March 20, 2012

Rush Goes X Files on Me and “Showdown”

Rush Limbaugh.<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ultravod/120460275/">Dan Correia</a>/Flickr

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My new book, Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Fought Back Against Boehner, Cantor, and the Tea Party, which comes out Tuesday, generated a burst of media attention on Monday. Huffington Post published an excerpt in which House Speaker John Boehner flees the Grand Bargain deficit-reduction talks with President Obama after House GOP colleagues warn Boehner that House majority leader Eric Cantor is poised to lead a mutiny against the speaker. Politico summed up a few of the more gripping moments in the book, including a meeting in which Obama expresses frustration with the Fox News-driven political culture. (Drudge linked!) Mediaite also picked up this Fox News tidbit, and Fox News’ Bret Baier pushed back. USA Today zeroed in on a portion of the book in which Obama compares himself to the protagonist in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Greg Sargent at the Washington Post dissected the book’s account of Obama’s pivot toward deficit reduction. Paul Krugman responded to Sargent’s post.

And then there was Rush Limbaugh. Referring to a Washington Post article published this past weekend on the collapse of last summer’s Grand Bargain talks (casting the Post piece as more negative toward the president than it was), the recently-besieged talk show host suggested that my book was part of some dark conspiracy related to that article. “The plot thickens,” he huffed. I believe he’s suggesting that a book a year in the making (which has a slightly different take on that episode) was cooked up and released this very week to counter a newspaper story. But it’s hard to tell. At least he didn’t call me a slut.

Listen:

 

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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