Some here have been saying we’re all being played by the Dems, that this was their plan all along.
I don’t think the plan is going as the Dems thought when they started this foolishness. Their idea, from looking at Limbaugh’s negatives, was to paint the GOP as being led by this guy with high negatives.
They forgot the old adage, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
People are worried about the economy, so when they hear that the president is getting flack from this guy, they’re tuning him in, just out of curiosity, so they can be in on the thing everyone’s talking about.
The problem for the dems now is that people will see the GOP being painted as Limbaughland as being a GOOD thing.
I believe their plan is several-fold.
1 - Label Rush as de facto leader.
2 - Take a quote from almost every show and complain and demand Pubbies to denounce Rush.
3 - Increase Rush's aduience and then ballyhoo about how Levin's localism bill will return "fairness" to the airwaves.
Rush and others will win in the end. If the Dems get every localism board on their side, refuse to renew licenses, it will not stand without a very vocal fight. And in the end, if necessary, Rush and others will go strictly subscription and will combine the cost through a "Conservative Talker Super Pass" or something to that effect. The cost per month would be something quite reasonable, say ten bucks or less a month, the revenue would be divided in some fair manner agreed upon, and the bonus would be downloadable programs for all that can be archived. The archiving is important because it allows listeners not only to go back in time but to also call in and remind a host of a past comment by the host, a liberal etc, ie. the audience becomes a vast research/archives staff.
They won't win because as biased as many libs are they realize that not only would this raise the ire of a huge number of conservatives but, when (yes when) the Pubbies are back in control they will have legitimate right to push the localism laws on the liberal media establishment.
The future fight will involve fighting fire with fire. It is the only way that some people learn the harm of their own ideological tactics.