For Limbaugh, it's the net

I vaguely recall watching, as a kid, an old black-and-white movie in which this investigative journalist -- played, I think, by Stuart Whitman -- suspected sinister goings on inside the local insane asylum, so he managed to get himself committed to its "care" so that he could do some snooping around.

Well, you probably won't be surprised to learn the film's ending: He spent so long playing crazy, he actually went crazy, a tragic victim of too-clever-by-half, self-induced psychosis. So in the sinister asylum he remained, for the rest of his unnatural life.

Now, compare those fictive musings with the real-life ravings of Rush Limbaugh, who, by his own admission, has been playing it prodigiously over-the-top, for quite a number of years, in the pursuit, we are told, of a higher objective: to snake out and expose the evils of liberalism.

And here, from this week, is an example of how Rush is faring. In sorting out the why's and wherefore's of "this [Gov. Mark] Sanford business," Limbaugh said, he actually said:

This is almost like: I don't give a damn! Country's going to hell in a handbasket. I just want out of here! He had just tried to fight the stimulus money coming to South Carolina. He didn't want any part of it. He lost the battle and said, "What the hell? The Federal government is taking over! I want to enjoy life!"

Yes, it's one for the psychiatric record-books, folks: In Rush Limbaugh's increasingly dark, desperate and distorted mind, a $787 billion economic stimulus package is believable-enough stimulation to send a perfectly proper, right-thinking Southern governor into a follow-up exploration of Argentina's forbidden bush country.

So I put this to you: That's beyond strategic broadcasting; that's just plain nuts. And it just may be that Rush has been acting the lunatic for so long -- stridently bashing the left and absolving the right for ever-greater fun and profit -- he has finally become a genuine, certifiable one.

Comments

[Plamen Petkov]

It's NOT "nuts", it's more like a theater of absurd taken to its logical extreme. Mr Pills obviously doesn't believe a word of what he actually sez, he just sez it because his idiotic listeners expect him to say it. in this case to somehow justify that governor's behavior.
The sheeple that listen to Mr Pills only know understand things at a very simple level sound bytes level: "liberals" are ruining America, democrats are "tax and spend", Obama is a socialist and a communist and the Republicans are trying to save America from evil Ai-rab terrorists.
Mr Pills ain't nuts, far from it, he knows everything is a theater and he is milking it as far as it can go.

[Bruce388]

Rush and I share one similarity: Neither of us ever voted for Ron Reagan.

[ted]

Obama has such a powerful influence over weak minded republicans that Sanford cheated on his family for many months before Obama was elected.

[Frank Fredenburg]

Rush Limbaugh is really grasping for straws on this one! You have to wonder how stupid his listeners have to be, to believe this one! The Ditto Heads. I think that is what they call themselves.
I think you can sum-up what kind of person Rush Limbaugh is, by comparing his response to 8 years of Bill Clinton in the White House, to his response to 8 years of George Bush. He is nothing but a mouthpiece for the Republican Party. He couldn't care less for this country. He said he wanted Obama to fail. If Obama fails we all fail! Either the economy will turn around or it will get much worse! All he cares about is getting another Republican in the White-house. If we slide into a depression while Obama is President, that will be good for the Republicans. If country does good under Obama, that will be bad for them.
It's enough to make you puke!

[Daphne Chyprious]

I consider it a two-fer: defend one of Us and smash one of Them in one fell swoop. And as far as his brain-dead followers finally realizing he makes no sense: probably not. Their sense of logic has been steadily tracking into lunatic territory in lockstep with his increasingly bizarre invented reality. I do think he knows better; they never did.

[Kathy Indiana]

Rush has to constantly top himself to justify his ridiculous salary. Since he's consistently over the top anyway, topping himself sometimes puts him in la-la land. It's all about the money with him.

[John Dadabay]

All Sanford has to do is simply announce that God talked to him and forgave him. For Republicans that's good enough. Perhaps Rush's people can get with God's people and get this Sanford thingy worked out.

[roger carolina]

It's a win-win for Rush. He says outrageous things, media expresses outrage, Rush gets more listeners.