Obama-Limbaugh battle a sign of GOP leadership vacuum

by Joe Garofoli,
San Francisco Chronicle

President Obama has made his first tactical error of his young presidency: He called out conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

It happened the other day while Obama was visiting with congressional Republicans in an effort to get them to support his economic stimulus package. Said Obama to the lawmakers: "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."

On his Monday program, Limbaugh shot back that the president was "obviously more frightened of me than he is of (Senate Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell. He's more frightened of me than he is of, say, (House Minority Leader) John Boehner, which doesn't say much about our party."

It wasn't that Obama's mention was mean or personal, analysts said. But in citing Limbaugh as influential, the president of the United States elevated a talk show host to his level - the leader of the free world. And in a leadership vacuum like the one that conservatives find themselves in after last November's devastating electoral losses, loud voices - like Limbaugh's with his 13 million weekly listeners - echo even louder.

On Wednesday, Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., apologized to Limbaugh on his program for telling Politico.com the day before that "it's easy if you're Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks," referring to their criticizing Republicans for not challenging the stimulus package.

Taking credit

Surely on today's program, Limbaugh will take credit for not a single Republican House member supporting the stimulus package that passed Wednesday. On his show Wednesday, Limbaugh called it the "porkulus" package, for all the pork-barrel projects he saw in it.

But while an Oval Office shout-out may temporarily elevate a man who refers to himself as El Rushbo, it doesn't make Limbaugh the de facto leader of the Republican Party or the conservative movement. He is, analysts say, a "conveyer belt" of information, influencer of the wider talk radio universe and an outside-the-Beltway party whip who reins in wayward Republicans - as in those veering toward political moderation.

"Whenever a national party is in search of its identity, its mojo, figures like Rush will fill the vacuum," said Mike Franc, a vice president for government relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "But in this situation, he doesn't fill the idea. He's more of an idea aggregator."

New party chair

The real rebuilding of the conservative brand begins Friday when the Republican Party chooses who will be its new party chair. In the absence of a GOP president, House speaker or Senate majority leader, that person will become the face of Republicanism on cable and network chat shows, the party's chief fundraiser and one of conservatism's leaders at a time in which the movement is desperately searching for some leadership.

That quest will continue next month, when hard-core conservatives gather at their annual Conservative Political Action Conference, a coming-to-Mecca type of conference featuring the party's up-and-comers, such as Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

But while the official search goes forward, there is little question that the subtle backhand from Obama gave Limbaugh manna from heaven in talk radio terms.

"Oh, it doesn't get any better than that," said Melanie Morgan, a conservative activist and commentator who used to be part of a highly rated talk show on San Francisco's KSFO-AM. "To have the president of the United States mention you by name, wow."

Champagne time

"The Champagne is flowing in Rush Limbaugh's house," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, which chronicles the estimated 3,000 talk radio personalities. Its estimate of Limbaugh's audience at 13 million weekly listeners is based on a combination of Arbitron ratings and its own metrics. "Obama gave Limbaugh the most fabulous gift you can give a talk radio host."

Obama's comment came not long after Limbaugh told his listeners that he hopes Obama fails. "We are being told we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to grab our ankles ... because his father was black, because he's the first black president, we've got to accept this."

And as for Obama, "He's probably made the first blunder since he took office," Harrison said. "He's the president of the United States, and anytime you tell people not to listen to someone, you're elevating that person to your level."

"Rush Limbaugh is nothing more than an influential talk radio host. He doesn't represent anyone but himself," Harrison said. In 2002, Talkers named Limbaugh its "Greatest Radio Talk Show Host of All Time."

Big audience, salary

While liberals have compiled 20 years worth of Limbaugh's misinformation and truth-bending rants, he brings home big audiences at a time when media is fragmenting into smaller ones. Last year, he signed a contract extension to continue doing his nationally-syndicated program through 2016 for a reported $400 million.

Limbaugh led the national talk radio revolution in the late 1980s and early 1990s and became a force in rallying support for former Rep. Gingrich, R-Ga., to lead a Republican takeover of the House in 1994. That year, the conservative standard-bearer magazine National Review anointed him on its cover "The Leader of the Opposition."

That said, Limbaugh "is not a leader in the party," said David Keane, chairman of the American Conservative Union, the nation's largest and oldest grassroots conservative lobbying organization and the host of CPAC. "He can't fulfill that role because that's not where he works."

"He's very influential on issues because he becomes sort of a conveyer belt of information to all of these people out there. Everyone else in the talk radio world sort of spins off him, the Sean Hannity's and such of the world," Keane said.

In Congress, Franc of the Heritage Foundation said, many lawmakers pine for Limbaugh's ability to translate complicated policy into simple language and place it in a conservative framework. "There is a lot of Rush-envy there," said Franc, a former staffer for former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, a leader of the mid-1990s Republican revolution.

As for Democrats, "They wish that I would just vanishhhhhhh," Limbaugh said on his Wednesday show, stretching out the last syllable as he often does in his corner of the theater of the mind.

But not every conservative is a fan. Last October, shortly after announcing his support for Obama for president, conservative commentator Christopher Buckley took umbrage at Limbaugh replacing his father, the late William F. Buckley, as a conservative icon.

"Rush, I knew William F. Buckley Jr. William F. Buckley Jr. was a father of mine," Christopher Buckley wrote. "Rush, you're no William F. Buckley Jr."

E-mail Joe Garofoli at jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle Sphere: Related Content