Rush Limbaugh makes a fortune being the Charles Barkley of talk radio (i.e., the guy who gets paid tons of money to talk major smack – the more outlandish, the better.) And usually, whenever he goes too far, Republicans – like sports journalists – shrug their shoulders and say ‘Hey, that’s just Rush (Charles/Manny) being Rush.’
For example, during the campaign, Rush introduced the world to the right wing hit “Barack, the Magic Negro.” Inevitably, folks complained. Rush’s reply? ‘Man up, liberal tree-huggers! It’s just a PARODY! Can’t you take a JOKE!?’
But now I gotta wonder…is that changing? Is the Obama presidency really such a huge tectonic cultural shift that even a stalwart like Limbaugh needs to ‘switch stees?’ Or better yet, can he?
Obama barely loped through the Oval Office threshold before Rush announced that ‘he hopes Obama fails’ to get his economic stimulus package passed. This, while old folks see their hard earned retirements blow away like dry tumbleweed and young folks watch their kid’s college funds swirl down the drain. Against Obama’s Audacity of Hope – mixing cool Sidney Poitier and inspiring MLK – Rush was giving us the AUDACITY OF NOPE. That’s some grade-A hate, especially from a guy set to make $38 million a year.
But this time, instead of a knowing chuckle from his GOP chums, dude got a rebuke. Respected officials like Bill Bennett pushed back. So while the Obama’s look like the 21st century Cosby’s, Rush looks like that unemployed, mean Uncle that’s been living with your family for eight months who shambles up from the basement and tells off-color jokes when you bring your ‘black/gay/foreign/other raced’ friend over. (See: Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino.)
And in a time when The World is Flat and Americans will go see a love story about Indian kids in the ghettos of Mumbai called ‘Slumdog Millionaire’….
That guy is just…embarassing.
Thing is, Rush is a brilliant dude, in a Victor von Doom kind of way. The tea leaves are telling him that hamfisted, Rovian style political brawling might be a thing of the past.
So now we get to see if anybody buys the “kinder, gentler Rush.” Right now, It’s way too early to say.
But when the Captain Ahab of the ship Hillary Clinton called the Vast Right Winged Conspiracy calls for bi-partisanship AND BIG GOVERNMENT SPENDING, you know something is up.
A stealthy game of political surgery is being played in Washington these days. But can a guy who brawled with a sledge-hammer for decades all of a sudden get loose with a scalpel?
We’ll see.
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