Lots of people have congratulated Stephen Colbert on taking over as host of CBS' "Late Show," but Rush Limbaugh isn't one of them. In fact, to hear the radio host tell it, Colbert's new job is nothing less than a grave political, constitutional, and moral crisis in American television.

"CBS has just declared war on the heartland of America," Limbaugh fumed. "No longer is comedy going to be a covert assault on traditional American values, conservatism. Now it's just wide out in the open. What this hire means is a redefinition of what is funny, and a redefinition of what is comedy. They're blowing up the 11:30 format... they hired a partisan, so-called comedian, to run a comedy show."