Yesterday, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), the chairman of the conservative Republican
Study Committee, complained to Politico about how Rush Limbaugh and other
conservative talkers are able to “stand back and throw bricks” instead of offering
“real leadership” in the middle of high-profile public policy battles.
This morning — because of what he called “high volume of phone calls and
correspondence” in response to his comments — Gingrey issued a retraction,
declaring his loyalty to hate radio. “I see eye-to-eye with Rush Limbaugh,” he
said, later adding that he, Sean Hannity, and Newt Gingrich were “the voices of
the conservative movement’s conscience.”
But Gingrey’s mea culpa was not yet complete. Apparently concluding that his
criticism of Limbaugh was so off-base that it merited a personal, on-air apology
to Limbaugh, Gingrey made a rare guest appearance on Limbaugh’s radio
show this afternoon. Addressing the hate radio host as a “conservative giant,”
Gingrey apologized for what he termed his “foot-in-mouth disease“:
(Source: YouTube.com and ThinkProgress.org)
