Rush, maybe a spin record being set here. You just sound weird today and from the calls you've had on the subject and these threads, we recognize somethings amiss or different.
Rush has gone through a similar experience with his drug addiction and that has made him a more sympathetic human being. Which is what pain always does. You experience pain -- whether it was your own fault or not -- and it leaves you more aware of others' pain.
This has nothing to do with "psychobabble", it is just a fact of human nature that 8 out of 10 people don't need explained. It has nothing to do with his views on homosexuality in general, his view of the governor's politics, his view of what should happen to the ex-governor -- this is all just on the personal level.
It doesn't require wacky theories about Rush's sexuality or his shoe size. The "difference" the freepers are hearing in his voice is simply the effect of his personal pain, which many have not heard before since, as Rush said, last year he would not have thought this way.
It is possible to grow in personal sensitivity without altering your moral or political views and without being a goofy liberal.
It is possible to sympathize with someone while at the same time recognizing their pain is their own fault. That doesn't mean you excuse them from the just penalty of their bad choice, just that you want them to reap what they sowed and hope the reaping, the pain, has a good effect on them and that they come out on the other side a better person.
Everybody needs to relax. Let Rush change occasionally without becoming loons in response.