El Rushbo: "I say wacky shit to pop a rating"
the Bede
Warring on McCain, Limbaugh Sees No Reconciliation
By JACQUES STEINBERG
Published: February 15, 2008
Rush Limbaugh took his show on the road this week, forsaking his main
broadcast studio in Palm Beach, Fla., for one in Midtown Manhattan. But the
change of scenery did nothing to dampen the Republican-on-Republican
smackdown he has been waging from afar against Senator John McCain, the
party's likely presidential nominee, whom Mr. Limbaugh considers too
moderate.
As he opened his radio program Wednesday, Mr. Limbaugh lobbed yet another
grenade.
"I would like today to announce a tentative decision - I'm still thinking
about it - to endorse Barack Obama," he said, his head cocked slightly
toward his 18-karat-gold-plated microphone, his hands spread wide like the
wings of his sleek G4 jet.
Mr. Limbaugh then listed nearly a dozen qualities he said he found admirable
in Mr. Obama. "Barack Obama is pro-life," he began. "Barack Obama is a
tax-cutter extraordinaire."
If neither statement was descriptive of Mr. Obama, a liberal Democrat, nor
was there much hope for what followed. "Barack Obama will establish a
college football playoff, once and for all," Mr. Limbaugh said. "Barack
Obama will offer free-beer Fridays."
His point, Mr. Limbaugh said, was that Mr. Obama represented "a blank canvas
upon which anyone can project their fantasies and desires."
But implicit in his "endorsement," however tongue-in-cheek, was this: Mr.
Limbaugh, who draws more than 13.5 million listeners a week, considers Mr.
McCain to have so betrayed conservative principles by voting against tax
cuts and not being as tough as Mr. Limbaugh would like on illegal immigrants
that the commentator was openly flirting with the enemy. (Later, Mr.
Limbaugh dangled the possibility of endorsing Senator Hillary Rodham
Clinton.)
In an interview after his show, seated behind the black granite desk from wh
ich he had done the broadcast, Mr. Limbaugh held out little hope that Mr.
McCain could sway him to his side.
"It's entirely possible I will go the distance without saying I support a
candidate," he said, still sweating from his three-hour performance, his
blue-and-white striped dress shirt untucked and draped over dark dress
slacks.
The effect of Mr. Limbaugh's resistance could be substantial, serving, at
the least, to reinforce doubts among other conservatives about Mr. McCain,
who would seem to need the party's conservative base to turn out in force in
November.
Asked what Mr. McCain might do to change his mind, Mr. Limbaugh said: "I don
't think there's anything he could do. If he did do it, he would be accused
of selling out." Then, in a familiar baritone as resonant as it is on the
air, he added, "If I were to endorse McCain based on the current
circumstances, I'd be looked at as a party hack."
To the extent Mr. Limbaugh offered Mr. McCain any consolation, it was this:
"What I can tell you I'm sure of is, I'm not going to be endorsing Obama or
Hillary - unless it's a joke to make a point."
In that vein, the daily spankings Mr. Limbaugh has been administering over
the air to Mr. McCain are about more than the host's practiced outrage over
the senator's olive branch to liberals and moderates. Mr. Limbaugh has also
seized on the ascension of Mr. McCain to remind the world that his
nationally syndicated program still matters and that he has not lost his
long-demonstrated penchant for making mischief.
"Folks, can we agree, just between us," he told his listeners, sotto voce,
on Wednesday, "has it not been brilliant how strategically I have inserted
myself in this campaign?"
While other conservative commentators like Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter
have expressed similar reservations about Mr. McCain, neither can claim the
reach of Mr. Limbaugh. El Rushbo, as he often calls himself, is heard on
more than 600 stations and, according to the industry arbiter Talkers
Magazine, has the nation's largest talk-show audience. It is also noteworthy
that this audience remains nearly as big as in 1994, when he helped clear a
rhetorical path for Newt Gingrich's Republican takeover of the House, in an
era predating the competition Mr. Limbaugh now faces from the Internet,
bloggers and the Fox News Channel.
Every day since Mr. McCain emerged as the likely nominee in the aftermath of
nearly two dozen nominating contests on Feb. 5, Mr. Limbaugh's switchboard
has been lighting up with calls from conservative Republican listeners who
say they plan to stay home on Election Day in November.
