The Maverick Conservative

You can't be any more RIGHT than I was about Rush Limbaugh (and Sean Hannity, for that matter, but especially Rush).

This is the latest in a LONG series of entries on the inexplicable COYNESS of Rush Limbaugh prior to Mike Huckabee winning Iowa (and even AFTER that),. 

I have described it as Rush Limbaugh's impersonation of Hamlet:  "To take a position, or not to take a position, that is the question."

The "position" I am talking about is a position on the Republican nomination.  I said that Rush Limbauh, Sean Hannity, and the rest could have KNOCKED out McCain and Huckabee (who I like more than Limbaugh does, but agree is NOT a conservative, or to be trusted to advance conservative causes--other than social issues--as President).  They chose to sit on the sidelines (another, somewhat apt, anology is to Nero fiddling as Rome burns, but I like Hamlet better--because Limbaugh is still one of the good guys).

The problem is that Limbaugh, Hannity, and others ABANDONED conservatives just when the conservative cause needed them most.  As Limbaugh is NOW saying (sying that McCain and Huckabee will DESTROY the Republican Party, and that he MIGHT not even vote for the Republican nominee), the Republican nominee is IMPORTANT to conservatives.  If conservatives have no influence there, they have NO INFLUENCE PERIOD.  They are out in the cold in the general election.  Limbaugh was LATE in realizing this.  I was not.  It is, of course, not like Limbaugh and Hannity will not take a position.  They routinely favor the Republican in the general election.  What sense does it make (other than personal considerations, like avoiding offending part of your audience) to refuse to take a positon in the MOST IMPORTANT race for conservatives--the race for the Republican nomination, which is the race for the de facto leader of conservatives (win or lose) for the next several years.

Today, Rush spent a good part of his show quoting people who say that his COUT is gone, and that talk radio's influence is on the wane.  Limbaugh, of course, laughed at it, and it is true that his audience is still there.

However, I have again been proven RIGHT, and Limbaugh WRONG.    If Limbaugh is unable to stop McCain, after jumping into the fray LATE, Limbaugh has only himself to blame.  Such a result WILL mean that the influence of conservative talk radio is on the wane, and that Limbaugh's clout is declining.  That is because Limbaugh bELATEDLY put his full clout against McCain and Huckabee.  If you do that, and FAIL, then it is worse than never putting your clout on the line at all.  Limbaugh, if he were going to put his clout to the test (as I think he SHOULD have, and said so, should have done so BEFORE IOWA AND NEW HAMPSHIRE (he did not really take off after McCain and Huckabee until after that Hamlet weekend--see archives--where Limbaugh "studied" the candidates, and came out strongly that Monday against McCain and Huckabee).

Nope.  Rush  can laugh at people saying that the way the Republican race is playing out shows that his clout is waning.  But, IN FORESIGHT, I prediected that this would happen when Limbaugh BELATEDLY put his "clout" on the line against McCain and Huckabee.   Such articles were inevitable, if Limbaugh failed to derail McCain and/or Huckabee.

What if McCain GETS the nomination?  Where is Limbaugh then?  I think he is where ALL conservatives are then:  OUT IN THE COLD. 

Sure, Limbaugh will survive, and even prosper as the conservative "conscience" of McCain.  But McCain is going to pay NO attention to him, and CONSERVATIVES are going to be in BIG TROUBLE.

Limbaugh is now saying that.  It is too bad he did not say it at least a few weeks sooner.  Yes, at the point that this blog endorsed Mitt Romney (as ddi Nattional Review, at the same time).  It was CLEAR then that Fred Thompson was DEAD (politically--he just dropped out today), even though he was a good conservative.  That left ONLY Mitt Romney left to carry the conservative banner, flawed as he may have been.  I realized that.  Rush did not.   That is why my accuracy rating is better than that of Rush.

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