Most charges against Siegelmen upheld; judges all GOP appointees

Limbaugh is kryptonite, weakening the GOP nationally

Colbert calls Hannity's praise for Rush 'obsequious crack-licking'

Sean Hannity complimented Limbaugh on his March 3 Hannity program by saying, "Rush is by far the most articulate, defining voice of conservatism in America today, the most articulate voice of raging conservatism in the country. Rush is a powerful voice. I would argue that Rush is the leader of the conservative movement in the country."

FACE OF THE GOP,

Why Rush is Wrong

The party of Buckley and Reagan is now bereft and dominated by the politics of Limbaugh. A conservative's lament.

Obama jokes that health care reform can’t follow the path of Thelma and Louise ‘over the cliff.’

At today’s White House health care summit, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) observed, “We’re past the Harry and Louise moment,” referring to the the 1990s anti-health reform ad campaign. “We’re at the Thelma and Louise moment. We’re in the car heading for the cliff.” (Watch it.) At the conclusion of the summit today, President Obama quoted Whitehouse, but warned that in the movie, Thelma and Louise actually drove off the cliff in the end:
OBAMA: Now I just want to be clear if you actually saw the movie, they did drive over the cliff. So, just want to be clear, that’s not our intention. (Laughter)

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) said, “I am looking to being a foot soldier in this undertaking. This time we will not fail.” LinkHere

WSJ claims Americans want Reagan’s economic policies, but Americans disagree.

In his Wall Street Journal column today, Deputy Editor Daniel Henninger asserts that in the face of President Obama’s economic plans, Republicans should “relearn the core idea handed down to them by Ronald Reagan,” which he says is the idea “known as economic growth.” “Freed to choose between these two competing ideas, I’m guessing many voters would go for growth,” claims Henninger. But a new poll out today from Fox News shows that Americans actually prefer Obama’s approach over Reagan’s: LinkHere

"Privilege"

GOP Rep: Health Care Is A "Privilege"

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

President Obama held a health-care summit today at the White House where he made clear that reform was an administration priority. "If we want to create jobs and rebuild our economy and get our federal budget under control, then we have to address the crushing cost of health care this year, in this administration," he said. But he'll face some serious Republican opposition, as this clip from MSNBC makes clear.
Tennessee Republican was on the network this morning, railing against any health-care reform effort as move toward "socialism" and "class warfare."
"Health care is a privilege," Wamp went on to say. "It's not necessarily a right." He clarified that he had in mind people who choose not to pay for health care.

Rachel Maddow On "The View": Gets Praise From Elisabeth, Talks Coming Out, Limbaugh, Obama

Rachel Maddow made her "View" debut Thursday morning and covered a range of topics, from coming out to her conservative parents to her thoughts on Rush Limbaugh to why she thinks Barack Obama is the right President for the time. LinkHere

Congratulate Rush: Americans Invited To Send Letters To Limbaugh

Hope the "WANKER" lead the thugs in the Wilderness, well into the next century.

Send a message of congratulations

http://www.americansunitedforchange.org/Congrats

Americans United For Change, a pro-Obama organization that helped rally support for the economic recovery package, has set its sights on Rush Limbaugh. The group is urging people to send a letter to the talk show host, congratulating him for his "sweet new gig" -- true leader of the Republican Party. The full letter:
Dear Friend,
You've got to wonder if there's a rash of skinned knees going around the GOP these days, what with Republican politicians falling all over themselves to kiss the ring of their new Dear Leader.
Congratulate Rush Limbaugh on ascending to the Republican Party's heights -- by dragging it down to his level. Send Rush a note of congratulations now:
http://www.americansunitedforchange.org/Congrats
Limbaugh says he hopes President Obama's economic plan fails, and Republican leaders have rushed to agree.
Never mind that the fate of our economy -- and Americans who are suffering because of its decline -- are at stake. And that siding with Rush means rooting against recovery. LinkHere

"I Want OBAMA to FAIL !" : RUSH LIMBAUGH CPAC Convention 2009

Trapped between Rush and hard place

Illustration by Matt Wuerker

Congressional Republicans are trying to figure out how to distance themselves from Rush Limbaugh without really distancing themselves too much from Rush Limbaugh.

