Our De-facto Leader?

I guess I should put my two-cents into the ring on this Rush Limbaugh fiasco, as everyone else in the known universe seems to be talking about it.

I never was much of a fan of Limbaugh. I usually listened to the Radio Factor during his time slot. The only talk radio other than O'Reilly I listened to was Sean Hannity. I just never had the patience to listen to people talking on the radio. Every now and then I would tune into Limbaugh if I was in the car and couldn't find a station that carried the Radio Factor, and I liked what I heard for the most part. I just always had this idea that he was too far to the right for me, so I didn't want to listen to him.

However, I started listening to him more after the election during the hour after the Radio Factor and before Hannity, and the more I listened, the more I liked. I soon became a fan of El Rushbo and of what he was saying.

Then President Obama said his now infamous "you can't listen to Limbaugh and expect to get anything done," comment, which I already addressed in a previous blog. Doing that gave Limbaugh attention and notoriety, which was probably not the intention of the comment.

Things died down a little...until Limbaugh spoke at CPAC. I LOVED his speech. It was exactly what the republican party needed to hear. He was forceful, funny, and truthful.

That is when the media anointed him the "de-facto leader" of the republican party. The party's official leader is Michael Steel, who is head of the RNC (I am a fan of his too, by the way). He was on talk shows doing damage control, attempting to reassert himself as the leader of the party. The damage, however, was done.

Limbaugh hasn't become the apparent leader of the party because he is the best or only choice. He happens to be the loudest. With a listenership of 22 million, his microphone wields immense power, and has the ability ot spread his and the party's message all over the country. He can rally republicans around his microphone, which is what the party needs. He reminds republicans that they don't need to change their message, they merely need to reconnect with their message and adapt it, not overhaul it. He is the loudest critic of the Obama administration, and has the ability to hold them accountable far more than any other opposition voice.

Limbaugh didn't choose this position of leadership, it chose him. And he has embraced it admirably.