It's been a good, what, couple of weeks since we've seen one of those "ZOMG RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A NOTEWORTHY REPUBLICAN" stories, but thankfully two whole more members of his party have graciously stepped forward to say something uncontroversial about Limbaugh that their wingnut base will take amiss and demand they retract immediately.
The two sacrifical lambs: Arizona Rep. John Shadegg and John McCain's mom, Roberta McCain. The thing for which they must be punished: calling him an "entertainer" or "a television personality," the latter point you might be justified in quibbling with, since he's on the radio far more often than he appears on television.
Nonetheless, what bold crusaders these two are, stating so firmly that Rush Limbaugh makes his money off a radio show and other entertainment-related endeavors, rather than as an elected representative of a voting district! Don't they know what he can do to them?
What follows is the heresy that passed Shadegg's lips Thursday on "Morning Joe":
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Do you agree with party leader Rush Limbaugh that global warming is a fraud?
SHADEGG: Party leader Rush Limbaugh? I don’t recall electing Rush LImbaugh party leader. I think we just had that discussion. [...]
O’DONNELL: Pretty much that’s Rush Limbaugh’s position. Congratulations. You got it right.
U.S. & World
SHADEGG: But Rush Limbaugh is a television personality. I don’t think he’s chairman of the Republican Party, last I looked.
Shadegg will be sentenced to 30 lashings and one month in a confined space with a hungry goat. Next?
The outspoken and lively 97-year-old mother of Arizona Sen. John McCain appeared Wednesday night on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and was more than willing to go where no Republican—at least publicly–seems willing to go on Rush.
Oh no, not Roberta McCain! She's so sassy.
[Michael] Steele was “exactly right when he defined this man as an entertainer,” McCain said Wednesday. “And to my horror the Republican Party made him back up on it.”
Well, that tears it. The only way Roberta McCain can make up for this egregious insult is to spend a month in the goat-cage after Shadegg's sentence is up. She can't say she wasn't warned.
The corpulent television entertainment personality Sara K. Smith writes for NBC and Wonkette.
