Awwwwww... Frank Luntz Gets Outed-- And Then Gets Poutraged

A couple days ago we embedded a tape of Hate Talk Radio host Mark Levin's show, which has millions of listeners with no capacity for discernment. On it he denounced Paul Ryan as an Establishment shill and encouraged his listeners-- the ones I just referred to as lacking discernment-- to vote against him in the future. That might be great news for Rob Zerban or-- on a longshot-- Hillary Clinton-- but Establishment Republicans just hate when that happens. And it happens a lot, both from Levin and Big Daddy Limbaugh. And that was the topic of the latest skirmish in the GOP civil war this week, when Republican Party insider and consultant, Frank Luntz, let his slip show at a University of Pennsylvania question and answer session after a speech. (You wonder why a reputable University like UoP would invite a pathetic hack like Luntz? His father funded a scholarship. More about that in uno momento.)

The problem was about how Luntz answered a question about the polarization between the two Beltway parties. He blamed Limbaugh, Levin and the rest of the Hate Talk mob. "[T]hey get great ratings, and they drive the message, and it's really problematic. And this is not on the Democratic side. It's only on the Republican side… [Democrats have] got every other source of news on their side. And so that is a lot of what's driving it. If you take... Marco Rubio's getting his ass kicked. Who's my Rubio fan here? We talked about it. He's getting destroyed! By Mark Levin, by Rush Limbaugh, and a few others. He's trying to find a legitimate, long-term effective solution to immigration that isn't the traditional Republican approach, and talk radio is killing him. That's what's causing this thing underneath. And too many politicians in Washington are playing coy."

Playing coy? When one or two Republican officials have stood up to Limbaugh in the past, no one even had the guts to back them up and they were always forced to grovel within a day and publicly kiss his fat ass and beg for forgiveness. Now Luntz is so hysterical that getting on the bad side of Limbaugh-- and presumably junior versions like Levin-- that he's vowing to never speak at the University of Pennsylvania again and he's defunding the scholarship his father left the school! Huh? Yeah, he claims the public talk he gave was off the record. Here's some of the column in the Daily Pennsylvanian from the student who recorded it:

I made the choice to share my recording with Mother Jones because Luntz’s comments are important. They illustrate one of the largest schisms within the GOP and expose the hypocrisy of Luntz’s willingness to place blame for his party’s division upon a media establishment he has helped build. Further, his request to be taken off the record was never one to which I acquiesced. The reporter who was present was right to oblige Luntz, but in a room filled with scores of independent students, “off the record” is not a Patronus charm. Luntz may have felt that he was invited to speak candidly by acclimation, but I disagreed entirely.

...Frank Luntz has made a very successful career out of advising Republicans on the content of their message. He was asked one of the most important questions of the day in terms of American politics (“what is causing extreme polarization between the parties?”), and refused to speak freely. Why? Because doing so may harm his commercial interest. And this attitude is at the root of the problem. If influential GOP figures like Frank Luntz truly believe that the party’s media kingmakers harm the national interest but refuse to say so for fear of backlash, they knowingly work against the spirit of open and honest debate.

...Luntz told the audience on Monday that he would “rather lie than duck a tough question.” By asking to go off the record in order to speak frankly during a public engagement, he proved that he is willing to do both. This is an approach to politics which I cannot support, and I stand by my choice to expose it.