Democrats laid the trap by declaring Limbaugh the head of the GOP, and Republicans in Congress can’t seem to figure out how to solve the riddle.
They don’t want to appear that they are taking marching orders from the conservative talk show host, but at the same time, they are wary of criticizing him and enduring the wrath of his powerful microphone and millions of listeners.
In interviews with POLITICO, several GOP leaders took a delicate, almost pained approach to explaining their party’s relationship with Limbaugh. Several senators said Limbaugh is an important voice — but just one of many — in their party. And the senators said nobody wants President Barack Obama to fail, as Limbaugh has repeatedly suggested. But Republicans quickly follow up that point by defending Limbaugh’s comments, saying the talk show host is simply concerned about Obama’s liberal policies.
“My understanding is that the context of what Rush was talking about was that the proposals and policies the administration was trying to implement would contradict basic conservative principles and values,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate GOP leadership. “In that respect, I think that most of us would concur that much of the agenda that the president is trying to implement is not the best prescription for the economy. But I don’t think any of us are wishing for his failure.”

Thune added that Limbaugh doesn’t speak for him and that “there are a lot of Republicans out there that have their own views of the world.”

Asked if Limbaugh was the party’s leader, Arizona Sen. John McCain, the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee, said Limbaugh was “one of the voices of the Republican Party.” McCain added:

“I’m sure when he’s saying he wants the president to fail that he’s talking about his policies; he made that clear.”

LinkHere

Daily Show's Jon Stewart Rips Into CNBC (VIDEO)

The Daily Show on Wednesday was supposed to feature guest Rick Santelli, a reporter on CNBC. Santelli is infamous for his rant against Obama's mortgage plan, calling homeowners who are struggling to pay their loans "losers."
Santelli backed out, or err, "bailed out," as Stewart put it, from the interview. Instead, Stewart launched into a nearly nine-minute take down of the business news channel. Here are some of the highlights:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

"If I had only followed CNBC's advice," Stewart says at one point, "I'd have a million dollars today. Provided I started with a 100 million dollars."
There is also an interview with alleged $8 billion ponzi schemer, Allen Stanford. The reporter asks: "You managed to avoid the subprime debacle almost entirely. What told you it was not a wise move?"
Stewart jumps in: "I ran a ponzi scheme! Instead of investing the money, I stole it!"
Stewart says of Stanford and the reporter interviewing him, "F*ck you. You know, between the two of them, I cant decide which one of those guys I'd rather see in jail." LinkHere

The Limbaugh Liability

How Rush is making the GOP the party of wimps

Rush Limbaugh, the man who did more than anyone else to create the modern Republican brand in the 1990s, is now destroying it. Everyone knows he has "jumped the shark" culturally—become a black-shirted joke even as he dominates the headlines. But it's worse than that for Republicans. Limbaugh has taken the great GOP calling card—toughness—and shredded it. The party of Lincoln is in danger of becoming the party of Jell-O.
Witness the specter of party leaders from Georgia Rep. Phil Gingrey to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford to Republican Party chairman Michael Steele all issuing craven apologies to Limbaugh after uttering the truth, which is that Rush's rhetoric is "ugly" and that he was wrong to say he hoped President Obama would fail. The monster the GOP collectively created—Rush's "dittohead" army of conservative listeners—makes life miserable for anyone who dares criticize the Great Bloviator. By enforcing right-wing political correctness, the dittoheads are making their party leaders look weak. LinkHere

Turley: Bush terror memos are 'very definition of tyranny'

Since the release on Monday of nine previously-secret Bush administration legal memos claiming that the president has the power to ignore the Constitution when fighting terrorism, experts have almost unanimously denounced both their legal reasoning and their conclusions."These memos provide the very definition of tyranny," Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Tuesday.

"These memos include everything that a petty despot would want.

