-By Warner Todd Huston
On April 2 on Fox News’ The Five, former George W. Bush press secretary Dana Perino criticized Doctor Ben Carson for appearing on too many conservative shows. This criticism sent talk show host Mark Levin into criticism of his own saying he was sick of these “preening, elitist, country club Republican(s).”
Ben Carson is the newest star in the conservative firmament and he’s now entering that spot in his debut onto the scene were pundits think they know better about how he should comport himself than he does. Thus, Perino’s advice for Carson is to stop doing TV and radio and “lay low” for a while.
Why? According to Perino it’s because doing conservative talk radio is bad for his image. Already Carson has “burned through so much of his credibility,” Perino claimed.
Dr. Carson is just at the very beginning of introducing himself to the nation’s conservatives and has a long way to go before he is a household name among conservative voters. One might imagine that a sudden break from the very forums where he can reach his intended audience the easiest might be more like a mistake than a sensible tactic.
Whatever Perino meant by her prescription for Carson’s success, it was all too much for Levin.
“I am sick of the preening, elitist, country club Republicans who don’t have a clue,” Levin said of Perino. “I don’t know what she has done for this country other than serve as a spokesman for a president, but I can tell you that many of you and I, we have been the precinct workers, we have been the litigators, we have been the activists long before people like her were on the public scene.”
Levin went on to list some of the things he’s done for the conservative cause and noted that he did it all without the help of “one damn Bush staff member with us.”
Before becoming a radio talk show host, Levin worked in the Ronald Reagan administration, was the chief of staff for Attorney General Edwin Meese, and is also currently president of the Landmark Legal Foundation and best selling author.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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