Limbaugh

This one is for Doug. He was one of maybe 2,000 readers who fired off e-mails in response to a recent column criticizing that paragon of political analysis, Rush Hudson Limbaugh III. I excoriated Mr. Limbaugh for saying of Barack Obama's presidency, "I hope he fails." As is generally the case when you exact a pound of flesh from Brother Limbaugh's hide, his legions of listeners were vociferous and unstinting in his defense. They claimed I misquoted him (the quote was cut and pasted directly from his Web site)

A year into his new gig at Sirius Satellite Radio, Howard Stern has a lot more money, a fiancee and what he says is far greater peace of mind. What he doesn't have, according to trade magazine Talkers, is his former stature as the most important talk radio host in America. Talkers' annual "Heavy Hundred" list drops Stern from the No. 1 spot last year to No. 12. "He's still doing very well," says Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers. "But this list is about what's hot - and you just don't hear about Stern the way you did before he went to satellite.

In a town so tough that most murders get just a few paragraphs in the paper, somebody called The Sun about 8 a.m. yesterday with a tip about a vandalized billboard. By noon, the story was all over the Internet, Rush Limbaugh was kicking off his national radio show with it, and City Hall was fielding calls from as far away as California. By 5 p.m., the story had become one of the three most popular individual articles in the history of the paper's Web site, with nearly 200,000 page views.

HILLARY Rodham Clinton's quest for independent validation and a life after the White House is understandable, but it's not the job of New Yorkers to provide either.The state's voters will be the final arbiters. But the nation and its commentators should pause before legitimizing the critical path to the U.S. Senate that seems to open periodically for national stars in search of a new constellation. Like Robert F. Kennedy, who had a blissful marriage of convenience with the Empire State, Mrs. Clinton asks to become a native daughter overnight.

1991: Martha Graham dies1992: Rush Limbaugh TV show1995: Jerry Garcia dies1994: Kurt Cobain commits suicide

When Howard Jacobs, a 44-year-old physician from Randallstown, walked into a room with 11 other people in Towson not long ago, he didn't realize that they were about to become a national media sensation.The Baltimore County residents spent several hours picking apart the top two Democratic presidential candidates in a focus group organized by a pollster in a spare first-floor office in downtown Towson. Watching them on the other side of a one-way mirror were 10 prominent Washington journalists who later fired off thousands of words that turned the group into the Towson 12, oracles of American public opinion.

Louis Goldstein, a tax collector, was beloved. Why can't the IRS be more like Louie?Americans only pretend to re-enact their Civil War. Ulstermen really do re-enact theirs.Gee, Larry Young could be Baltimore's answer to New York's Rush Limbaugh.It's Willie Don's last hurrah. What if Joan Pratt beats him?Jenny Chuasiriporn for governor!Pub Date: 7/08/98

RUSH LIMBAUGH read one of my columns over the air on Friday. But he didn't rip me or ridicule me or call me a dope-smoking commie lib wacko, and I am still trying to work through my feelings about this.In the column he liked so much, I wrote that, like the children around me who see the world as black or white and do not compromise, I have decided to end my pining for what might have been with this president from my generation and move on.Limbaugh read it almost in its entirety as evidence that women are finally waking up to the unsavory character of this president.

THE PUNDITOCRACY in our country has been so one-sided for so long that we hardly notice the routine tilt anymore. It seems like the dandelions in spring, to be the natural order of things.Sometimes, however, a political moment of unusual clarity reveals the profound imbalance that's been there all along.Tune in to TV pundit programs or radio talk shows or read an op-ed page these days and you'll behold vociferous attacks echoing against conservative Republican leaders. But the verbal onslaught isn't coming from the left; it's coming from the voices who've reigned loudest for years in media commentary - the hordes of right-wing pundits.

He was such an unlikely impresario, that hunched Nixonian figure with the charisma of an undertaker and no discernible showbiz talent of his own. How odd that Ed Sullivan stood at the very center of American pop culture for 23 years. How odder still that so many of us still miss him more than two decades after he went off the air, still wish we could tune in to CBS Sundays at 8 and hear his awkward promise of a "rilly big shew."The thing was, Ed Sullivan often delivered just that, as John Leonard reminds us in an excerpt from his new book in American Heritage magazine.