"What he has got to be concerned with," Mr. Limbaugh said of Mr. McCain, "is
all these Republican voters who say right now they're so fed up they're not
going to vote at all. That's deeper than they realize."
In a sign that broadcasts like Mr. Limbaugh's could play a role in the
November outcome, Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International, the
firms that conduct exit polls on behalf of the television networks and The
Associated Press, asked voters in this week's primaries in Virginia and
Maryland whether they were frequent listeners of conservative talk radio.
About one in three said they were.
And yet the results in those states suggest that at least some of those
listeners do not share Mr. Limbaugh's concerns about Mr. McCain: though
former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas was the most popular candidate among
frequent listeners of conservative talk radio in Virginia, Mr. McCain won a
plurality of them in Maryland.
Reached Thursday, the McCain campaign's communications director, Jill
Hazelbaker, said she had no comment on Mr. Limbaugh's criticisms. But the
senator's supporters are concerned enough about where Mr. Limbaugh is
leaning that former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas telephoned the commentator
privately late last month from the international economic conference in
Davos, Switzerland, to preach Mr. McCain's virtues, Mr. Limbaugh said.
What people in the mainstream media - which Mr. Limbaugh refers to as the
"drive-by media"- do not realize, he said, is that he is less concerned with
being viewed as a national precinct captain who can deliver blocs of votes,
or someone with the power perhaps to scuttle a presidential campaign, than
with being seen as a broadcaster who can hold a huge audience.
And purely as a broadcaster, he said, it will not make much difference
whether Mr. McCain, Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton wins.
"Regardless of who's elected, there are always going to be liberals who are
trying to impose liberalism on the country," he said. "That means I'm going
to be opposing it. It doesn't matter if they're in the White House or
Congress. They're always there. I CARE ABOUT MY BANK ACCOUNT, NOT MY
COUNTRY'S FUTURE."
Asked if having Mrs. Clinton return to the White House would not provide him
maximum fodder, given how much of it he found in the impeachment of her
husband, Mr. Limbaugh said no.
By the same token, if Mr. McCain lost, could Mr. Limbaugh not fill any
number of hours on the radio by telling his Republican brethren, "I told you
so"?
"Honestly, I don't look at it that way," he said. "If I were to look at it
that way, then I'd be admitting that the entertainment quality of the
program or the content in general is dependent on others. And it's up to me.
People listen to this program for me."
If he has his way, they will not have to give up their habit any time soon.
Mr. Limbaugh, who owns more than 50 percent of his show, signed his current
contract with his syndicator, Clear Channel, in 2002. That contract,
believed to be valued at nearly $300 million, is due to expire in May 2009.
"I have no intention of stopping," the 57-year-old Mr. Limbaugh said. "I am
having as much fun and deriving as much enjoyment out of this today as I
ever have."
David E. Powell
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/us/politics/15rush.html?_r=1&hp=&ad...
(Pointing at microphone.) "This is where the power lies."
"ICHIBAN, Limbaugh San! ICHIBAN, Limbaugh San!"
"Well you know Mean Gene, I've been down in Florida, training on the
Golf Course, out by Pebble Beach brother, and all the Limbaughs, all
the people out there keep coming to me and asking...."
Or maybe...
"I'm a jet flying, G4 riding, gold mike having, wheeler dealing, golf
club feeling, NATURE BOY! WHOO! Yeah, tell me about it!"
"Competition, competition, competition, to be the man, you gotta beat
the man, and I've had more ratings than you've had pieces o' ***!
WHOOOOOOOO!"
"Obama, Obama, you wouldn't know, and Hillary, whoo, Hillary, whoo,
she'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes.... she'll be
comin' round the mountain when she comes...."
"Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly, you been talkin' about it, talking
about that coming to radio, talking about that coming on the radio,
but I'm taking about MY SPOT. Air America, I'm talking about MY SPOT.
Not your dog spot, not a spot on your shirt, not a liver spot, but MY
SPOT."
Actually, in all seriousness, I think on some level Rush likes to keep
people, especially in the media, guessing. I've observed that since he
fought through some stuff a couple years back, he's been more willing
to let his hair down, so to speak, and let more of his humor out
regarding himself. Limbaugh has as much fun talking about and joking
about himself as he has with anyone else.