Dear Leader

 So, as we will discuss on the show tomorrow, Washington is in the throes of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. This is an event where the purest of the ideologically pure gather to congratulate themselves on having ascended to the pinnacle of Western civilization.

Predictably, hilarity ensues.

But this year, something strange happened when Rush Limbaugh delivered his much-anticipated speech the other night. Granted, Limbaugh constitutes a strange event in and of himself, but that's not what I mean. On Saturday, Limbaugh spoke for about 90 minutes, all of which was broadcast without commercial interruption on three different networks -- CNN, CSPAN, and FOX News. So he could, you know, talk about how he wants the president to fail:

‘It doesn’t matter to me what his race is. He’s liberal, and that’s what matters.’

‘The racism in our culture was exclusively and fully on display in the Democrat primary last year,’ Limbaugh said. ‘We didn’t ask if he was authentically black. What we were asking, was, ‘Was he wrong?’ We concluded, ‘Yes.’ ‘

‘The racism, the sexism, the bigotry that we are all charged with ... doesn’t exist on our side,’ he added. ‘We want everybody to succeed.’

What, I'm wondering, is so earthshaking about Rush Limbaugh that he deserves 90 minutes of uninterrupted time on commercial TV? Can anyone think of an analogous figure on the left that has ever been granted such a boon? Anyone?

Limbaugh is clearly the leader of the Republican Party. Newly-elected GOP chair Michael Steele is the latest luminary to be forced to issue an abject apology to El Rushbo. Conservatives cross this guy at their peril.

The good news is that if Rush is calling the tune, the party will soon be over. Could there be any clearer evidence of the fact that the GOP is now a rump party, with solid support only in the South?

-A