The brief and embarrassing (albeit entertaining) fracas between Rush Limbaugh and RNC chair Michael Steele ended the way anyone who has recently observed Republican politics could have predicted — with Steele on his knees, asking forgiveness. Now, one could make a perfectly good argument that Steele's attack on Limbaugh was erratic, unfocused, and (even if one thinks that Limbaugh's role in the party ought be questioned) not constructive. But the whole episode ought to leave the hard Left snickering and licking their chops at what use they can make of the appearance that Republicans have adopted a policy of servility towards a talk-show host.

Meanwhile, Limbaugh continues to inspire other eruptions of idiocy. One of the most recent is the fault of Andrew Breitbart, who in response to Rush's CPAC speech penned one of the most violently moronic paragraphs in the history of political discourse:

Anonymous liberal commentators, the rabid pests of the new media, sought out the most popular conservative blogs to flood the zone with familiar Rush Limbaugh slanders. Their goal: To demoralize the right with layer upon layer of media domination. Only talk radio with its emphasis on Socratic debate over raw emotionalism and with Mr. Limbaugh in the driver's seat has escaped the left's clutches of pure media dominance.

That's not the sort of stupid that you are born with, or that is thrust upon you. That's stupid you have to achieve through hard work. Republicans, to recover from electoral defeat and take advantage of economic chaos, need to display the capacity to lead. When people think about leadership qualities, "tendency to be demoralized and intimidated by anonymous blog comments" is not high on the list. Nor is the sort of heroic self-delusion required to view talk radio as "Socratic." If Republicans continue to pursue a policy of whining about media bias — a complaint that tends to collapse under the weight of its inconsistency with conservative market theory — they're going to continue to lose. "Follow us because mean people treat us badly" is not a beacon of hope during a depression. Yet some Republicans stay doggedly on this path — most of all Breitbart, who has created an entire web site to complain about how mean the cool kids are.

Last 5 posts by Ken

• Marc Stephens Threatens Me Some More - February 3rd, 2012
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