Why Does Rush Feel Liberated?

"I feel liberated, ladies and gentlemen, because I feel like I don't have to carry the water for people that I think don't deserve to have their water carried."

This was Limbaugh’s reaction to the 2006 mid-term election results.

Now, let’s look at those who supposedly liberated Rush with their defeats – Rick Santorum, Jim Talent, Mike DeWine, George Allen, and others who have been loyal to conservative ideas. Sure, nobody cares to defend Allen’s “macaca” comment. For as close it was, it’s evident that it cost him not only the election, but much more. His defeat symbolically gave the Democrats control of the Senate. Not to mention, he has lost support as a possible 2008 candidate.

Rush has insisted that his comments were grossly taken out of context. On his official site, he shines attention to the fact that conservative talk show hosts get tired of sticking up for an empty suit who cannot lay out his agenda. Take the presidential debates, for example. In an e-mail from a fan, as Limbaugh cited, “I was scared every time Bush had a debate; the Democrats were scared every time Kerry had a debate.”

It's fair to say that Rush Limbaugh's popularity helped Republicans take back Congress in 1994. But it's also fair to suggest that his comments on Michael J. Fox's ad campaign for embryonic stem cell research were harsh and silly. For as energized as the conservative base was over Kerry's slip of the tongue, Limbaugh made up for it by jumping the gun on Fox's "acting performance," giving undecided voters the impression that conservatives are insensative and arrogant towards those who have chronic medical conditions.