The one reason that Dean can never compete with Rush is the simple fact that Rush is appealing even to the left and he is not cruel to liberals. Rush often points out that he has close friends who are liberals and he means it, he is a good friend of James Carville even though he makes fun of him all the time.
So you think it's Dean's intellectual honesty that is driving him to fling a ration of crap at Rush? You think Dean believes he's destroying the right by being obnoxious about Rush, calling him a druggy, pointing out the skeletons in Rush's closet?
I don't believe that Dean is motivated because of Rush's political influence, at all. His comments seem very personal and meant to keep Rush distracted, and meant to prove that he, Dean--can play with the biggest of the boys (Rush), and win.
As far as having liberal friends, nobody is perfect. James Carville's influence on Rush does not worry me as much as the influence the freaks from the R/R seem to have with him. Carville is probably less dangerous.
Argh.
ps: You kind of missed my original point, but that is my fault for assuming readers would see the invisible /off tag.
The point was, that if Rush is NOT influential, as the Left likes to remind us--why is head lefty, wasting his time worrying about some guy who is only a talk show entertainer? They gladly devote hours to minimilizing his influence, clucking about how Rush is irrelevant, and their comments aren't personal.
Rush is relevant, or they wouldn't devote their time to him (which was the original point).
hth.