I'm not talking about endorsing Hillary. I'm talking about raising money for her because apparently the Republican 'strategery' is relying on fear and loathing of Hillary to unite everybody. -- Rush Limbaugh, Feb. 7, 2008

There's nothing the MSM loves more than Republican in-fighting. And of late, conservatives have concededly given the liberal media plenty to gloat about in that regard. Well-founded concerns about John McCain's unconservative positions on a host of issues have famously led to much heartburn in conservative circles. And yes, Rush Limbaugh has been leading the charge in raising the red flag about McCain.

But that doesn't justify Diane Sawyer's utter, complete, 180-degrees-wrong distortion and misrepresentation of what Rush said yesterday about possibly raising funds for Hillary. Sawyer portrayed Rush's comments as evidence of continuing conservative discontent. In fact, they were precisely the opposite. Here are the facts.

Sawyer interviewed Newt Gingrich on today's Good Morning America.

DIANE SAWYER: When Senator McCain called for calm and reason, I'm going to play Rush Limbaugh's response to the call for calm.

Cut to clip.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: We gotta calm down. That's what you say to six-year olds.

Fair enough. Rush was indeed rejecting McCain's proffer of a pacifier. But then . . .

SAWYER: And, just yesterday, Rush Limbaugh, as we know conservative talk show host on the radio, he said that he's even thinking of helping Senator Clinton, Hillary Clinton, raise money. So perhaps ironically, but this doesn't sound like a group of conservatives coming around.

But have a look at the screen graphic that Sawyer either didn't read or chose to ignore. Rush wasn't proposing raising money for Hillary because he wants to see her beat McCain. To the contrary, he said that he wants Clinton to get the nomination "so that we win the White House"! That reflects Rush's view, shared by many, that Hillary would be easier to defeat than Obama. In case there's any doubt, here is the relevant [subscription-required] transcript from Rush's show of yesterday.

[Obama] doesn't exude a personality that makes you dislike him. He doesn't exude a personality that makes you fear him. He doesn't talk enough about his policies to make you fear those. So fear and loathing, if he gets the nomination, any Republican is going to be handcuffed here in terms of how to deal with it.

If Obama gets it, you're going to have an age contrast. You're going to have an age contrast, you're going to have a generational contest, pass the torch, new generation. If these people on our side are going to rely on this anti-Hillary loathing, then you better do what you can to ensure she gets the Democrat nomination. In fact, I have seriously been considering -- we've done this before, there's precedent -- when the Democrat National Committee threw Carl McCall overboard, when he was running for governor, first black guy to run for governor of New York and they abandoned him, and they didn't give him any money, we fundraised. I asked you in this audience to send him a buck, and some of you did. He got a considerable amount of money. The New York Daily News had a columnist, E. R. Shipp, and she wrote a piece how embarrassing it was that Rush Limbaugh's listeners were donating to Carl McCall's campaign.

Now, it's obvious that the Republican Party wants Hillary because they want to use the fear and loathing to unite the party rather than leadership from within the party; am I safe in saying this? Think I am. The guy from Philadelphia just illustrated it, "Well, we want the fear and loathing of Hillary to unite the party rather than leadership from the party." Therefore, might it be required (she's having to loan herself money), do you think I should conduct a fundraiser for Mrs. Clinton? Mitt did his part today. He got out so as not to fracture the party any further and not to harm the effort to win the war in Iraq. Should I do my part, not by joining my liberal friends in the Republican Party, but actually raising money for Mrs. Clinton, and asking you to join me, so that she would have a chance here to once again have a good shot at getting a Democrat nomination so that we win the White House? (interruption) Well, but I didn't raise money for Howard Dean. I know I endorsed Howard Dean, but I didn't raise any money for him. I'm not talking about endorsing Hillary. I'm talking about raising money for her because apparently the Republican strategery is relying on fear and loathing of Hillary to unite everybody. If she's not the nominee, that's out the window.

Correction and apology from Sawyer forthcoming?

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.