Limpballs -- The Man Who Ate the G.O.P. (Vanity Fair)

[jefferson_dem]

The Man Who Ate the G.O.P.
By Michale Wolff

In an ailing radio industry, with a graying audience and a pro-government landscape, Rush Limbaugh should be shuffling off into irrelevancy. Instead, his ever more outrageous attacks have everyone debating whether he’s the G.O.P.’s de facto leader, while the party shapes its ideology to fit his needs.

Rush Limbaugh, it seemed to me, had to be in huge trouble. Beyond his history of drug problems—in liberal circles there remains a constant is-he-isn’t-he speculation about the status of his prescription-painkiller addiction—beyond even the fact that the mighty conservative tide which he’d ridden to such success had certainly peaked, there were the terrible problems in his core business. Radio advertising rates were falling—even before the recession—Internet competition was rising, and Rush’s much-vaunted audience of 14 million was down from its high of 20 to 25 million during the Clinton years to closer to cable-TV size. The view at MSNBC was that, on a minute-by-minute basis, Limbaugh’s audience was now no bigger than that of its liberal stars, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow.

So, when, in the beginning of February, Limbaugh said he hoped that the new president would fail in his efforts to deal with economic calamity, this seemed much more like a desperate bid to stay in the game than it did a stroke of master showmanship. By any logical assessment of behavior, it still seems as if the man may be imploding. And yet, within a month of his issuing his provocative or nihilistic view about an Obama-led recovery, the argument had become not whether he was hopelessly marginalized but whether he was the most significant figure in the Republican Party.

In a jaunty and rapid-fire manner, he’d dealt with Republican congressman Phil Gingrey, who had mildly suggested—to a reporter’s question about Limbaugh’s derogatory comments about the Republican leadership—that there were able gentlemen running the party. After a torrential news cycle, Gingrey offered Rush an abject apology, which had the added sweetener (a little carrot and stick) of getting him an appearance—to reiterate his apology—on Rush’s show. Then Limbaugh laid into Republicans who had expressed reservations about Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal’s response—lame by every estimation—to the president’s speech on February 24 before a joint session of Congress. No matter how lame, Jindal still hewed to the orthodox conservative small-government views; hence, according to Rush, Jindal was “brilliant. He’s the real deal.” And if anybody said otherwise, well, they’d have to deal with Rush. Then, the day after Limbaugh addressed the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference (cpac), Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele gamely tried on CNN to face down D. L. Hughley’s assertion that Rush was the effective party leader. “Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh, his whole thing is entertainment,” Steele sputtered, only to find himself apologizing shortly thereafter when Rush had mauled him on the air. (The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put up a Web site—I’m Sorry, Rush—offering an automated form through which congressional Republicans could apologize to Limbaugh. Indeed, as I was writing this piece, a half-dozen Republican officials and operatives first committed to talk with me about Limbaugh and his effects on the party, and then, in a process of hand-wringing and revising their views, each decided, on better thought, not to risk even the smallest chance of waking up on the wrong side of Rush.)

The cpac speech was the Limbaugh topper. The meeting, an annual and usually uncommented-upon gathering of right-wing enthusiasts (Ana Marie Cox, the Washington gossip and political reporter, roaming the halls in her new job as a radio reporter for Air America, described it to me as “Woodstock for wing nuts”), was treated nearly as a third-party political convention because Rush was the main event. The entire three days of the conference, with Mike Huckabee, Ann Coulter, and Newt Gingrich, was a buildup to Rush. Fox News, carrying the speech live, promoted it for several days before.

The 58-year-old, post-pill-popping, post-cochlear-implant (to correct his deafness), post-fat-and-sloppy Rush appeared on the stage to a pounding welcome, looking like nothing more than … Johnny Cash. In black suit and black shirt, two buttons open, hair slicked back, he pronounced this—considering Fox’s live coverage—to be his “first ever address to the nation.”

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http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/05/rush-limbaugh200905?printable=true¤tPage=all

[Ian David]

1. I've heard some people say that drug-addicted gasbag Limbaugh is a pedophile. n/t

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. it wouldn't surprise me

[styersc]

3. I'm no Limbaugh fan.

But your weakly stated accusation (more of an an innuendo), particularly without attribution,is very Limbaugh-esque (not to mention Coulter, Hannity, Beck and Levin).

[Connie_Corleone]

4. I think it was meant to be innuendo. Sort of a running joke.

[Ian David]

5. Do I really have to google it for you? This is common knowledge. n/t

[styersc]

6. My apology. As long as there are hits on the internet.

Now I have to return to my Google research on Obama's birth certificate and the 666 on his scalp!

[cliffordu]

7. You'll not earn your gold pony if you continue to defend

That drug addicted pedophile Rush Limbaugh.

:shrug:

[styersc]

8. You satisfy the objective definition of propagandist.

I accurately pointed out that an unattributed slur, posted (and repeated) without evidence is the same tactic used by right wing nut jobs like Limbaugh, Hannity and the ilk. You, however, demand that I jump on the propagandist bandwagon or I must be a Rush supporter.

Limbaugh is an admitted drug addict (actually forced to admit it before the fact was made public). If you have evidence of his pedophilia, perhaps your evidence will accompany your charges.

Repeating the same charges, over and over, is classic Fox News, right wing radio behavior ("Obama keeps company with terrorists....", etc). I'd like to think that I post in the company of people who are a better sort then those who post at Free Republic.

If you are sitting on evidence that Limbaugh is a pedophile, you owe it to us to reveal it.

[cliffordu]

11. Welll....

:rofl:

[Occam Bandage]

13. Styers, have you ever been at a party?

When you were there, did you ever hear a joke that everyone laughed at but you? Did you then, after a barely perceptible but slightly uncomfortable delay, laugh along with them? On the drive home, did you then figure out why the joke was supposed to be funny, and wonder how you could ever have missed it? I'm guessing you have, and not entirely because it's a common human experience.

I sincerely hope, that looking back on this thread, you experience another such epiphany soon.

[styersc]

9. Oh and by the way. In further support of my point.

This quote is drawn from the rules of this board that are quoted up on the thread "Democratic Underground" currently posted on this forum:

"Highly inflammatory or divisive attacks that echo the tone or substance of our political opponents are not welcome here."

I guess the Mods are Limbaugh supporters as well?!?!?

[cliffordu]

12. That rule refers to the attacking of fellow DU'ers.

Ya might want to try a different tack if you want to be taken seriously.

And no one, I mean NO ONE appointed you hall monitor.

:hi:

[BreweryYardRat]

10. Limbaugh came back from the Dominican Republic with a LOT of Viagra.

Dominican Republic has a high rate of child prostitution.

That's what makes people make the suggestion.