You can’t call it the dog days of summer, there’s so much news out
there. North Korea is taunting and Iran is testing the president and
his administration. GM went into bankruptcy, the feds are trying to
spend our way out of massive debt, and major health care reform
proposals are starting to roll out this week.

But the media are focused on the GOP. The party can’t find
themselves at the moment, but they’re working on it, as parties do when
they’re down and out. However, the media find this political
restructuring of the party in the minority tantalizing enough to keep
in the top headlines on television and on the front page news. Like USA Today did today.

Funny, all this fixation on Rush Limbaugh. In fact, Jon Stewart did
a montage on The Daily Show last night (not part of the one below)
showing rapid clips of network news people repeatedly carrying on
about Limbaugh. Stewart pointed out that even Rush Limbaugh doesn’t say
his name as many times in one hour as they do.

USA Today carried on this way as well.

A 52% majority of those surveyed couldn’t come up with a
name when asked to specify “the main person” who speaks for Republicans
today. Of those who could, the top response was radio talk show host
Rush Limbaugh (13%), followed in order by former vice president Dick
Cheney, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former House speaker Newt
Gingrich. Former president George W. Bush ranked fifth, at 3%.

So the dominant faces of the Republican Party are all men, all
white, all conservative and all old enough to join AARP, ranging in age
from 58 (Limbaugh) to 72 (McCain). They include some of the country’s
most strident voices on issues from Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the
Supreme Court to President Obama’s policies at home and abroad. Two are
retired from politics, and one has never been a candidate.

Two questions. Did we get to see this kind of coverage and analysis
back when the Democrats were at odds and failing to keep their seats
and trying to rediscover themselves? And….why are the liberal media
(and liberal politicians) the ones who keep bringing up race, class,
gender and age? Aren’t they all about tolerance and diversity?