![]() ![]() The most elemental fact about the Limbaugh career might be that, outside of seriously corrupt dictatorships, nobody has made as much money from politics as Rush Limbaugh. He was the perfect political lightning rod, polarizing but entertaining too. By the right because he so infuriated the left, and by the left because he so discomfited Republican moderates. He’d become, second only to the fortunes of the new president, the biggest political story going, one loved equally by right and left. 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.” 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. ![]() 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 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. Rush Limbaugh, his whole thing is entertainment,” Steele sputtered, only to find himself apologizing shortly thereafter when Rush had mauled him on the air. Hughley’s assertion that Rush was the effective party leader. 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. He’s the real deal.” And if anybody said otherwise, well, they’d have to deal with Rush. No matter how lame, Jindal still hewed to the orthodox conservative small-government views hence, according to Rush, Jindal was “brilliant. 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. 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. 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. 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. By any logical assessment of behavior, it still seems as if the man may be imploding. 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. 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. 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. 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. Rush Limbaugh, it seemed to me, had to be in huge trouble. Photo illustration by Darrow.Īlso on VF.com: Rush Limbaugh’s 10 most moronic remarks. Rush Limbaugh stole the show at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, in Washington, D.C., in February. ![]()
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