Levin had been provoked by a blog entry I'd posted the day before on my site, NewMajority.com. Here's what I wrote: President Obama and Rush Limbaugh do not agree on much, but they share at least one thing: Both wish to see Rush anointed as the leader of the Republican Party.



Here's Rahm Emanuel on Face the Nation yesterday: "the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican party." What a great endorsement for Rush! … But what about the rest of the party? Here's the duel that Obama and Limbaugh are jointly arranging:



On the one side, the president of the United States: soft-spoken and conciliatory, never angry, always invoking the recession and its victims. This president invokes the language of "responsibility," and in his own life seems to epitomize that ideal: He is physically honed and disciplined, his worst vice an occasional cigarette. He is at the same time an apparently devoted husband and father. Unsurprisingly, women voters trust and admire him.



And for the leader of the Republicans? A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as "losers." With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence—exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we're cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers cheering Rush's every rancorous word—we'll be seeing them rebroadcast for a long time.



Rush knows what he is doing. The worse conservatives do, the more important Rush becomes as leader of the ardent remnant. The better conservatives succeed, the more we become a broad national governing coalition, the more Rush will be sidelined.



It has been extraordinary to see the Republican Party implode on itself. This is a party that was headed by Bush/Cheney and they held it together with the help of Karl Rove. But what has happened is that while the Bush Administration believed in the largest tax breaks for the rich ever, they forgot that this segment in this country is so small, that everyone else turned against the Republican Party. In other words, the "middle class."With the country in dire straits, the Republican bull horn will be "it will not work, failure on everything", which is fine, but I am still waiting for what THEY WILL DO. This is the problem here. The Republicans can say whatever, but while chastising the Obama Plan, what is their alternative plan? Just going around and saying "no" and "he is going to fail" does not sit well with the average voter. Especially, when this country is in dire straits and you don't have anything new, fresh and innovative to throw into the mix.This is why the public has decided to ignore the Republican Party. Which is why the fall guy,is not only laughable but damaged goods at this point for leadership in the Republican Party.was one that many Republicans agreed with. Limbaugh is just a talk show host, he is incendiary, he is only in this drama for ratings, all of the above, but Steele did not have the spine to stand by what he said, instead he kissed King Rush's ring with an apology and made a mockery of himself and many in the Republican Party.Even Newt Gingrich got the memo, this from Meet the Press:Republicans, most of America do not like Rush Limbaugh. Sure, he ignites the far right in the Republican Party, but you lost the election from the middle, the independent voters. It is statements and behavior as Limbaugh that got many to the polls for the first time and many of those who hadn't voted in years.Now, many Republican cable chatters are angry at the White House. Why? They played the game on the Republican Party. They have effectively labeled Rush Limbaugh as the leader, with Michael Steele a prime example of it. The last paragraph says it all about how the Republican Party needs to think from here on out:If the Republicans are serious they need to let Rush Limbaugh go. If the Republicans are serious they need to attempt to work with Barack Obama. If the Republicans are serious they need to have a plan for 2009, not 1980. Until then, Rush Limbaugh will continue to suck all the oxygen from them.Let's face it, the Republicans just got played.