It is pathetic to see how badly these GOP pundits and politicos twist themselves in knots to disavow any responsibility for the fact that they are driving their party over the cliff, just like they drove the American economy in 2008. Now the putative head of the Republican Party, the man from whom they all take marching orders, the pundit who claims to think with one hand behind his back, is now downplaying his influence and importance. He's just a regular Joe, donchaknow (albeit one with a $400,000,000 paycheck) railing against those ruling elites who have messed up his party...without any input from him at all:

You guys need to start asking yourselves some questions. You pick the candidates and you're getting the candidates that you want. You're getting the issues that you want. I'm not in charge of any Republican Party platform. I'm not in charge of anybody's campaign. I have nothing to say, officially or unofficially, about what the Republican Party does as it tries to win elections. Zilch, zero, nada. I am simply a powerful, influential member of the media commenting on such things. But I can tell you that very little of what I thought should have happened in the campaign, very little of what I thought should have happened actually did. You wouldn't find my fingerprints on much of this at all because not much of it is stuff I would have done had I had the authority or power, which I didn't.

Yeah, right. Poor little powerless Rusty, so misunderstood behind that 24K gold microphone. I'm curious though if those dittoheads who are so vested in the rightness of Limbaugh can wrap their brains around this meek, powerless, unheard man.

But Limbaugh hasn't always felt that he lacked influence in the GOP -- just a few months ago, Limbaugh was asserting his influence by suggesting he had greater authority than most in the Republican establishment. During his August 21 show, Limbaugh urged Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) to withdraw from the Missouri Senate race because of his "legitimate rape" remarks. The next day, Limbaugh guaranteed that if he had explicitly asked Akin to leave, his voice would have swayed the congressman: "Folks, if I had demanded Akin drop out, he'd be gone."

That same day, Limbaugh stated that he hasn't spoken to Romney "in weeks," implying that he had been in communication with him over the course of his campaign.

In 2010, Limbaugh hyped his political prowess by suggesting he hand-delivered a line to Romney and Republicans about Obama's failed policies causing them to await his "next leadership step" to see where he was going to take them. He even suggested that Romney had given him a direct shout-out during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that year.

Later that year, Limbaugh crowned himself "the conservative leader," declaring that "the center of the universe is not the RNC. It's right here." These comments echoed several previous claims that he may be the leader of the Republican Party.

Seems that Rush Limbaugh did pick up something from Mitt Romney after all: That Etch-a-Sketch.

Talking about showing his true colors! Does Rush have any advertisers left? Because I have to wonder if they want their products associated with this racist, disgusting excuse for a human being. Via Raw Story:

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday proposed putting “bags of money” around the levees in New Orleans so that “Republicans can get rid of even more Democrats” when poor people drowned because they tried to make off with the cash.

“We are mere hours away from Tropical Storm Isaac, which everybody’s desperately hoping becomes a hurricane,” the conservative icon pointed out during his Tuesday morning broadcast. “It’s the Democrats’ wet dream that this thing hits New Orleans!”

Recalling the way that President George W. Bush’s administration bungled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina seven years ago, Limbaugh decided to offer the Republicans a few tip on dealing with the current storm.

The first idea seemed reasonable enough: “First thing we do is offer to send 500 bus drivers to New Orleans, paid for by us, to make sure that the buses that were not used by the Democrat mayor during Hurricane Katrina will be used to evacuate people should it become necessary.”

But the next proposal was shocking and cynical, even by Limbaugh standards.

“The second thing that I think the Republicans ought to do is send bags of money instead of sand,” he said. “Bags full of money to shore up the levees in New Orleans.”

“So, we have Romney’s five sons deliver the bags of money to shore up the levees,” he added. “Now this will accomplish much. It will show our compassion.”

“And it will do something else: Once we publicize that we have sent 500 bags of money — well, whatever number of bags — bags filled with money to shore up the levees, what will happen? The poor of New Orleans will storm the levees and steal the bags, thereby putting themselves at risk for the eventual flooding that will happen once they remove the bags of money. And that way, Republicans can get rid of even more Democrats in Louisiana and shore up the state for themselves.”

Oh man, is this shadenfreude-licious.

The above is the WABC feed--Rush Limbaugh's flagship station in the Big Apple--courtesy of Media Matters. Go to 2:32 into the video, following the local news and a PSA and listen. Do you hear it?

Dead air.

That's right, the biggest name in talk radio on the most popular talk radio station in the largest city in the U.S. and you just heard two and a half minutes of absolutely dead air. The rest of the time? There's an ad for Constant Contact (who had already announced they were pulling their ads) and some more PSAs. As in free Public Service (almost sounding socialist there, *gasp*) ads.

To date, fifty advertisers have pulled their ads from the Rush Limbaugh show. Limbaugh has made his typical bluster that he's turning away advertising (most notably from the adultery dating site Ashley Madison, who offered to buy up any available ad slots), but it's hard to buy that when you have dead friggin' air. Aravosis:

Assuming that Netflix and Constant Contact are telling the truth, that is a total shut-out. Rush has lost almost all of his paid advertisers on his flagship WABC show, at least judging by today's line up. His only remaining sponsor is The Small Business Authority which is currently locked into a year-long sponsorship deal with WABC.

The unpaid spots were all obtained from the Ad Council and all a broadcaster needs to run them is to register for an account.The AHA has already asked Limbaugh to drop their ads. A boycott is definitely working when even the unpaid advertisers are heading for the exits.

Adding to his woes, calls are now calling for Limbaugh to be dropped from Armed Forces Radio from VoteVets, the Service Womens' Action Network, Sen. Carl Levin as well as 18,500 signatures on a White House petition.

After bleeding sponsors for the past couple of days it seems Rush Limbaugh has taken stock of what he said last week and issued a "statement." I call it a statement and not an apology because it really isn't much of an apology. Here's the full text.

For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke.

I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit?In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone's bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level.

My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.

Let's take this apart a little bit. We begin with "illustrated the absurd with absurdity..." This is the excuse he always uses for whatever he says. He is an entertainer, entertaining. Yes, because it's so entertaining to suggest that hungry children dumpster-dive for their dinner. Or to call those hungry children "waifs and serfs dependent on the state." Or saying he hopes President Obama fails.

Har-dee-har-har, Rushbo. It's not funny, nor was it intended to be funny. Not even a little bit.

On to the second paragraph, which is where he shows plainly that he did not intend a real, true apology. By framing contraception as something for a "social activity," he endeavors to minimize and trivialize women's health needs. Yes, contraception is used to prevent pregnancy, for married and single women. But Sandra Fluke's testimony very specifically pointed to other uses for it, including treatment of PCOS (an incredibly debilitating condition), endometriosis, pelvic inflammation, ovarian cysts, and other conditions specific to women. Further, some women use it to actually regulate their cycles so they can become pregnant. Some young women use it to treat acne!

These are not social. These are not recreational. These are serious health issues. They matter, and they should be covered as part of health insurance that provides basic benefits. Rush Limbaugh intentionally tried to frame this as a debate about sex when it was never a debate about sex. He did it, and Fox News picked up the banner and marched forward with it to the point where now the "slut" meme has been echoed all over the Internet by the far-right wing.

I wonder, would he find it a joking matter if cholesterol medications were removed from a list of basic benefits? Or heart stents? Or blood thinners? They aren't optional for someone who is at risk of a heart attack.

His attack on a private citizen named Sandra Fluke was reprehensible, but the real damage done is the misinformation he spread about why contraception is a health issue, why it should be deemed a basic benefit in any health insurance policy, and why women should have affordable access to it.

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