Rush Limbaugh

How many people actually listen to Rush Limbaugh, the radio talk titan White House officials have spent the last week characterizing as "the head of the Republican Party"? According to what Limbaugh delights in calling "the drive-by media," the number varies wildly. Is it 30 million (Pat Buchanan on MSNBC), 20 million (Time magazine, ABC News), 19 million (Fox News), 14 million (CNN), or "14.2 million to about 25 million" (Washington Post)? Answer: Maybe.

The Obama White House has begun advancing an aggressive political strategy: persuading the country that real power behind the Republican Party is not the GOP leaders in Congress or at the Republican National Committee, but rather provocative radio talk show king Rush Limbaugh. President Obama himself, along with top aides and outside Democratic allies, have been pushing the message in unison.

Good news for Rush-haters. Not only has the controversial conservative radio talk-show host got a sore throat, but he's anguishing over the inadequacy of the current field of Republican presidential candidates. Finally, he'd had enough of these impure candidates and all these questions about his endorsement, and he just blurted out to Jim in Kansas City and a few million others listening in: "I can see possibly not supporting a Republican nominee." What?!

After seeking it so long, John McCain can now see the Republican presidential nomination almost within reach. He knows the need to reconcile with those conservatives who have so long sought to deny him the party's prize. But even such an obviously sensible strategy has its limits. Chatting with reporters as his campaign plane flew from St. Louis to Chicago, McCain was asked about radio host Rush Limbaugh's frequent jabs at him.

If John McCain is elected president, he will have a lot of people to thank. Improbably, first on the list will be the man who didn't want him in the White House, Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh vociferously campaigned against McCain throughout the primary season. He accused the Arizona senator of being a closet liberal and a collaborator with Democratic enemies such as Sens. Russ Feingold and Teddy Kennedy. This caused a lot of glee in Democratic circles.

You have to give Rush Limbaugh a perverse kind of credit. At least when he is demonizing Barack Obama, fabricating Obama policies, blaming Obama for single-handedly causing the recession and the stock market crash, he doesn't pretend to be fair. Opening his first post-election rant against the president-elect, Limbaugh launched in with a certain relish. "The game," he told his radio listeners, "has begun."

After repeatedly being asked about his conservative critics, including talk show host Rush Limbaugh, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dropped his diplomatic veneer Tuesday and declared their views irrelevant to his work in California. "All irrelevant. Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant. I am not his servant," the governor said on NBC's "Today" show.

Brian McGough, a 31-year-old former Army staff sergeant who was wounded in a roadside attack in Iraq, knew he wouldn't get a warm response from talk show host Rush Limbaugh when he starred in an ad by the anti-Iraq war veterans group VoteVets.org. The ad, which featured a photograph of McGough's shaved head with jagged scars, was a response to Limbaugh's implication during his broadcast last week that antiwar vets were "phony soldiers": "Rush, the shrapnel I took to my head was real.

Re "War opponents return fire," Oct. 4 Rush Limbaugh, once again, is spouting what he spouts best -- sulfurous hot air. Branding a soldier "phony" because the soldier now opposes a war in which he has fought -- and sacrificed greatly for it -- rankles more than I can say. This man lies and sows the worst kind of hatred in his listeners, and his days at the microphone should end in the complete disgrace he so richly deserves. If only he was as bankrupt as his morals are.

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said Friday that he raised more than $2 million for charity by auctioning off a letter signed by 41 Democratic senators that criticized his on-air comments about U.S. soldiers. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and others who signed the letter contend that Limbaugh called Iraq veterans who were critical of the war "phony soldiers." Their letter said Limbaugh's comments were "unpatriotic and indefensible" and called on him to apologize.