The 2016 Republican Debates To Be Moderated By The Three Stooges

Aside from the news of the upcoming three ring circus that is the Republican Party campaign, there is a smaller story outside center ring that hasn’t gotten a lot of notice.

While the Republican National Committee (RNC) voted unanimously to ban specific networks from the debates, Republicans were already discussing possible moderators for the primaries and general election debates. Among the possible moderators expected to deliver an unbiased poll of questions are Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin.

Are you done laughing? OK, good.

Now that I have your attention, I can tell you that this is actually a good move for the Republican primary debates. By having a hard-core conservative that actually understands and speaks the Republican language, Republican candidates are going to be able to better express their views in light of the questions they are given. Having a questioner that understands specific policies and ideals of the candidates will give each candidate a better opportunity to differentiate their positions.

During a SiriusXM satellite radio show broadcast last week called The Wilkow Majority, communications director for the RNC, Sean Spicer, introduced the idea of Mark Levin moderating the debates. Spicer, who was originally appearing on the show to discuss the pending ban to CNN and NBC networks, pointed out the benefit of having smaller grassroots organizations, that are outside of mainstream media, report the viewpoints of the candidates.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus echoed those same thoughts Wednesday during an appearance on conservative talk show The Andrea Tantaros show. Priebus was on the show also to discuss the looming ban toward the networks producing specials about Hillary Clinton, but segued into a discussion of debate moderators when Tantaros mentioned the idea of a “talk radio debate.”

TANTAROS: “Chairman, what do you think about a talk radio debate, where maybe I get together with my buddy Sean Hannity and maybe a Mark Levin, and we interview some of the candidates because the base I think would like that.”

PRIEBUS: “I actually think that’s a very good idea. I mean, there’s a lot of good people out there that can actually understand the base of the Republican Party, the primary voters. You can very easily parse that out in a way that actually provides some substance to the Republican primary voters and what they actually want to talk about and understand.”

By the end of the week, the running conservative consensus focused on Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin handling the moderation of the debates. Whatever benefit ring master Priebus wants to glean from settling on these three as moderators, there are already a number of problems I see that show how out of touch the Republican Party still is.

Where are the women?? All of the possible moderators are middle-aged white men with histories of demeaning attitudes toward women. Also, there is no African-American, Latino-American, or any other minority chosen to moderate a debate. That outreach program of theirs must have been a total bust, so they just gave up. Personally, I would love to see Judge Judy moderate a debate and mop the floor with these losers, but I suppose that is wishful thinking since she is too smart for their liking.

If Judge Judy Sheindlin can handle this craziness, I doubt anyone could say that she could not handle a Tea Party Republican.

[Judge Video]

Rush Limbaugh originally talked up the idea of holding the debates in a controlled setting of harsh conservatives, but as soon as the RNC began to run with the idea, Rush couldn’t wait to “rush” as far away as he could. He apparently thinks his act is too big to follow. During a broadcast, Limbaugh claimed he is “too famous” and that he would “overshadow” the debate.

[Limbaugh broadcast]

Another problem is that Sean Hannity, as well as Limbaugh, have been dropped from Cumulus Radio. It has also been rumored that?FOX News?will be?replacing Hannity’s 9pm time slot with host Megyn Kelly. Hannity has been the main mouthpiece of the hard right hate, displayed on FOX News since 2004. It’s curious why they would allow him to moderate a debate when his ratings are falling because of views that have now seemingly become “too harsh” for FOX News and Cumulus.

Mark Levin is also bringing his own baggage to the circus show. Levin has vocalized his strong personal disgust with Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) since before Hurricane Irene, but more vociferously in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Levin has vocally led the charge for the right-wing base to oust Christie from the Republican Party. Obviously, Republicans are angry with the New Jersey Governor and his new-found appreciation of President Obama, but when it comes to broadening their base, Christie probably has a better shot at getting the votes compared to other potential nominees.

In a time when the Republican Party is trying to claw its way out of being the “Stupid Party,” it isn’t going to be a good idea to choose a moderator that has a decidedly outspoken personal problem with any one of the candidates.

[Levin Video]

Whatever the ultimate decision when the Republican Primaries do come around, it’s pretty clear that the clown car is just going in circles, ?looking for the big top pole to bring the entire circus tent crashing to the bottom. Here is Reince Priebus on ABC’s This Week, admitting that the whole idea behind the network ban is just a scam to manipulate the media coverage to the advantage of the Republican Party.

[Priebus Video]

Edited by JS

"...And so I say to all of you here and to all in the nation tonight that those who appeal to you to hold on to the past do so at the cost of denying you your future. This great rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all--all, black and white, North and South, sharecropper and city dweller. These are the enemies: poverty, ignorance, disease. They are our enemies, not our fellow man, not our neighbor. And these enemies too--poverty, disease and ignorance--we shall overcome." ~excerpt from speech by President Lyndon B Johnson, given two days after the start of the Selma Marches in an event that became known as Bloody Sunday.