Rush (Limbaugh) to Judgement

This certainly has been the winter of our discontent - with Rush Limbaugh.

It speaks volumes about the depth of problems within the Republican party, the ever-widening cracks in their foundation that continue to grow into fissures that threaten to swallow them whole, that their de facto leader is a doctor-shopping, drug-addicted, woman-disrespecting, sex-outside-of-marriage having, millionaire gasbag who has amassed a fortune by whipping into frenzy a legion of dittoheads that holds the distinction of being one of the most ill-informed, erroneous, and intolerant mobs to roam these states since the days of the Salem witch trials.

Limbaugh is quick to pontificate about all things conservative as he bakes sweet muffins of freedom by using a simple recipe of tax cuts, morsels of small government, and a sprinkling of free marketeering, wrapped in a lard-smothered shell of self-righteousness. The formula looks good on paper, much like those in the food section of your local newspaper, where people write in to ask if anyone has the recipe for toast (like they serve at Denny's!).

Small problem, el-Rushbo. We've been eating at this restaurant for about a decade or so, and frankly, your food tastes like shit. It's rotting out our teeth, and we've lost so much weight due to malnutrition that we have to run around in the shower just to get wet.

Limbaugh claims to be the default leader of the Republican party. Laying down the smack on the Man of Steele during his first thirty days as chairman of the RNC demonstrates that Limbaugh was either not consulted before the post was filled, or his counsel was disregarded by those charged with rebuilding the GOP as a brand. There's a good reason for that.

Rush Limbaugh has never led anything.

He's never been an organizer, unless you consider assembling an angry mob to be real-world experience. He's never held an elected office, or solved the hard problems that exist. He's failed at most of the things he's ever attempted. Marriage. Sobriety. Television. Sporting a woody (remember when he was caught at an airport with Viagra but had no prescription?) He lost a ton of weight and gained it all back. He. Does. Not. Deliver.

The complete lack of dominion in the GOP, from McConnell to Cantor to Boehner to Steele, aptly shines a bright light on how Rush has been thrust into the pole position - it's a gaping leadership vacuum that has defaulted him to the main stage. And what's his plan? Here's a quote from the recent CPAC conference:

..."one thing that we can all do is stop assuming that the way to beat them is with better policy ideas right now."

Really? You've lost two big elections in a row; the White House, Senate, and House belong to the opposition, the public overwhelming supports a change in approach, and still, you don't want to stop and think about that a little bit? Maybe consider coming up with something a little better?

No matter. We don't need the support of dittoheads to accomplish the primary goals articulated by Barack Obama - education, health care, stimulus, etc. That group has ceased to be relevant to the course that's been charted, and serves only as a plaintive cry from the darkness, a warning echoing throughout this country - no matter the fervor or vitriol, the name-calling or finger-pointing, what eventually comes to pass is this.

Ideas always win against presumption. Substance trumps hubris. Teamwork defeats self-importance.

For all his audacity, Rush is on the wrong side of history. His island is shrinking, and soon, it will be just him, his big cigars, and his white, Southern comrades. Good riddance.