Targeting Rush Limbaugh

The economy is a mess, said Matthew Continetti in The Weekly Standard, and Democrats, whose policies are making things worse, are trying to divert everyone's attention by starting a debate over whether Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican Party. "And some conservatives and Republicans are falling for it. No wonder they're called the stupid party."

The White House is playing Limbaugh "brilliantly," said Timothy Egan in The New York Times. He's the perfect foil. Polls say Rush Limbaugh is nearly as unpopular as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who damned America the way Limbaugh damns President Obama. "But Republicans just can't quit him."

"Operation Rushbo" only succeeds for as long as "people swallow it," said Ed Morrissey in Hot Air. At some point what people will notice is the way "Obama fiddled with Rush Limbaugh while Wall Street burned." And they'll also see that Obama, the "messiah of Hope and Change," is just practicing the same old politics with his own ruthless "attack machine."

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It's true that Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel are "piling on," said Jonathan Alter in Newsweek, by calling Limbaugh the "intellectual force" and "de facto chairman" of the Republican Party. But "it works. And it will keep on working until enough Republicans grow a spine" and tell Limbaugh to shut up.