"Turley believes, however, that there may be worse revelations yet to come. "These memos weren't written in a vacuum," he noted. "The question is what did they do in response? We know, among other things that they created a torture program. ... I think we're going to find out that this was the mere foundation for a greater edifice that has yet to be disclosed.

"The Justice Department has already indicated that it is considering releasing additional Bush-era legal opinions. LinkHere

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said he was “glad” that RNC Chairman Michael Steele apologized to Rush Limbaugh.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said he was “glad” that RNC Chairman Michael Steele apologized to Rush Limbaugh. Jindal, who has been hailed by Limbaugh as “the next Ronald Reagan,” said, “I think Rush is a leader for many conservatives and says things that people are concerned about.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration is fleshing out its plan to rescue failing banks. The administration “is considering creating multiple investment funds to purchase the bad loans and other distressed assets that lie at the heart of the financial crisis, according to people familiar with the matter.”
Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, a new group led by the former owner of the Hospital Corporation of America, is launching a multimillion-dollar campaign today in opposition to President Obama’s health care reform agenda. The group “is enlisting a group of veteran Republican consultants to fashion a multi-media battle, warning against the move toward more government involvement.”
Obama’s nominee for U.S. Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, “has agreed to pay $10,000 in back taxes for speaking fees that he did not report as income and for deducting the cost of season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks basketball games.”
Yesterday, the Justice Department disclosed nine secret legal opinions issued by Bush administration lawyers after the Sept. 11 attacks, which “included assertions that the president could use the nation’s military within the United States to combat terrorism suspects and to conduct raids without obtaining search warrants.” The memos are “the clearest illustration to date of the broad definition of presidential power approved by government lawyers in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks.”
More »

2001 Bush legal memo allowed ‘First Amendment speech and press rights’ to be ’subordinated.’

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder released several Bush administration Office of Legal Counsel memos, which show the astonishing extent to which the administration expanded its wartime powers. An October 2001 memo from John Yoo, for example, states that the “Fourth Amendment would not apply” for domestic military operations. The memo also restricted basic First Amendment rights:
In perhaps the most surprising assertion, the Oct. 23, 2001, memo suggested the president could even suspend press freedoms if he concluded it was necessary to wage the war on terror. “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully,” Yoo wrote in the memo entitled “Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activity Within the United States.”
“Freedom of speech is integral to a free society,” President Bush said in May 2008. After reading the memos, Harpers’ Scott Horton wrote, “We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship.” LinkHere

EXECUTIVES AT CENTER OF HOUSING CRISIS CASH IN ON GOVT. BAILOUT WITH NEW COMPANY

"It's a his and her brand."

Obama Gets Strong Support in Poll

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama enjoys widespread backing from a frightened American public for his ambitious, front-loaded agenda, a new poll indicates.
He is more popular than ever, Americans are hopeful about his leadership, and opposition Republicans are getting drubbed in public opinion, the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll suggests.

=======

Also enjoying good numbers is first lady Michelle Obama, with 63% positive and 8% negative ratings. In September, her negative score was 31%, but her popularity has soared with her husband's, said Mr. Hart. "It's a his and her brand." LinkHere

'I'm proud to be an entertainer,' Rush said in 2003)

'I'm proud to be an entertainer,' Rush said in 2003Public views Bush more favorably than Limbaugh

Recent poll showed Bush with higher favorable rating than Limbaugh

Scritti Politti: March 3, 2009

Just to button up this rather Limbaugh heavy day, we'll turn to David Frum and Ross Douthat, who both, amid the ongoing "battle for the soul/future/secret sauce recipe/hip-hop identity of the Republican party," continue to articulate a space for sensibility and responsibility on their side of the schism. Both, one should note, seem perfectly capable of criticizing Limbaugh with a cutting deftness without surrendering either their conservative principles or their balls. These are two remarkably serious takes:
Frum, March 2, 2009:
On the one side, the president of the United States: soft-spoken and conciliatory, never angry, always invoking the recession and its victims. This president invokes the language of "responsibility," and in his own life seems to epitomize that ideal: He is physically honed and disciplined, his worst vice an occasional cigarette. He is at the same time an apparently devoted husband and father. Unsurprisingly, women voters trust and admire him.
And for the leader of the Republicans? A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as "losers." With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence - exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we're cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers cheering Rush's every rancorous word - we'll be seeing them rebroadcast for a long time.

