Where’s the GOP?: Part 2

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?