View host Hasselbeck: Rush Limbaugh 'blocks hope'  Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh is used to getting slammed by folks on the left for his often over-the-top commentary, but this week he also managed to infuriate perhaps his only fellow right-leaning pundit with a forum on daytime network TV.
"Let's say it is Obama and Hillary…Let's put Hillary at the top — That's a position she's familiar with," Limbaugh said on his radio show Wednesday, as noted by CNN's Political Ticker. "Therefore, you've got a woman and a black for the first time ever on the Democrat ticket. Ahem. They don't have a prayer."
View co-host Whoopi Goldberg rhetorically asked, "Now, isn't this still America? Isn't this the place where we say anybody could be president if you are a United States citizen? Should we say they don't have a prayer quite yet?"
Republican counterpoint Elisabeth Hasselbeck agreed with her liberal co-host, calling Limbaugh a "blocker."
"That's what I call someone who blocks progress, blocks hope, blocks someone from getting something that they most likely deserve," Hasselbeck explained. "I think he's wrong."
Then Barbara Walters noted that "a lot of conservatives love him."
"I don't," Hasselbeck replied. "I'm a conservative and I don't love him."
Comedian Joy Behar then decided to get personal by mocking Limbaugh's history of prescription drug abuse. "Isn't Oxycontin a downer drug?" she asked.
A clearly agitated Hasselbeck continued to pile on Limbaugh, "I think that's giving him an out. I don't think it's about the drugs. I don't think it's about his past. It's about his intention and his heart and I think it's cruel."
The fifth View host, Sherri Evonne Shepherd, added that there was an "undercurrent of racism" in Limbaugh's remarks.
Left unsaid by all the View hosts was that Limbaugh had also attacked them the day before, when they had discussed prior comments made by him.
"Do you want to hear the babes on The View discuss this?" Limbaugh said on his show Wednesday. "Do you want to hear what they have to say? I literally marvel, I really do, at the obtuseness, the dim-wittedness, the no 'there' there-ism of some of these women."
Limbaugh even laid into Hasselbeck for daring to criticize a fellow conservative.
"And then this poor old Elisabeth Hasselbeck is the conservative on this program and is going out of her way -- it's pathetic," Limbaugh added. "This program has the potential to be doing more damage to women than Oprah is doing. Good Lord, it's insulting. There have to be executives at ABC that understand the literal ignorance that's being broadcast on their network signals each and every day. I guess they know their audience."
This video is from ABC's The View, broadcast March 6, 2008.
Transcript via closed captions
:: we all have good intentions. but speaking of intentions, i don't know what these intentions were. did anybody happen to see rush limbaugh or hear his comments?
:: yes.
:: can i play it for you and then we can talk about it?
:: sure.
:: say there is --
:: now, isn't this still america? isn't this the place where we say anybody could be president if you are a united states citizens? should we say they don't have a prayer?
:: no. he's a blocker.
:: a blocker?
:: that's what i call someone who blocks progress, blocks hope, blocks someone from getting something that they most likely deserve.
:: a lot of conservatives love him.
:: isn't oxycontin a downer drug?
:: it may be. but that's beside the point.
:: i think that's giving him an out. i don't think it's about the drugs. it's about his intention and his heart and i think it's cruel.
:: this is un-american.
:: he's very un-americ. very unpatriotic. [applause] just because you put a flag on your lapel --
:: for me, this statement, i'm here 52 years and not one year did i think there was anything i couldn't do in this country and that i wouldn't be ok trying. to have someone say, you know, not a prayer, in america, that it's not possible, to me that's like spitting on the floor and saying go to hell.
:: after laughing.
:: it's so bad.
:: talk about patriotism.
:: it just aggravated the poop out of me.
:: people don't take him seriously anymore. he's just a big, fat joke.
:: you don't think so? he's got a lot of fans.
:: but they always vote the same way anyway. it's not like they're going to suddenly vote for obama or hillary. fine.
:: is he taking credit for hillary?
:: i understand that he and a lot of the other right-wing talk show people were saying go out and vote for hillary and he's saying a perceage of people voted for hillary based on him telling him to do it.
:: i don't think rush is behind the rush of people to the polls anyway.
:: it may be somewhat true.
:: i wonder how many people do make an impact. oprah does.
:: she's more positive.
:: yes. but there's so much chat chat chat that information you respect the person enormously, as i do oprah, it doesn't mean anything.
:: whatever it is.
:: we should not take somebody else's opinion.
:: there is something racist and sexist in the remark.
:: and the undercurrent of racism --
:: and sexism. it is both. again, it's un-american. that's why people fought and got bitten by dogs trying to change the way we see black people, the way we see women, all of these changes, so that you, rush, could say what you're saying and so i can say what i'm saying. but that was totally wrong to me. i don't know. maybe i'm crazy.
:: we should be celebrating the fact that we have --
:: yes. because we have three great candidates.
:: we do. we're fortunate in this country.
:: mommy, daddy and grandpa. [applause]
 
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