"Disgruntlement can now be found not only among the more flamboyant radio voices, like Michael Savage, who raged against Mr. Bush’s proposals on immigration and other issues, but also among more mainstream hosts, like Laura Ingraham, who told her listeners in the wake of the scandal involving former Representative Mark Foley and under-age Congressional pages, “You have to ask yourself, the people who are in positions of power now in the Republican Party, are they able to credibly articulate the conservative agenda to the American people — to rally the base, to rally the country?”
Such questions, coming from such quarters, have created yet another challenge for the White House and the central party leadership as they work to steer Republicans to victory next month in the face of low approval ratings and dissatisfaction among the party faithful.
Strategists on both sides agree that the party’s greatest hope for holding control of Congress now rests with its ability to get core Republicans to vote, and that talk radio, which reaches millions of them, is crucial to the task.
Democratic strategists say talk radio remains a fearsome Republican advocacy force for which they have little direct answer. (Air America, which features liberal hosts, including Al Franken, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week.) The top two rated conservative hosts, Mr. Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, have done more than their part to rally their listeners this year, especially during the Foley scandal, to the great relief of Republican Party officials. And even those critical of Mr. Bush or the party on specific issues still consider themselves major supporters in general, with perhaps the exception of Mr. Savage.
But Mr. Savage is the third most popular host in the nation, with at least eight million listeners weekly, according to Talkers. And the Democrats have watched happily as he and others have at times sent reverberations of conservative frustration into what they often call the “Republican echo chamber.”
The challenge now falls to party strategists to persuade the hosts to overcome the frustrations of many hard-core listeners over issues like spending and border security without alienating them."
Michael Savage is one of the few significant radio hosts who tells it like it is and is not marching step in step with either party.
I feel as though the republican party no longer represents conservative ideals, to say the least, while the democratic party is a mix of socialists and "blame america first" activists who are leading it down the road towards madness.
