There He Is: Miss America Judge Rush Limbaugh

(NEWSER) - Once again the right-wing radio guys have managed to convince everyone that they are a great and powerful force to be reckoned with. David Brooks revisits the 2007 Republican primaries, when Rush, Hannity, Beck and company were all weak-kneed over Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney, but bashed “unreliable deviationists” John McCain and Mike Huckabee. What happened? Huckabee emerged as a star and McCain won. More»

Incendiary host hangs onto huge audience in dying medium

(NEWSER) - Radio is a dying format, listeners are aging out, and Americans aren’t in the mood for “hands-off government.” So why is Rush Limbaugh's audience, not to speak of his prominence in the GOP, soaring, Michael Wolff asks in Vanity Fair. It's not his politics. "Showmanship," says one moderate Republican. "Nuttiness. The man has no behavioral regulators.” Cockiness, adds Wolff: his verbal assaults “are cast not just as slurs but as threats.” More»

GOP roasted for failure to find McCain rival

(NEWSER) - Right-wing pit bull Rush Limbaugh laid into newly anointed GOP frontrunner John McCain yesterday in a mock "non-concession" speech, in which he said McCain is not acceptable to conservatives and blamed the Republican party's "fractured" base for failing to produce a more palatable contender. "All the candidates on our side are uninspiring or worse," groused Limbaugh. More»

Sharron Angle's response to Harry Reid has party on edge

(NEWSER) - Sharron Angle is headed to Washington to try to convince Republicans that she can indeed defeat Harry Reid, and won’t be painted as a right-wing extremist. Republicans are worried that Angle hasn’t responded aggressively enough to Reid’s attacks, they tell Politico . Reid took aim the moment Angle won the primary, but she has spoken exclusively with national conservative media outlets, eschewing local reporters, which looks like a sign of weakness to Republican leaders. More»

Radio host discharged from hospital, says he's fine

(NEWSER) - Having seen the health care system up close, Rush Limbaugh says it's fine. "It was confidence-inspiring," he said of the hospital stay that started Wednesday when he suffered chest pains while vacationing in Hawaii. "They found absolutely nothing wrong," the talk-radio lightning rod said at the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, which discharged him today. "No arterial disease, no coronary disease whatsoever." More»