Back in the day, when he first came on the air, he was a powerful force for conservatism. He provided news and opinions for a lot of us that could not be gotten any other way, and has enjoyed great personal success because of it.
Whether fame and fortune have changed him, or other events in his life of which we know nothing, now he is different.
I believe he has become genuinely arrogant. How else to explain the stupid mess he got into as an ESPN commentator? Not only did he make statements that anyone could predict would be twisted into racism, his non-apologetic attempts to smooth it over only managed to reinforce the idea in the mind of many that conservatives are racists.
The Michael J. Fox thing is just a replay. Except in this case, he was reinforcing the idea that conservatives are heartless philistines, mocking people with terrible disabilities.
I am beginning to see him as a kind of Newt Gingritch-like character; doing ok as a struggling underdog, but clueless about how to handle real power.
Anyway, the media talks about him now because he is well-known (to all that don't listen to his show) as a heartless, racist, homophobe, and they can link that persona to all conservatives, smearing all of us.
And now, after all the exclusive interviews with Cheney, Rumsfeld and others, now he feels 'liberated' to start kicking them while they're down? The hell with him.
Amen to this and the rest of your post.
Your post #475...I couldn't agree more! Well said!