![]() Like most people on the right, he badly underestimated the resiliency of “Comeback kid” Bill Clinton, who was reelected over the hopelessly weak candidacy of Bob Dole in 1996. He did his part to try to hold the Maginot line against the “gay” revolution, but needlessly baited the “gays” with mockery and ridicule. He used his radio pulpit to support conservative Supreme Court nominees. He trumpeted Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America,” which contributed mightily to the GOP “tsunami” in the congressional and statehouse elections in the 1994 revolt against President Bill Clinton. To be sure, Limbaugh was a valuable ally to Republican and conservative causes. ![]() “He told me to call him, ‘Chuck,’” he explained. Praising and defending movie star and NRA president Charlton Heston, Limbaugh referred to him casually as “Chuck.” He knew the great man, rubbed elbows with him. He boasted of that on the air and was an unabashed name dropper concerning his acquaintances with famous public figures. About a decade earlier Limbaugh got co-opted by the GOP after spending a night in the Lincoln bedroom during the White House days of the first President Bush. “And if we do Iraq, we’ll rebuild it,” he assured his millions of listeners, many of whom were only too happy to let “El Rushbo” do virtually all of their thinking for them. Like much of the nation and most of Washington, he was snookered into giving full-throated support to the great Bush War II in Iraq. ![]() At other times he was merely a megaphone amplifying the noise. I heard someone on the TV say that Limbaugh’s was a voice of truth, “cutting through the noise.” Well, sometimes he was. No doubt the Limbaugh funeral will also draw some who simply wish to reassure themselves that the Limbaugh cadaver is really a corpse and that Rush is finally done talking, at least here on Earth. ![]() Of her funeral, Buckley wrote, “Some came to pay their respects others came to make sure.” When Eleanor Roosevelt had died, Buckley acknowledged that she was a well-intentioned and gracious lady, but also pointed out that for many her contribution to political thought rarely made it to the plus side. The tributes were a bit one-sided, but it’s difficult to point out the faults of the recently deceased without seeming vindictive. Though not often good at multi-tasking, I was answering an email while listening to commentators on Fox News pay tribute to Rush Limbaugh on the day he died. ![]()
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