMB DOWN TALK RADIO OR THE INTERNET....THEY WILL HAVE FIRESTORM ON THEIR HANDS.

THEY REALLY ALREADY HAVE MORE PROBLEMS THAN THEY REALIZE RIGHT NOW. THEY THINK AFTER THIS IMMIGRATION THING IS OVER THAT THEY CAN LULL US BACK TO SLEEP. BUT I THINK THE FLOODGATES HAVE BEEN OPENED AND THE WHEEL IS IN MOTION.

THINGS ARE GOING TO CHANGE.