As a public service/civic duty, much like picking up dog poop on the beach, I sometimes tune in Rush

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

I am sorry to say that I will no longer be able to continue doing this. I just tried and was unable to continue after about 3 minutes.

I used to listen to Rush horrified, but fortified with a somewhat clinical detachment and professional composure that enabled me to endure. Today, he broke past that self-protective barrier and I fled the room and went out to the deck, drawing in great replenishing gasps of fresh air.

At any rate, I tell you that even the most rubber-necking, train wreck watching, Schadenfreude-filled among us must now deny themselves this secret masochistic pain/pleasure. Believe me, if I can't listen to him, NO ONE CAN LISTEN TO HIM. I don't think even his purported "fans" can listen to him, he has gone so far around the bend.

Now, I am going to stay out on the deck soaking in the Vitamin D and sunshine for the rest of the afternoon.

[spinbaby]

1. I hate to ask...

...but what was he saying?

[tridim]

2. I had a great time listening to Rush yesterday during lunch.

He was trying to explain why his party is throwing Sarah under the moose, and failing miserably. It was LOL funny.

[Mira]

3. Are you soothsaying the end of Rush?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. I am. I think he is becoming functionally obsolescent.

If he loses the carnival freak show listeners like me, and if people are newly enlightened and optimistic as they truly seem to be, then his audience will dwindle to just the true mouth breathers.

His invective is losing the ability to entertain. How was the invective ever entertaining? Well, it was like a Halloween House of Horrors. While always cheesy, you could still see the pimply teenager through the axe-murderer outfit; you never thought you were being confronted by a real psycho. Now it seems like the pimply teenager pretending to be an axe-murderer might just be a real axe-murderer. Therefore, no entertainment value, just fear and revulsion.

on edit: I'd like to clarify a point about invective being entertaining- it can be if it rises to the level of self-satire and is ineffective and useless and therefore self-defeating. I think this has been where Rush has been during the Bush administration - a defender of the indefensible and therefore laughable which is why I have been able to listen to him the last few years.

Rush has been actually dangerous in the past with his insane hounding of the Clintons and I think he is rising to that level again. I hope that in the same manner that lying negative political advertising has been rejected, that Rush will be rejected on the same grounds and that he will only appeal to the irredeemably ignorant among us.

[Mira]

7. This is the best news I heard since I heard yesterday that my State went blue (NC)

I kicked the thread and thank you for taking the time to tell me

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

9. Well, that's just my prediction. Even long runs come to an end. Plus-

you have a good example right in your own state. Just one election cycle ago, Liddy Dole would have ridden her "Godless" ad to a triumphant re-election. This time she got her ass kicked out because of it.

[Orsino]

4. Tuning in to Rush makes your radio cry.

Stop hurting your radio!

[Andy823]

5. Wow you made it longer than I could have.

That "bag of crap" is the most repulsive person I have ever heard! I couldn't make it a minute listening to his flood of hate and stupidity, but his followers will continue to listen, continue to soak up the hate, and continue to go crazy!

[monmouth]

8. I will assume they are the same people who call into C-SPAN....LOL...n/t