American Politics Journal -- RUSH COMING OUT OF THE LIBERAL CLOSET!?

RUSH COMING OUT OF THE LIBERAL CLOSET!?
by Steve Young

May 4, 2002 (APJP) -- Send the snow plows down to Hell.

Get ready for the Red Sox World Series parade down the streets of Boston.

Make way for the eternal equinox.

The consummate right wing conservative and proud of it, king of all radio talk shows, Sir Rush Limbaugh, has dropped, for the moment, his three hour a day, five day a week, pummeling of Senator Tom Daschle and the rest of the left wing wackos. Not altogether, but it seems to have been cut the wipe-out-the-liberals barrage down to no more that two and a half hours a day.

To fill up that dead air, El Rushbo has been --cover your eyes, Bob Novak -- taking President Bush to task, especially for his dealings in the Middle East.

Seems the Man With Talent On Loan From God expects the President to apply his "evil-doers, go get the bastards who are killing the innocents" approach that he's preached with the Taliban to be the same policy in the Middle East conflict. In this case, Rush believes Bush should be ten thousand percent behind Israel, yet Bush wanted Israel out of Arafat's underwear drawer...NOW!

On Rush's website, the lead quote says, "There's one person who stuck with the Bush Doctrine...Ariel Sharon."

Rush's callers have besieged the "Excellence In Broadcasting" phone lines with atypical anger at their AM lord and master. "How could you not stand rock solid behind our President?!"

And worse..."Have you gone over to the other side?!"

Well, that's the one I'm going with. And I have tape transcriptions from one recent Rush call that never made it to the air to prove it:

Caller: Hey, Rush. Megadittos from America's heartland, Brooklyn.
Rush: Thank you, Sir.
Caller: I've been listening to your show for over ten years and this is the first time I'm disappointed in what you've had to say about President Bush.
Rush: You think that's something? Wait till you hear what I have to say about FOX News.
Caller: I just think you should be backing the President.
Rush: Look. Last night I was having dinner and cigars with Hillary Clinton and Al Franken, and we were joking about the new "Crossfire" show on CNN and how Carville and Begala were blowing Novak and that guy with the bowtie off the map.
Caller: That's what I'm talking about. It seems like you've jumped teams like that turncoat, Jim Jeffords.
Rush: I think we might have been a wee bit too hard on Jimmy. Your loyal and faithful servant is not a mindless dolt. I have to calls 'em as I sees 'em and I've been wrong. After what I've done to Bill Clinton I can't get a decent night's sleep. Same with Al Gore. I feel like I should make it up by joining NOW, adopting caribou from ANWR, subscribing to the Washington Post and New York Times, and donating half my salary to the Sierra Club. In fact, tonight I'm having John McCain and Michael Moore over my house for dinner. We're having a vegetarian...hey!!!!!
(Turmoil in background)
Roger Ailes (muffled): Someone, cover his mouth. Quick!
Music: "I'm A Lonely Frog" by Clarence Frogman Henry, then:
Tony Snow: Hello. This is Tony Snow subbing today for Rush until he returns from his week-long stay at the RNC recovery center...

Steve Young, a Senior Fellow at the Extreme Far Centrist Think Tank, is also a Prism Award winner and Humanitas Prize nominee for his television writing. His writings appear regularly a the very conservative Newsandopinion.com. He is author of the forthcoming "Great Failures Of The Extremely Successful" (Tallfellow Press, coming later this year). E-mail: theeothersteveyoung@juno.com