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Happy Friday folks. Have a safe weekend. Here's what's happening this evening..... NOBEL PEACE PRIZE/PRESIDENT OBAMA-How unexpected was President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize victory? According to David Wright, who filed for WORLD NEWS on the topic, “The President apparently...
Rush Limbaugh: Nobel 'embarrassment'

by Mark Silva and updated at 6:30 pm EDT

Among the various reaction today to the news that President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Peace, perhaps the most stunning is radio Rush Limbaugh's suggestion that the president has been handed another embarrassment from Scandinavia.

And the national Republican Party chairman, calling Obama's award a sign of how "meaningless''' the Nobel Peace Prize has become, is calling on all Republicans to pitch in for the party tonight because the "Democrats and their international leftist allies want America made subservient to the agenda of global redistribution and control.''

"This actually makes total sense when you look at who these Nobel people are, these elite Norwegians, Europeans,'' Limbaugh said of the president's prize today on his show. "They love what Obama is doing.

"This fully exposes, folks, the illusion that is Obama,'' Limbaugh said. "This a greater embarrassment than losing the Olympics bid was.''

And Limbaugh suggested that Obama now will be hard-pressed to authorize any new deployment of U.S. forces in Afghanistanthough the president today acknowledged the continuing threat that terrorism in Afghanistan poses, even as he was acknowledging the Peace Prize.

"The elites of the world are urging him, a man of peace, to not do the surge in Afghanistan,'' Limbaugh said. "They are urging him not to take on Iran.... That's what this is really all about. How can he now send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan?''

Rep. Gresham Barrett, a South Carolina Republican running for governor back home, said this today:

"Congratulations to President Obama on his prize. I'm not sure what the international community loved best; his waffling on Afghanistan, pulling defense missiles out of Eastern Europe, turning his back on freedom fighters in Honduras, coddling Castro, siding with Palestinians against Israel, or almost getting tough on Iran.

"The world may love it, but following in the footsteps of Jimmy Carter (Nobel Peace Prize winner, 2002) is not where America needs to go. Hopefully, this surprise award will give the President cause to reevaluate his current course."

The Libertarian Party today suggested a new date for future awards of the Nobel Prize.

"Unlike the gullible people who listened to The War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938 and thought Martians really were attacking the United States, when I heard this morning that Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, I changed the channel in disbelief. But, the same thing was being said in multiple places," Libertarian National Committee Chairman William Redpath said.

"The gravity of the Nobel awards has not been augmented by some of their recent selections, including today's announcement, last year's award of the Economics prize to Paul Krugman, or the 2007 Peace Prize to Al Gore, whose global warming theories he will not defend in open debate,'' the Libertarian said. "Maybe an early Springtime announcement date would be more appropriate."

April Fool's Day, he suggested.

The White House has attempted to cast Limbaugh in the role of spokesman for the Republican Party. The actual spokesman today was equally as dismissive of the president's peace prize.

"The real question Americans are asking is, 'What has President Obama actually accomplished?' RNC Chairman Michael Steele said in a statement issued today. "It is unfortunate that the president's star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights.''

Steele followed up this evening with a fundraising appeal for the RNC ridiculing Obama's award as the "Prize for Awesomeness.''

"It's a stunning, if not truly surprising, indication of just how meaningless a once honorable and respected award has become,'' Steele told Republicans in a party fund-raising email. "What has President Obama actually accomplished?...

"The Democrats and their international leftist allies want America made subservient to the agenda of global redistribution and control,'' Steele wrote. "And truly patriotic Americans like you and our Republican Party are the only thing standing in their way.'' Make that contribution for " $25, $50, $100, $500 or $1,000,'' he suggested.

Where we were raised, someone who wins a Nobel Peace Prize usually is greeted with something along the lines of, "Congratulations.''

Which raises the question of where the embarrassment lies today.

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