Rush Limbaugh: Petulant Provocateur

He wished Barack Obama all the worst. That made Rush Limbaugh the most well-known radio personality in the United States and a hero to conservatives.

It was just four words that propelled Rush Limbaugh, America’s best-known radio commentator, directly into that spot where he feels most at home: the headlines; the spotlight; in the thick of the battle. “I hope he fails!” was Limbaugh’s commentary on Barack Obama.

Right up to Obama’s inauguration, the 58-year-old Limbaugh wished him every conceivable disaster. And since then, the controversy surrounding the loudmouth conservative heavyweight champ has only become more vehement.

Democrats think Limbaugh’s tirades are manna from heaven that caricaturize him as an irresponsible fool who hopes the captain of the ship of state steers the country into a shipwreck. “He’s the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party,” Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said, with the same joy and ill will that usually only Limbaugh displays.

What’s apparent is that Republicans still have no clue as to how they should react to the new president. They have yet to find anyone in their own ranks capable of presenting any serious opposition to him. In such a vacuum, Limbaugh intrudes with his daily-repeated call for fundamental opposition to a president he views as a left-wing radical.

Limbaugh is an agitator whose views are far to the right of center. He despises all liberals, or at least all those he claims are liberals. His tirades border on rabble-rousing and often go way over the top.

He pooh-poohed the Abu Ghraib torture scandal with the opinion that it amounted to a few youngsters just having fun. He favors the death penalty where he says the real horror is for the families of the victim in the event of a last-minute reprieve. He vilifies advocates of women’s rights as “feminazis.” He calls environmental protection “ecologism” and brands climate change a “pipe dream.”

His tirades can be heard around lunchtime for three hours every Monday through Friday. Broadcasters have carried his talk show nationwide for twenty years. His audience is estimated to be around 20 million listeners and that has made Limbaugh wealthy. In 2008, his contract was extended to 2016 during which time he will earn $400 million. And it gives him power. He loves to shout down callers to his show who dare disagree with him – much to the delight of his fans.

The latest to feel his anger was the newly elected head of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele. He dared to refer to Limbaugh as “an entertainer.” That didn’t do him any good. After Limbaugh spent 20 minutes at the microphone scolding Steele on Monday, Steele publicly apologized that very evening, saying, “I didn’t intend to in any way minimize his importance and leadership.”

Perhaps Steele should have recalled something the revered Ronald Reagan said about Limbaugh back in 1992: “You are the number one voice for conservatism in our country.”