HEADLINE: "Talk shows influence immigration debate"

[Bluebear]

Awww, poor Republicans. They liked conservative talk radio just fine and dandy while it was stirring up hornet's nests over Whitewater, travelgate, Monica, etc. ad nauseum. They liked talked radio when they turned previously quasi-reasonable Americans into spitting bundles of manufactured outrage, always hopping mad about something. Well, you made your beds, lie in them, assholes.

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WASHINGTON - Immigration has supplanted Iraq as the leading issue on television and radio talk shows, complicating the prospects of a Senate bill desperately wanted by President Bush. Conservative talk radio's impact on the immigration debate reached new heights last week, with one host effectively writing an amendment for when the Senate returns to the imperiled bill this week.

National talk show hosts have spent months denouncing the bill as providing amnesty for illegal immigrants. Some top Republicans who support the legislation have defied the broadcast pundits. Others GOP lawmakers have tried to placate them, even to the point of accepting their ideas for amendments...

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., told reporters last week, "Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem." Some hosts, he added, do not know what is in the lengthy bill. The comments incensed conservative talk show hosts who generally had supported Lott over the years. Lott is "upset that the American people got right into the middle of the conversation over the problem with illegal aliens and it didn't turn out all that well for the pro-amnesty forces," Atlanta-based talk show host Neal Boortz wrote on his Web site.

"If Trent Lott and his other buddies up on the Hill aren't listening to 'talk,' then what are they listening to? The answer is either their wallet or their legacy." Radio host Rush Limbaugh asked his audience: "What are we going to do about Mississippi Senator Trent Lott?"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070623/ap_on_go_co/immigration_talk_radio

[Jim Warren]

1. Another senator

Don't remember right now, Kyl or Graham maybe, was mentioning something about blogs and message boards also.

I don't listen to talk radio at all so I can't say but the net is ablaze right now with this issue.
I can't believe the traffic on some sites, scan a page on a message board and it's like 2 or 3 minutes difference in posting time from the top to the bottom of the page. Frenetic, faster than DU on primary a night.;)

[VP505]

2. Well, well

so: "Sen.Trent Lott, R-Miss., told reporters last week, "Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem." Some hosts, he added, do not know what is in the lengthy bill." Well Trent, most Senators don't have a clue what's in most legislation they vote for cause ya know, their just way too busy with their wine and dining and pocket lining to read anything, so if that's good enough for Gov work why should talk show folks be held to a higher standard??? BTW, if you don't like the peeps reaction to the bill, why not write one that matches what the majority of Americans want instead of what King George the Commander Guy and his corporate cronies want???