Rush Limbaugh Ad: The Real GOP Leader (VIDEO)

Limbaugh in the Lead: A Gift for Obama

Looking for all the world like the sweating floor manager on the late afternoon shift at Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in an unbuttoned shiny black shirt and undersized sport coat, Rush Limbaugh leaned his meaty hands on the lectern at the CPAC conference and slipped a greasy dollar bill into the G-string of the writhing conservative dead-enders packed into the garishly lit Omni Shoreham in Washington DC.
Jowls rolling like thunder from the right via CNN's unfortunate high-definition feed, Limbaugh took control of the sad and tattered remnants of the mainstream conservative movement, and urged continued allegiance to the noble Lost Cause of Reagan, metaphorically carrying his rebel-yelling followers into the hills like modern-day Quantrill's Raiders standing firm against change.
If there's any doubt that the GOP's own Paulie Walnuts is now firmly in command of the Party of Lincoln, the "breaking news" style coverage of Limbaugh's bellow-cose rant dispelled the notion. CNN, for one, went wide - with the kind of uninterrupted live footage usually reserved for Presidents and Popes, followed by a panel of analysts to weigh and consider the import of the speech to this republic of ours. There were other dancers on the stage, to be sure - including Ward Connerly, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly and Karl Rove - but only Limbaugh's hour-long ramble (he went over by 30 minutes) garnered opposition leader status. "As the movement searches for a front-and-center spokesman to provide inspiration and direction, Limbaugh's refusal to tilt toward the center may place him out front in a Republican Party already suffering from a disappearing moderate wing," wrote LinkHere
GOP civil war 7:01
Guest host Roland Martin talks with his panel about their reaction to the Rush Limbaugh controversy.

AIG's Liddy, Greenberg Locked In Battle

Even as AIG posts its largest quarterly loss in the history of Wall Street, and announced it was accepting another $30 billion government infusion, the company is reeling from a battle between its founder and current CEO.
On Monday, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg filed a suit in federal court in Manhattan against the company, alleging it perpetrated securities fraud.
According to Bloomberg, he said: LinkHere

Arianna Talks Rush Limbaugh, Politics On The Rachel Maddow Show (VIDEO)

Arianna joined comedian Hal Sparks on The Rachel Maddow Show last night to discuss the fallout from Rush Limbaugh's controversial speech at CPAC and whether Republicans are secretly hoping for President Obama to fail. LinkHere

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Steele On Limbaugh: 'Yes, It's Incendiary. Yes, It's Ugly.'

Steele Bows Down To Limbaugh: ‘No Attempt On My Part To Diminish His Voice Or His Leadership’

Steele isn’t alone. Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) and Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) have previously dared to criticize Limbaugh but then quickly backed down. To quote Rush, a lot of Republicans are being told to “bend over and grab the ankles” for him.

Vanden Huevel rips Rove: ‘It’s laughable for you to talk about fiscal responsibility.’

Today on ABC’s This Week, Karl Rove slammed the cost of President Obama’s new budget. The Nation’s Katrina Vanden Heuvel quickly fired back at Rove’s newly-discovered sense of fiscal responsibility, observing that Rove and President Bush “helped plunge this nation into trillion dollars of debt”:
VANDEN HEUEVEL: But, Mr. Rove –
ROVE: Call me Karl.
VANDEN HEUVEL: It’s laughable for you to talk about fiscal responsibility from someone who helped plunge this nation into trillion dollars of debt, through tax cuts for the very rich and a war we never should have fought. And also starving the beast. Starving government has been a Republican role in terms of government. And, therefore, when George asks why government hasn’t functioned, people have not seen the role of government improving the conditions of their lives for decades. LinkHere

‘Fair and Balanced’ Fox News allows only Republicans to debate Obama’s budget.

