Dave's Fiction Warehouse

In which I bloviate about books, TV, movies, politics and other stuff -- all without the aid of ChatGPT!

Connect

The man who needs no introduction

by

rush limbaugh calls fluke a slut

He needs no contraception, either.

Rush Limbaugh’s ratings have been sliding over the past year and half, so it seems obvious that his vicious personal slander of a college girl was a desperate attempt to gin up some buzz. It worked. This could have been, and may yet be, Limbaugh’s McCarthy moment — the one revealing that at long last, he really does have no sense of decency.

When your enemy is self-immolating, you should not intervene. So I’m not sure why President Obama and the Greek chorus of outraged Democrats are now helping Limbaugh by casting this as a political windfall. When your enemy goes on the air to tell millions of listeners that a law student with whom he disagrees is a slut and a prostitute, do you really need to underscore the outrageousness of it? Do you really need phony online petitions demanding an insincere apology? Limbaugh went way beyond the arguable political issue at hand — contraceptives as a fundamental right — and into the realm of drunken bullying. The prosecution rests.

The smart move from the Democrats would have been near silence, with only a figurative roll of the eyes to say, “see what we’re dealing with?” It would have been an eloquent counterpoint to the stampede of Republicans trying to distance themselves from the man many consider to be the de facto leader of the party. It would have further marginalized Limbaugh as a desperate loser and probably ensured the uninterrupted decline in his ratings.

Instead, Limbaugh now is a top trending topic on Google, and retains his footing as the patron saint of Tea-Party blowhards. That’s because the president got involved. Too bad. Sometimes, you have to let indecency speak for itself.

UPDATE: It figures that R.L. would issue an equivocal apology not long after I posted this. But it’s really just an attempt to have it both ways. You assault someone, and then say you’re sorry if that bothered them. I’m sure nobody will boycott Limbaugh who was not already boycotting him, but the man has earned a long season in obscurity.

More along these lines:

Comments

  1. John H. says

    I don’t listen to Mr. Limbaugh, so I was surprised at all the fuss about this. Doesn’t he routinely make these kind of idiotic remarks?

    I was not surprised to hear that his ratings have been slipping. Considering the fickleness and short attention span of American audiences, I hope that before too long, it won’t matter what he says because no one will be listening.

  2. Erik Hare says

    You are almost certainly right – he was in the ratings dumpster for sure, so becoming more controversial was the best way out for him. But I think it’s still worth writing about because elected Republicans still bow to this guy, no matter how outrageous he becomes. Even George Will is outraged by this.
    So more than just roll our eyes, we can point to how powerful the guy is. Your work here pointing out that it’s really about ratings and advertisers (their flight won the apology) shows what the agenda is really all about. There is an appropriate active way to use this, and most of us are doing it well.
    Thank you, BTW – it’s time to lay this whole “manufactured outrage” and War on Reality bare. It is all nothing more than a way for people to make a living sitting on their backsides pontificating about things that make no sense at all, and that’s becoming pretty clear. Hopefully that will help us all get past this.

    • Dave Knadler says

      I think it’s encouraging that he’s becoming less powerful — at least to the extent that fewer people are listening now than did three or four years ago.

      Glad you mentioned George Will. I like his remark on Sunday:
      “They want to bomb Iran, but they’re afraid of Rush Limbaugh.”

  3. Stock says

    This man, Coulter, Hannity, and their fellow travelers turned me away from my long-term conservatism. My disgust runs deep; if that is where Republicans wish to go, they can clearly go there without me.

    Keep posting, David.

  4. Joan says

    You have all made some good points. Limbaugh is a lout and a jackass, but he isn’t usually a fool. Might this not have been an attempt to spin the contraceptive issue in an outrageously negative way with the goal of hurting Santorum and helping Romney?

    • Dave Knadler says

      Always possible, but that suggests some sort of collusion and grand strategy. None of these guys are interested in anything but numero uno.