Media Matters has audio of Rush Limbaugh going to town against Paul Hackett on election day, accusing him of hiding behind his uniform. Crooks and Liars also has a short clip of Limbaugh calling Hackett a staff puke. (BizzyBlog dives into this more.)

Now Rush will say or do anything to help the GOP, but I do have to respect the move. Waiting till the last minute to really unleash his bile was pure brilliance. On all of the other slime moves we countered things pretty fast. By waiting till the last possible second he was able to have an immediate impact with minimum back lash. Very well played.

Personally I think that the Republicans are playing with fire on this one. Each time they make the attack the backlash is harder. Rush executed it better than anyone, but it’s still very risky. Store this one in your memory banks and watch for it coming back again.

One way that we can help amplify the backlash is to take greater notice of legislation that is submitted in Congress to help Veterans by Democrats that Republicans block. Then we have not just words but actions. Greater awareness of what’s going on in Congress can really help us use their actions against them. Even though a bill doesn’t pass it can still be useful by tying the opposition down. Since Schmidt is a Republican in a House where blind obedience is key to any largess, it will be easy to find these votes and use them against her. Either she goes against the Delay line and is punished now or she toes the line and is punished later. In order for this to happen we will have to be paying attention.

ASIDE: What’s really interesting about all of the Republican attacks on Hackett is that they are attacking someone who’s about as close to the President’s position on Iraq as anyone in the Party. As usual it’s all about short term over long term gain for them. How does it help your cause in the long run when you’ve shown a complete willingness to say and do anything against a service man who’s backing your basic position on a very unpopular military action? Their position is brittle and invites further pressure from the opposition.