Just a prediction I wanted to get out there before it happened. Here's how I see it:
This guy is doing a major disservice to the GOP's prospects of having any power in the near future. With so many ideological decisions in play, Limbaugh is dragging the Republican center of gravity ever further towards the right. If I were a GOP strategist I'd be calling my oppo research guys, dusting off the Nixon/J. Edgar Hoover playbook and finding every one of the guy's skeletons. I'd do anything to shut him up as long as I didn't get caught with the duct tape and cloroform. Plausible deniability all the way.
With Limbaugh's media exposure levels reaching their natural crescendo it may only be a matter of time. What goes up must go down. But with an ever-tightening grasp on power without ever seeking elected office, the guy's making conservative enemies-- even as GOP politicians grovel for not toeing his version of the party line. With Rahm Emanuel defining the Republican message on the terms of a talk radio figure, there is a long line of real deal GOP strategists who must be freaking out. These guys do not like having their message hijacked, and it's all about the message.
And Limbaugh has skeletons. Consider his clandestine trips to the Dominican Republic, with all the circumstantial evidence of a sketchy sex trade, bottles of Viagra, addictions to OxyContin, there's something there that's big enough to take the guy down. I think he guards his personal life ferociously, but someone knows something, and everyone has a price. He'll go down in a perfect storm of Hollywood rumors, teary testimony and grainy video.
I'll miss the guy. He's an important foil on the stage of American political theatre, and there is no one like him on the Left. He's consistent. His self-importance makes him a cynch to manipulate. As long as he's in the picture, the GOP will be dominated by the loony, selfish and angry messages that just don't play in these times.
Here's an early bittersweet goodbye. Soon the old bull will be led out to pasture. Mooo.
