Randi Rhodes and Ana Marie Cox joined Joy Behar to talk about right wing hate radio and Rush Limbaugh accusing the White House of "character assassination" after President Obama called some of the rhetoric from the likes of Limbaugh and Glenn Beck "troublesome". Randi summed up the hate talkers pretty well, it's all projection.
BEHAR: This country has 200 million or 300 million people on this country, so what is it, it`s a drop in the bucket and this guy gets a lot of press.
You know, Randi, talk to me about this upsurge in victimhood that I`m noticing. Tiger Woods` mistresses are all upset and they feel like the victims. The Catholic Church is the victim all of a sudden. I mean, and now Rush Limbaugh is the victim. What is that about?
RANDI RHONES: Well, you know, I don`t understand how he could accuse anybody of character assassination, because Rush doesn`t have any character.
So I`m lost here to understand, you know, what this argument is, unless you actually realize that this is all projection.
You know, this is what they did to him, or this is what Bush did. And so now all of a sudden he`s noticing that we have an unconstitutional president, we had a guy who outed CIA operatives, we had a guy who wire- tapped his own people.
We had a guy who -- and so now they`re saying oh, you know, we`re going to accuse them of doing everything we did. And that`s how people become these victims.
You know, it`s like -- an idea that, you know, people listen to him. They listened to him because Joy, they have no choice. He`s on every radio station.
BEHAR: I know, I know.
RHODES: He`s on -- they have no choice. So --
BEHAR: I mean, somebody -- somebody, something like Air America which both of you are on.
COX: Yes.
BEHAR: -- couldn`t make it, and yet this vitriol does make it.
COX: I think Air America could --
BEHAR: Well --
COX: -- I`m sure Randi would agree with me. I think there is an audience for the kind of stuff that Air America did. In fact, I think if you look at something like "The Daily Show" which is hugely popular, I mean, that`s the same kind of stuff that liberals --
BEHAR: That`s television.
COX: That`s television but I think that people are entertained by stuff that, Randi does and certainly, obviously she`s still doing to it.
BEHAR: Yes, that`s right, Randi, you do have that show.
RHODES: Yes.
BEHAR: But it`s not -- you -- you`re far between these cyber shows. Yes.
RHODES: Well, I don`t want to be sour or negative or anything about that, but Air America was run really badly. It wasn`t run by radio people. So --
BEHAR: All right.
RHODES: -- you had to sell it, market it, you know. Look at the people who came out of Air America. Ana Marie is at GQ. Rachel Maddow is on TV her own show.
BEHAR: All right, that ship has sailed. Let`s talk about Rush.
RHODES: I just don`t want him to be able to say that we failed in anyway.
BEHAR: No, you didn`t fail. You didn`t fail.
COX: No.
RHODES: No.
BEHAR: Now, what about the idea of using the word "regime". There`s something -- isn`t a regime -- the word "regal" is in regime.
COX: Right.
BEHAR: The word root --
COX: Yes.
BEHAR: Which is -- meaning like, you know, kings and queens are running the government.
COX: Well, it`s one of those words that somehow has a -- like a bad connotation, that somehow over the years has gotten mean something like Nazi regime, the Saddam Hussein regime overturn --
BEHAR: Yes, yes.
COX: -- in Iraq.
BEHAR: Ho Chi Minh.
COX: -- and Iran -- Ho chi Minh, I think it`s a word that other people have used, I mean, the Republicans have sent out several different e-mails I`ve gotten about Democrats using the word regime to describe Bush.
That`s not the problem there. The problem is when you use words like that to distract from debate, I think. I`m sure a famous one is also when people have called the social security scheme.
BEHAR: Oh yes.
COX: The scheme sounds much -- and maybe something ends on eme there`s some --
(CROSSTALK)
BEHAR: Well, I mean, you can play with words. I know Chris Matthews always called Dick Cheney `Cheeney.`
RHODES: Well, Joy, Joy.
BEHAR: Cheeney, which always sounds more evil. How about Boner -- Senator -- Representative Boner, there`s a good one. Go ahead, Randi.
RHODES: Well, I was just -- I mean, I don`t understand, you know, why people don`t get that Bush always talked about regime change in Iraq. And this is, again, the projection where exactly what the Republicans did. It`s now being laid at the foot of the Democratic Party that didn`t do it.
It`s all projection. They know what to say because they knew they were doing it for eight years. They tanked the economy, they raised the deficit, they tortured people, they outed CIA operatives, they lied to the American people about war and peace issues. And they called for regime change, axis of evil.
Every day on the radio, Joy -- you know, I drive now because I live in D.C. In New York I didn`t. Now I drive and I listen to nothing but talk radio and it`s all conservative.
It`s like they`re the best at name calling. You talk about bullying. I know how that story hits you, it hit me hard. They must have been bullied as children.
BEHAR: Oh yes. It is very much --
RHODES: Every time they have this long laundry list: sadist, Marxist, Maoist, Stalinist, you know --
BEHAR: All right, Randi, hang on there for a second. We have much more when we come back.
Full transcript available at CNN's site.
