A lot of people hate it when Rush veers off into pop culture (”Stick to the issues crowd”). But there’s a reason why he does it. The vast majority of people don’t really care about the nuts and bolts of politics and the issues. But when it comes to pop culture, they’ll hear about Rush in the news, wonder why he’s always being attacked, and then they’ll start tuning in to him and to the real issues.
With his big audience I think he just likes to thump anyone who publicly disparages him.