Limbaugh: He's As Big As You Make Him

There's been a lot of heavy weather over this heavy man on the radio.

Saturday, conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh spoke to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. In his own dojo, Limbaugh spoke to his people as most would speak to like-minded people: Unashamedly, abrasively, and loudly.

Notice that when you're speaking to like-minded people, you don't have to say anything with a lot of substance to get a rousing applause.

Obama — well, his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, who speaks for him, anyway — was on the offensive within 12 hours, speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation" and claiming that Rush is the voice and intellect of the GOP, and paying no compliments by doing so.

A columnist asked me, the youngest and therefore most technologically savvy individual in the office, how to register to comment on his own column. Apparently, criticisms were being levied and he wanted an opportunity to rebut.

I told him about a boxing rule I had heard: Don't fight below your weight class, meaning of course, don't sink to someone else's level. Let the words speak for themselves, take criticisms and move on, giving no credibility or leverage to the nay-sayer. Shake them haters off, I said.

The same rule should apply to Obama and Rush: Obama would do well to just ignore him completely.

Not to say that Rush doesn't own some clout. He's no elected official, but he carries himself as if he has a public mandate. He is articulate. He is compelling. These are not debatable opinions, but objective facts. No one has done anything close to what he did in 1994 with Newt Gingrich, which is use an entertainment medium to shift public policy and tilt Congress.

Love him like a saint or hate him like the devil, Rush Limbaugh is good at what he does. He also finds himself in the fortuitous circumstance of being a member of the Out Party.

Nobody likes to kick a dog while they're down. As Capt. John Miller in Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks wisely stated that gripes go up, not down; The American Public will have more to say about the In Party than the Out, and will thereby give more credence to Out. As Keith Olbermann still bashes Bush and Rachel Maddow lowers that eye brow, both struggling to remain relevant, Limbaugh is finding his feet and a broader audience than, say, the last eight years.

Obama charged House Republicans with ineptitude, claiming that nothing was going to get done so long as they "did whatever Rush Limbaugh tells them to do." Emanuel is chaining Rush to the Republican party, which is really rather redundant. That's not news to anyone.

While it may be a smart tactic to represent a somewhat vilified caricature in order to damage the opposition, it'd be smarter just to let him spin his wheels. You're only encouraging him to do what he does best.

And maybe that person with whom you find so much disdain will weed himself out in the end. Hey, it could happen.