By Mike Dorning
Liberal talk radio hosts were in plenty of hot water this month..
First, there was Ed Schultz, who called John McCain a “warmonger” for the presumptive Republican nominee’s support for continuing U.S. involvement in the conflict in Iraq.
And then there was Randi Rhodes, who was suspended from the liberal talk radio network Air America last week after using profanities to describe Hillary Clinton in an off-air stand-up routine the previous month. On Thursday, Rhodes said she was leaving the radio network.
Schultz’s comments, made in introductory remarks for a Barack Obama appearance at a fundraising dinner for North Dakota Democrats, earned Schultz a rebuke from the Obama campaign.
Still, Schultz stuck by the comment when interviewed about it on CNN last Monday.
“I’m sorry, John, the label sticks. John McCain is a warmonger,” Schultz said
“Labeling a candidate is not being disrespectful,” Schultz told CNN host John Roberts. McCain’s policies, Schultz said, “fit the description, there’s no question about that. … John McCain has no end game in Iraq. … (He) is saber rattling with Iran. … The man is a warmonger.”
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Rhodes, a popular Air America host and no fan of Hillary Clinton, used a profanity describing prostitutes to refer to Clinton and former Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro in a stand-up act at a San Francisco night club sponsored by the local Air America affiliate. Rhodes also suggested Ferraro was racist, calling her “David Duke in drag.”On her March 31, Radio America program, Rhodes attacked Clinton for claims the former first lady made that she landed In Bosnia under sniper fire in 1996—an account Clinton has now admitted was erroneous. Referring to video aired of the landing, Rhodes called Clinton’s recounting of the episode a “big stinkin’ lie…Every single solitary airport landing I have ever had has been more traumatic than what I saw on the video in Tuzla.”
The Project for Excellence in Journalism’s “Talk Show Index” also notes that conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh continued his “Project Chaos” last week, urging listeners to cross over and vote for Clinton as a way of prolonging the Democratic primary in the hope that that would weaken the party’s eventual nominee.