This morning on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace welcomed Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to discuss President Obama’s budget plan — with not a single congressional Democrat or White House representative present to defend it. Predictably, Kyl and Ryan attacked Obama’s budget (Kyl called it “terrifying”); Fox News gave Obama’s critics an 15-plus minute opportunity to slam the budget without interruption.
Later in the show, Fox News panelist Juan Williams defended parts of the plan — but only after Bill Kristol, Brit Hume, and Chris Wallace alternated taking shots at it. LinkHere

GOP convention 'looked like Nazi Germany'

CNN's D.L. Hughley talked to Chuck D and RNC Chairman Michael Steele about the Republican Party's attempts to gain popularity in the black community.
Steele tried to establish his credibility with Chuck D by referencing the neighborhood where he grew up. "And what struck me about hip-hop as a genre, as music, as whatever you want to call it, a culture, was the fact that you have guys like yourself who come out of the projects, come off the street. Myself, I grew up on Eighth Street in DC. That's a whole different world from where I am right now," said Steele.
Chuck D offered a quick correction to Steele, "I grew up in Roosevelt, Long Island, it's not the projects. It's where black people live."
Hughley confronted Steele on the Republican's implementation of their big tent philosophy. "Well, Michael, I agree. I'm telling you, if it were the sign alone -- in other words, the tenets of the Republican Party are amazing and they seem warm and welcome. But when I watch it be applied -- like you didn't have to go much further than the Republican National Convention."
"Agreed," replied Steele."It literally look like Nazi Germany. It literally did. I make that point, not only are we not welcome -- not only are we not welcome, but they don't even care what we think," explained Hughley. LinkHere

Senator's secret ties to drugmakers exposed

GOP senator Orrin Hatch's charity tied to massive pharmaceutical donations

A charity founded by a senior Republican lawmaker who was a key ally to the pharmaceutical industry received more than $170,000 in 2007 from drugmakers, far in excess of campaign finance rules had the money been donated to him directly, leaked documents show.

The senator, Orrin Hatch (R-UT), founded Utah Families Foundation, the recipient of the gifts, though he doesn't serve on the foundation's board. But his son is now the chief lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the industry's lobbying group.

Hatch has received more money from the pharmaceutical industry than any other group, raking in $1.25 million since 1998. The latest sums, however, dwarf that of previous donations from individual corporations. In 2007, the foundation received $25,000 from Eli Lilly, $30,000 from Barr Pharmaceuticals, $25,000 from AstraZeneca and $40,000 from PhRMA. LinkHere

Former Blair aide says UK covering up Iraq war meetings

Minister says notes will show Blair cut off discussion on Iraq war

The British government has refused to release minutes of a cabinet meeting held by Prime Minister Tony Blair in the lead-up to the Iraq war, which a former cabinet member says is being done because there was "no discussion" on the merits of invading Iraq.

Former cabinet minister Clare Short, who resigned as the UK's International Development Secretary after the war began, told a UK newspaper for Sunday editions that the minutes have been withheld because there was no conversation about invading Iraq -- and in fact, says she was cut off when trying to bring it up.

Details of two meetings are being withheld: Details of cabinet meetings on Mar. 13 and Mar. 17, 2003. The Iraq war began Mar. 19, 2003.

Short says the reason that government isn't publishing minutes of the meetings is not about confidentiality but instead to hide a "scandalous" decision not to discuss the war in the first place. She says that when the Iraq war decision was brought up, then-Prime Minister Blair said, "That's it."

"It is extraordinary when you hear people like [Blair Foreign Secretary] Jack Straw say that the Cabinet minutes cannot be published because you have to preserve Cabinet confidentiality and robust decision-making," Short told the Daily Mail.

