Limbaugh's Savage Crusade
by John Nichols

Rush Limbaugh is not just making an issue of Michael J. Fox's
campaign ads for Democratic candidates who support stem-cell
research. The conservative talk-radio personality is making it the
issue of a fall campaign that gets stranger by the day.

While it may be hard to figure out why anyone with Limbaugh's
political pull and national prominence would declare war on the guy
who played Alex P. Keaton -- one of television's most outspoken, if
eccentric, conservatives -- in the series "Family Ties," there is no
denying the intensity of the assault.

For the better part of three hours each day this week, the radio
ranter has been "Swift Boating the television and film star for
daring to do what Limbaugh -- who freely admits that he is an
entertainer -- does every day.

In Limbaugh's warped assessment of the political process, it's fine
for him to try and influence the votes of Americans. But woe be it to
anyone else who attempts to do so.

Since Fox began speaking up in favor of candidates who support
science over superstition, the television and film star who suffers
from Parkinson's disease has been accused by Limbaugh of
"exaggerating the effects of the disease" in campaign commercials in
which he points out that Democratic candidates for the Congress and
governorships in the battleground states of Missouri, Maryland,
Illinois, Wisconsin and now Iowa favor a serious approach to stem-
cell research while their Republican opponents do not. Limbaugh was
relentless in his assault on Fox. "He's moving all around and shaking
and it's purely an act," the conservative commentator says. "This is
really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his
medication or he's acting." After it was pointed out to Limbaugh
everyone, literally everyone, who knows anything about Parkinson's
disease, Limbaugh declared, "Now people are telling me they have seen
Michael J. Fox in interviews and he does appear the same way in the
interviews as he does in this commercial. All right then, I stand
corrected. . . . So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and
I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing
his behavior on this commercial as an act."

That should have been the end of it.

But Limbaugh wasn't backing off. His new theme became: "Michael J.
Fox is allowing his illness to be exploited and in the process is
shilling for a Democratic politician."

One problem with that line of attack is that Fox was the one who
volunteered to cut the ads, with the express purpose of helping
voters see beyond the spin and recognize the stark choices that they
will be making on November 7. Another problem is that, two years ago,
Fox cut an ad supporting a top Republican, Pennsylvania U.S. Senator
Arlen Specter, who supports embryonic stem-cell research. But the
biggest problem is with Limbaugh's emphasis on the Fox's physical
appearance, as opposed to what the actor is saying in the ads? Why
blather on and on about whether Fox, an actor, might be acting?

Because it is easier to criticize the way that Michael J. Fox looks
than it is to criticize the content of his message.

Fox's ads are fact-based. They reference the voting records, public
statements and policy initiatives of the Democratic and Republican
candidates he is talking about.

That being the case, beating up on the "Back to the Future" kid would
not seem like a smart political strategy. And it certainly is not
going to help Limbaugh soften his image as a partisan hitman who
knows a little too much about what it means to be on or off
particular medications.

So why are Limbaugh and other readers of Republican talking points
continuing to accuse Fox of "acting" sick, and of lying his own
disease and about the role that stem-cell research may play in the
search for treatments and a cure? Why devote so much time and
energy to attacking one ailing actor and one set of commercials? It
has a lot to do with the powerful lobby that is opposing serious
stem-cell research.

Unspoken in much of the debate over this issue is the real reason why
candidates such as U.S. Senator Jim Talent, the embattled Republican
incumbent who is the target of Fox's criticism in Missouri, and U.S.
Representative Mark Green, the Republican gubernatorial candidate who
is mentioned in Fox's ads in Wisconsin, so vehemently oppose
embryonic stem-cell research.

It is not because they think the research is unnecessary -- no one
who has heard from top scientists and groups advocating on behalf of
the sick and suffering, as both Talent and Green have, would take
such a stand. Rather, it is because Talent, Green and other
politicians who are campaigning not just against their Democratic
opponents but against scientific inquiry want to maintain the support
of the groups that oppose serious stem-cell research: the powerful
and influential anti-choice political action committees that in each
election cycle spend millions of dollars in questionable cash to
support candidates who are willing to echo their faith-based
opposition to research that could identify treatments and perhaps
even cures for for life-threatening illnesses such as Parkinson's
disease, Lou Gehrig's disease, Type I or Juvenile Diabetes, Duchenne'
Dystrophy, and spinal chord injuries.

Groups that oppose reproductive rights are central players in our
politics because they have established networks that serve as some of
the most effective hidden conduits for special-interest money that is
used to pay for crude attack campaigns against mainstream candidates.

They also mobilize voters on behalf of contenders who cynically
embrace the ugliest forms of anti-scientific dogma to make the rounds
since the evolution deniers ginned up the Scopes trial. For this
reason, the antiabortion machine gets what it wants when it wants it.

Politicians who align themselves with antichoice groups are willing
to attack anyone who challenges them -- and for good reason. In
states across the country, so-called "Right-to-Life" and "Pro-Life"
groups spend freely on behalf of the candidates they back. And much
of that spending goes essentially undetected, as the groups often do
not give money directly to candidates but instead run "issue ads" and
mount independent-expenditure campaigns.

Republican politicians like Talent and Green fully understand that,
without the behind-the-scenes work of antiabortion groups -- most of
which flies under the radar of the media and campaign-finance
regulators -- they could not possibly win. And Limbaugh, whose stated
goal is to maintain Republican hegemony, is perhaps even more aware
of the fact than the candidates he is working so feverishly to elect.
That's why the radio personality is on a personal crusade against
Fox. That's also why Limbaugh has been willing to stick to his
outlandish claims about the actor, even while acknowledging that he's
gotten the facts wrong.

Like the Republican politicians who are scrambling to smear Fox,
Limbaugh is doing the bidding of one of the most powerful behind-the-
scenes political forces in America -- a force that is essential to
Republican prospects. And he is not going to let a little thing like
the truth make him back off.

Politics is a cynical game. But, sometimes, the cynicism becomes so
extreme that the word "unconscionable" doesn't quite seem to capture
the ugliness of it all.

so sad they can't even count on there original propaganda machine