Even for Rush Limbaugh, Friday’s rant was truly contemptible. For a change, his disgusting rhetoric has actually drawn some noteworthy rebukes.
To briefly recap, the right-wing media personality was going after President Obama for sending 100 special operations forces into Uganda to address the crisis caused by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Limbaugh condemned the move by saying the president is “targeting Christians” in the African nation, and he proceeded to read LRA propaganda on the air.
For those unfamiliar with the LRA, it’s best described as a death cult. It invades villages, slaughters the adults, and kidnaps children. These terrorists have been known to go on killing sprees with machetes and axes, and leave trails of dead bodies when their kidnapped victims don’t walk quickly enough with the rest of the cult. The cult’s leaders claim some loose affinity for Christianity, but as Blake Hounshell explained, “To call the LRA ‘Christians’ is to abase the English language.”
Limbaugh, of course, didn’t much care about any of this. His goal was to attack the American president, and if that meant Limbaugh had to side with a depraved, roving band of mass murderers, so be it.
Criticism of Limbaugh’s insane antics came from a variety of sources, and yesterday, even reached the Senate floor.
[Y]esterday he received a rebuke from the Senate floor from someone who called the controversial radio host “my good friend Rush Limbaugh.”
Using Limbaugh’s and his cohorts name, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), said, “some people have mistakenly said that [the LRA’s leader] is a Christian, and I want to make sure everyone knows that he was officially disavowed by the Catholic Church in Uganda.” He went on to detail their group’s atrocities.
It’s unusual for any senator to take to call out an ideological out by name from the Senate floor, but even more so considering that Inhofe has in the past looked past egregious human rights violations to lend support for Christian leaders. In April, Inhofe defended former Ivory Coast dictator Laurent Gbagbo after other African and international leaders condemned him for taking up arms to retain power after losing the election to a Muslim rival. But the LRA is terrible enough for even Inhofe to reject.
Given Inhofe’s abhorrent record, I suppose this constitutes progress, though Inhofe’s rebuke might have carried more weight if he actually got around to criticizing the far-right host.
Limbaugh conceded today he was “misinformed,” but laughed off the story.
Evelyn Apoko, a survivor of LRA atrocities, probably doesn’t find any of this funny.