Who do people "most identify as the voice of the Republican Party?" Last Thursday, Gallup released a survey showing that among all respondents - as well as subsets of admiring Republicans and scornful Democrats - the answer to that question was: Rush Limbaugh. At one point during his show the next day, the conservative radio host explained to his audience that the reason President Barack Obama is so popular - and, for that matter, the reason liberalism will always be popular with American majorities - is that conservatism is tough and requires thinking, while liberalism is easy because it merely requires "feelings."

Steele still owes students apology The Baltimore Teachers Union believes Republic National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele needs to apologize to students at Frederick Douglass High School for his comments about the school performing below standards ("Douglass wants Steele apology," March 5). Mr. Steele took the time to apologize to Rush Limbaugh on his radio show but has yet to apologize to the students at Douglass High. Mr. Steele represented these students as lieutenant governor and vowed to help the school.

The media have piled on poor Michael Steele. From Rush Limbaugh's radio network to the columns of The Baltimore Sun, the Republican national chairman got pummeled for his dumb remark on a comedy show that nobody watches. A few days after Steele's appearance on D.L. Hughley Breaks the News, CNN quietly announced that it was dropping the program. But Steele's biggest challenge lurks within the insular world of party politics. As soon as he became chairman, the former Maryland lieutenant governor cleaned house at the national headquarters.

This year's gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference was a largely depressing affair, where the effects of political marginalization - alienation and radicalization - could be observed among the assembled conservatives. All around me last weekend were sentiments best described as kookery. "Obama is a tyrant!" I heard more than once. There was the sad sameness of dress and style (how I longed to see someone wearing a Led Zeppelin T-shirt); the deficit of African-American and Latino faces; and Mitt Romney buying himself another straw poll (as went a common lament)

I suppose I should just get it out of the way and apologize to Rush Limbaugh right off the bat, but who knows how long the line to do that is at this point? Has there ever been anyone who has taken umbrage-taking to such hyperventilating heights? And has there ever been a group of people - Republican National Chairman Michael Steele being only the latest - who can't beat a path fast enough or prostrate themselves low enough to beg forgiveness for incurring such easily incurred wrath? I know I should avert my eyes, but I can't help watching this horrifying spectacle, this emotional hostage-taking, that's going on between the GOP and the popular, powerful talk show king.

Michael Steele said he's sorry to Rush Limbaugh. Why stop there? The man who won the Republican National Committee chairmanship on the strength of his silver tongue called the radio personality "incendiary," "ugly" and - worse! - an "entertainer." He also insisted that Limbaugh is not the de facto leader of the Republican Party. Limbaugh took that last one as a compliment, responding on the air: "I would be embarrassed to say that I'm in charge of the Republican Party in the sad-sack state that it's in."

Where would state find funds for city schools? Mark Fetting and Tom Wilcox make several good points in their column "School cut unfair, unwise" (Commentary, Feb. 9). However, they didn't say what other programs Gov. Martin O'Malley should cut in order to restore to the Baltimore school system the $23 million in state aid the governor has proposed to cut. If they do not believe that other programs are as deserving of funding as the Baltimore schools are, they should identify which ones should be defunded.

Pitts ignores context of Limbaugh's words In his column "Childish game of ravaging diminishes our nation" (Commentary, Feb. 2), Leonard Pitts Jr. continued his assault on Rush Limbaugh and defended his very misleading earlier claim that Mr. Limbaugh said of Barack Obama's presidency, " I hope he fails" ("What Limbaugh's comment says about Limbaugh," Commentary, Jan. 26). Mr. Pitts several times quoted Mr. Limbaugh as saying, "I hope he fails." But those were four words taken out of context from a monologue that contained hundreds and hundreds of words - most of which put the lie to Mr. Pitts' twisted presentation of what Mr. Limbaugh said.

This one is for Doug. He was one of maybe 2,000 readers who fired off e-mails in response to a recent column criticizing that paragon of political analysis, Rush Hudson Limbaugh III. I excoriated Mr. Limbaugh for saying of Barack Obama's presidency, "I hope he fails." As is generally the case when you exact a pound of flesh from Brother Limbaugh's hide, his legions of listeners were vociferous and unstinting in his defense. They claimed I misquoted him (the quote was cut and pasted directly from his Web site)

Why Limbaugh's legions oppose Obama's agenda Leonard Pitts Jr. reacts with horror at the thought that a loyal American can hope his new president fails in implementing his stated policies ("What Limbaugh's comment says about Limbaugh," Commentary, Jan. 26). Perhaps Mr. Pitts can explain his hope that President Barack Obama succeeds in closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay. What will Mr. Obama do with the terrorists there, including confessed masterminds Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh?