I believe that without William F Buckley being Rush Limbaugh's role model (besides his Dad), he would not be the Excellent spokesman for Conservatives that he is today. He would not have been the great success he has become if not for that idolatry that he espoused for Mr. Buckley. That being said, I am sure Rush is very concerned that his role model is going down hill fast, and he rarely cites many Editorial Comments from his mentor/Idol at least for the last several years.
Actually a caller asked RUSH about him the other day.
RUSH basically said he could never know what Buckly is thinking, but RUSH feels he may be(coming) more of a paleo-conservative like Buchanon and was only 'for Iraq' if it was going to be quick and easy, otherwise he was more of a 'play defense' isolationist.
Oh there's no question about the importance of WFB to modern conservatism, and it's no small point that he would concede that Reagan could beat him on occasion. But he was focused on the fight against communism.
But after communism fell in Europe and Russia, he went wobbly.