Rushing Offense

The White House thinks it has a great strategy in going after Rush Limbaugh. It's either working or it's giving the GOP a second wind.

Let me offer another strategy. Why not offer Limbaugh a job in the Obama Administration? Make him a communications director. Make him some undersecretary in Commerce. Invent a position if you have to -- just make him an offer. Yeah, it's nuts. But Barack Obama has nominated other Republicans, so why not throw some love to the so-called voice of the party?

We know Rush will never take the job. He has too much fun behind the mic, and he's in no mood to let the government shackle his mouth.

His refusal of the offer would give Team Obama another weapon: they can now say they offered the olive branch in the spirit of bipartisanship and saw themselves rejected. They can now boldly call Rush what he is: not some partisan figurehead or policy specialist but merely a guy who's paid to say things on the radio. His status as opposition leader comes from a listenership that wishes to elevate him above his level of accountability. Nobody voted to put Rush on the air. Nobody will vote him off. He has one job: make money for his affiliates and advertisers.

Rush knows the game and plays it: say things that get picked up on the cable news outlets and then milk the moment. For all his complaining about the "drive-by media," it's that drive-by tactic that brings him the ears. Off the dial, he's secretly kissing the feet of the networks. They feed his machine.

So does the Obama administration by targeting him. President Bill Clinton's 1994 "no truth detector" hissy fit on St. Louis powerhouse KMOX inflated Rush's ratings. It's happening again.

The best response, in my independent opinion as a former Rush listener, is to ignore him. If his name comes up during the daily White House presser, the response should be: "We think Rush does a great job talking on the radio, but he's not an elected official. He's a radio entertainer. You don't ask us questions about what Jay Leno said last night, do you?"

So what if Limbaugh claims to speak for conservatives? He's still one guy. Conservatives have their representatives in Congress. They have their voters spread out through this nation. Conservatives are more than capable of using phones, e-mail, Blackberries, Twitter, Qik or whatever to reach out to their representatives. They don't need Rush to be heard. They can talk for themselves. After all, a core plank of the conservative philosophy is taking individual responsibility and initiative and not relying on others to do it for you.