Let's take for example the "Barack the Magic Negro" skit that many point to as proof of Rush's inherent racism, or playing on the racism of his audience. It was a parody based on a column written by a black man. In other words, it was a black man who promoted the "Magic Negro" theory upon Obama — and he made a good case. Making fun of Obama with a parody song, even in ways Rush's detractors find distasteful, is not racist. Even if he uses the word "negro."

This reminded me of an excellent piece on racism by the late, great George Carlin.

I get tired of people talking about bad words and bad language. Bullshit! It’s the context that makes them good or bad. The context. That makes them good or bad. For instance, you take the word “Nigger.” There is absolutely nothing wrong with the word “Nigger” in and of itself. It’s the racist asshole who’s using it that you ought to be concerned about. We don’t mind when Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy say it. Why? Because we know they're not racist. They're Niggers! Context. Context. We don’t mind their context because we know their black. Hey, I know I’m whitey, the blue-eyed devil, paddy, ofay, gray boy, honkey, mother-fucker myself. Don’t bother my ass. Their only words. You can’t be afraid of words that speak the truth, even if it’s an unpleasant truth, like the fact that there’s a bigot and a racist in every living room on every street corner in this country.”

A black man writing a racially charged piece about Obama is completely different from a white man adapting it into a skit and perfroming it in front of a white audience.

Comparing Rush with Sharpton is so outrageous ... no wonder Joel ducked out after being taking apart, with grace, in the comments above.

Don'tcha love liberals? When they can't pin a racist statement on their opponents they fall back on Code Words, or Coded Language, or other such nonsense. Despicable.

It's Code for ... I can't win this argument, so I'll shut it down with the race card.

If Rush had said, or done, 1/3 of the stuff Sharpton has done he'd be drummed off the public stage by now. Isn't it reverse racism, or something equally foul, that keeps him in the limelight?

Everyone’s a racist in Barack Obama’s America. I believe Rush said. As usual, he’s is right. Liberalism truly is a mental disorder. Whatever! I’m over it.

It seems to me that all the negative vibes this blowhard (Rush Hudson Limbaugh A.KA. Jeff Christie) has been spewing over these many years has come back to blow back on his face (A classic “Blow Back”). He always tries to give off the airs that he can have anything he wants but as we all witness those with more money and more influence tossed him aside like sack of potatoes and the ultimate insult was that it was done in public (money don’t buy you everything butterball).

Now of course he blames everyone else (Michael J. Fox, Perez Hilton, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Sonia Sotomayor, Hillary Clinton, Olympia Snowe, ESPN, NFL, the media, basically people of color, the handicapped, women and gays) when of course all you have to do is listen to his show and plainly hear his daily prejudices filled sermons. So NFL, I salute you decision, job well done. And to the whaling cry baby perched on his self made pedestal, quit your whining it was your own fault. Don’t we all feel better?

Joel,

An interesting compendium of stuff. I think Rush goes hyperbolic too often - it is, show biz, I supposed, but he's so good and smart I wish he would dial it back a bit. I also think in my fury over the media pinning blatantly false quotes to Rush's chest I blended racist with race baiter. That's my fault.

But most of the quotes you re-posted aren't really race baiting ... it's going on the offensive after being called a racist.

If you're not black, you probably can never know what it feels like to be discriminated against because of your color. In a much less passionate way, if you're not a conservative, you don't know what it's like to be called a racist for your political beliefs. Not directly comparing the two - the former is far worse, with a far more terrible and cruel history, but the latter stinks.

Much of the comments attributed to Rush stem from the right being called a racist. Other comments deal with specific people who, if they were white, would be drummed out of their particular position (what Sotomayor said - repeatedly - about the "wise Latina" would be beyond the pale if the skin colors were reversed. Same with Van Jones.

Some of the material in Conor's posting lacks context ... and mean very little to me. I've heard Rush say most of what he referenced, and often the material is part of a much larger conversation.

But some of it Rush clearly should have been more muted on/pulled back the reigns. Saying racism is a province of the Left is just flat out silly.

The Sharptons of the world go out and provoke racial issues when they often don't exist. Did he and Jackson apologize for the Duke lacrosse case? That's a race baiter to me. Rush is often responding to the news of the day, or striking back against those who call him, or his listeners, or those on the right in general, racists. That's a far different matter to me.

The Somali example is a case where Rush pushed too far ... he used the media template but exaggerated it to make a point. A wrong point. clearly.

If the Left didn't spend so much time dealing the race card, I doubt Rush would bother to bring up race.

And by the way the Donovan McNabb thing is not racism ...or race baiting. Its the observation that the media often takes a softer stance toward people of color. Just look at how the media treated a person of color who ran for the highest office in the land. That said, I thought his McNabb comments were not on the mark. Not racist, not race baiting, just not accurate in that case.

Reposting the Conor stuff has given me food for thought, though. It is provocative, and I'll likely listen to Rush in a new way from now on.

Since it appears were at the end of going back and forth on the Rush/racism issue (unless I've jinxed it), let me just make one final point (though I make no binding promises). Christian writes:

That said, I thought his McNabb comments were not on the mark. Not racist, not race baiting, just not accurate in that case.

This has been one of the relatively minor things that has bothered me, but still annoys. Rush was right on both counts. In 2003, Donovan McNabb was overrated, and the (mostly liberal) sports media was reluctant to point it out because it would be bad form to criticize a black quarterback. I think there is no disputing the latter whatsoever. Some writers have even admitted it. And you could defend the decision, considering the NFL's history of not giving black quarterbacks a solid chance in the league (though by 2003 that bias was long gone).

Anyway, on to McNabb's performance. Anyone who watched McNabb — who is today a borderline Hall of Famer — was familiar with his specialty back then: The underthrow. Pass after pass, especially in key situations, was more likely to hit the turf a yard in front of the receiver than it was to reach his hands.

And the statistics back up McNabb's pedestrian QB play. While the Eagles had winning records and successful years with McNabb under center, as Rush noted it was not demonstrably because of stellar QB play. Through the 2002 season (Rush's comments were very early in the 2003 season), McNabb had never posted a QB rating over 86. That's good, but not great. McNabb's completion percentage was never above 58.4 percent. Again, that's pretty average.

In subsequent years, McNabb has improved pretty dramatically. His completion percentage has topped 60 in four of the last six seasons (including this one), and his QB rating has only once in the last seven years has been as bad as when Rush made his statement. The ultimate irony and Rush vindication: 2003, the year he called McNabb overrated, was the worst season of McNabb's career.

Here is a link to Limbaugh's op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.