Thursday, March 05, 2009
Keeping an eye on Limbaugh
by Larry Geller
About 13 million people are said to listen to Rush Limbaugh each week, and now that he might be the de-facto leader of conservative Republicans, it could pay to keep an eye on him.
A new website, Limbaugh Wire, offers to do that. It’s a new part of mediamatters.org, a great watchdog site with a handy daily email report you can subscribe to.
From Comedy Central to the daily press, this internecine Republican feud is the center of attention. For the moment, perhaps, but who knows. It depends on whether one believes the Republican party is still strong, is regrouping, or is in decline. Whatever, whichever, Rush (I want Barack Obama to fail) Limbaugh will be there. To lead. Yes, to lead. Republicans might have to get used to it.
"Tuesday is Day Two of evaluating the great GOP debacle: big-mouth radio host Rush Limbaugh vs. the weak chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele,'' writes Yael T. Abouhalkah,Kansas City Star editorial page columnist.
"For weeks now,'' writes the Washington Post's media watchman, Howard Kurtz, " El Rushbo has been riding a publicity wave, fueled by an unerring sense of showmanship and his bald-faced declaration that he wants President Obama to fail. The media, finding Limbaugh far more fascinating than Mitch McConnell or John Boehner, have staged endless debates over whether the radio talk show host is the new leader of the Republican Party. [chicagotribune.com, Limbaugh vs. Obama: So who won?, 3/3/2009]
Washington DC is a distant place, but Limbaugh is on the air everywhere. From here, we can only watch and see how this goes. It’s something like watching those celebrities gain and lose weight or change partners, those mythical people living in some strange faraway place that we pay attention to for some reason.
But imagine if someone played Limbaugh here in Hawaii. Could they steal the leadership away from an increasingly unpopular governor? Not that there is anyone grabbing the mike right now, but I wonder when the time to pull a Limbaugh will come.
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