"The bitter irony is that what they are doing is concealing the fact there was no robust decision-making," Short added. "The minutes will reveal there was no real Cabinet discussion about the Iraq War. That is the real scandal." LinkHere

CIA DESTROYED 92 INTERROGATION TAPES

WASHINGTON — New documents show the CIA destroyed nearly 100 tapes of terror interrogations, far more than has previously been acknowledged.
The revelation Monday comes as a criminal prosecutor is wrapping up his investigation in the matter.
The acknowledgment of dozens of destroyed tapes came in a letter filed by government lawyers in New York, where the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit seeking more details of the Bush administration's terror interrogation programs following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
"The CIA can now identify the number of videotapes that were destroyed," said the letter by Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin. "Ninety two videotapes were destroyed."
ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said the CIA should be held in contempt of court for holding back the information for so long.
"The large number of videotapes destroyed confirms that the agency engaged in a systematic attempt to hide evidence of its illegal interrogations and to evade the court's order," Singh said in a statement.
The tapes also became a contentious issue in the trial of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, after prosecutors initially claimed no such recordings existed, then after the trial was over, they acknowledged two videotapes and one audiotape had been made.
The letter, dated March 2 to Judge Alvin Hellerstein, says the CIA is now gathering more details for the lawsuit, including a list of the destroyed records, any secondary accounts that describe the destroyed contents, and the identities of those who may have viewed or possessed the recordings before they were destroyed.
LinkHere

Are you Surprised? Their Hypocracy has no bounds.

ABC News:
Americans may paint themselves in increasingly bright shades of red and blue, but new research finds one thing that varies little across the nation: the liking for online pornography. Link Here

Report: Obama helicopter security breached

Pa. company says blueprints for Marine One found at Iran IP address

A company that monitors peer-to-peer file-sharing networks has discovered a potentially serious security breach involving President Barack Obama's helicopter, NBC affiliate WPXI in Pittsburgh reported Saturday.
Employees of Tiversa, a Cranberry Township, Pa.-based security company that specializes in peer-to-peer technology, reportedly found engineering and communications information about Marine One at an IP address in Tehran, Iran.
Bob Boback, CEO of Tiversa, told WPXI-TV: "We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One, which is the president's helicopter."

The company was able to trace the file back to its original source.
"What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, Md., had a file-sharing program on one of their systems that also contained highly sensitive blueprints for Marine One," Boback said.
Tiversa also found sensitive financial information about the cost of the helicopter on that same computer, WPXI-TV reported.
Someone from the company most likely downloaded a file-sharing program, typically used to exchange music, not realizing the potential problems, Boback said.
"When downloading one of these file-sharing programs, you are effectively allowing others around the world to access your hard drive," Boback said.
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, an adviser to Tiversa, said the company discovered exactly which computer the information came from. "I'm sure that person is embarrassed and may even lose their job, but we know where it came from and we know where it went."
Boback said the government was notified immediately. LinkHere

Gates: Obama is ‘more analytical’ than Bush.

Today, on NBC’s Meet the Press, host David Gregory asked Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to compare the “styles” and “temperaments” of Presidents Bush and Obama. Gates said Obama is “somewhat more analytical” than Bush, as Obama makes a concerted attempt to hear the views of every player involved in an issue: LinkHere

Obama, Reaching Outside the Bubble

A snippet from the end:While Obama eats (dinner), a team of three staff members works to compile his nightly briefing book. It is a weighty packet of government documents, memos, speeches and articles meant to prepare Obama for the next day. “You look at this and you think, ‘Wow, the number of issues that he is working on in depth in a given day is remarkable,’”said Brown, the staff secretary.
Around the time Obama finishes his dinner, a staff member delivers the briefing book to his residence. Its arrival announces the end of the president’s favorite part of the day, drawing him back to his new reality. He usually reads it late into the night, sometimes studying until 1 a.m.

Didn’t Bush go to bed every night at 9pm?

Rahm On Rush: He's The Voice, Energy And Intellect Of The GOP

Not missing any opportunity to make Rush Limbaugh the figurehead of the GOP, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel called the brash talk show host the "voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party" on Sunday.
Appearing on CBS's Face The Nation, Emanuel brought up Limbaugh without being prompted. Applauding the conservative radio personality for being upfront in his desire to see the president fail, Emanuel went to great lengths to make the case that Limbaugh, more than any other contemporary figure, is the leader of the GOP. LinkHere