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Rush Limbaugh’s recent speech at CPAC, has been analyzed almost every way imaginable. We’ve heard about the resulting rift with RNC Chair Michael Steele, about the dishonest comparison of Democratic criticisms of Bush II to Limbaugh’s wish for Obama’s failure (a distinction apparently lost on D. L. Hughley, who failed to challenge Steele on that very canard) and about the reluctance of Republicans to disagree with Limbaugh.There was even a fascinating commentary by “Crunchy Con” Rod Dreher, that concluded that Limbaugh was blabbering in classic liberal psycho-babble in his CPAC speech.But, as far as I can tell, no one has picked up on what I find the most shocking part of Limbaugh’s CPAC speech, its last few words:
“Don't measure your success by how many people like you. Just worry about how they vote. And then at the end of the day how they live, but that's really none of your business once they close the doors.”
How other people live is none of conservatives’ business once they close the doors? Was Limbaugh’s audience really listening when he said this? This, from the man who was Sarah Palin’s cheerleader? Does this mean that the Radical Right CPAC attendees will abandon their obsession with reproductive rights and marriage equality rights? Will they stop peering into people’s bedrooms and exam rooms, looking for sin to punish? Or will they begin to look at Limbaugh as an unlikely leader for their cause - a man who is not known for his personal virtue or self-restraint?Apparently, neither is about to happen any time soon. But it’s hard to imagine anything more ridiculous that this man, whose personal life is a far cry from the ideal the Religious Right preaches, having this crowd eating out of the palm of his hand, and then ending with a call for privacy rights. In all the inside baseball about GOP power brokers, the absurdity seems to have been lost.
