The elected Republicans, the ones holding offices, hate his guts over all. He has too much influence, does not negotiate and cannot be voted out.

The Leader himself could not get elected dog catcher. He flunked out of covering football after a few weeks. The Leader's thing is being a radio blowhard for dyspeptic old white guys.

Republicans disagree with him at their peril.

It is jolly good fun making him the Republican Boss-man.

Congratulations to Carville, Begala, Emmanuel and whoever else is spearheading this hilarity.

The problem with Carville (and Begala) is that he will be forever tied into Emanuel because of their publicized daily phone calls. And thus every thing he says or does will be tied to the Obama Administration.

Anything Carville does, it was with by Chief of Staff Emanuel. This poll is Rahm Emanuel's poll, straight out of the White House, on a infotainment show and scores a partisan jab - straight out of the White House.

Who made the phone calls common knowledge anyways? It was Begala right? Carville is to smart to let that news out, and it hurts Stephanopolis credibility so he wouldn't have wanted that out there. Rahm gains nothing from it being known either. It had to be Begala.

We really have a chicken/egg scenario playing out here. The Lump has been gathering his lemmings for a long time now, it is hard to tell just how popular he really is. I know a dozen serious progressives who ALWAYS tune in, adding to his ratings, because he reliably represents the pernicious talking points they will have to deal with all day at the water cooler.

So I suggest that many of his "listeners" are fraudenschaders listening for another cringe-evoking comment, or they are armchair political tacticians, boning up on the daily drivel so they can embarrass the lemmings (AKA Dittoheads) in the daily debate.

I sincerely doubt all of The Lump's listeners are doing so because they LIKE him. I can't tune him in, especially if I've had any coffee (which means ALWAYS), so I can't tell you what he has ever said. But like I said, I know a big list of progressives who listen in just to know what sort of ignorant yammering they will have to argue with that day.

Funny, that's *exactly* the point Obama was making when he suggested that Congressional Republicans need to stop listening to Limbaugh.

this doesnt matter.
he is strong with the idiots he gets payed to influence.
thats all that matters to the corporate rats that pay him.

and remember that controll of voting blocks is what it is all about.

the only way to hurt the repugs over this was my suggestion to incorporate his failure statements into an attack on the military and then bring the resolution to the floor for a vote!

So the poll says that 41% of independents think Rush's influence on the GOP is either just right or too little (29% + 12%). Versus 50% that think he exerts too much influence...

Hardly a blowout, no?

"voting blocks is what it is all about."

Do they really believe that "block" is going to grow? It may represent a multi-million member drive-time listenership, but those are small numbers compared to the electorate as a whole.

And of those 5 million, how many of them are considered by their associates to have any measurable intellectual bandwidth?

Why is it, most of us who claim the label "progressive" (at least in my own experience) see most Dittoheads as brick-brained knuckle-draggers who are too easily led around by their inflatable appendages? The same kind of people who would never call or write their Congressperson concerning moral issues of war and famine and pestilence, but they will robocall the same lawmakers when they even lightly criticize The Lump.

So, if that is what actually makes up The Lump's base, it will only bode well for Progressives in the election seasons to come.

Oh for the love of... Do you people ever consider the possibility this poll is rigged? Especially considering that these people have made a special effort over time and with planning to discredit the target of this poll.

How gullible are you people? I think the applicable phrase is "mind numbed robots". Should you ever get off you collective duff and read the actual poll you'll see that the sample consists of 50% Dems to 42% Pubs. Gee, what a surprise.

It also includes the really stunning result that 55% of all the respondents think the country is on the wrong track. Apparently the majority agree with Limbaugh. Heh.

"position themselves to act for the broader electorate."

Would that be what he means by "ankle-grabbers?"

Shooter: 'Rigged'? Right. 50-42 Democrats over Republicans doesn't go far enough. It should have been more like 53-39 to reflect the parties' true support in the country. And as far as 55 percent wrong-track goes ... before Obama took over it was about 85. Give it up.

james carville & stan greenberg's outfit? & you're gloating over their corrupted data? you so-called liberals are greater fools ...

BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA

In order to gain the political power they've enjoyed over the last ten years, Republican moderates and Reagan conservatives made a pact with the devil (faux Christians and Limbaugh’s radical and pliable right wing misanthropes and bigots) to achieve the numbers they needed to defeat Democrats. It was a conscious political decision to manipulate and exploit ignorance and irrational fears in order to win elections rather than being intellectually and morally honest and lose them.

Today, those Republican moderates and Reagan conservatives are caught between wanting to disassociate themselves with and or casting out the devils they empowered, and the karmic reality that they don’t have the numbers to hold on to or regain power without accepting and even falsely "advocating" values that are dividing and destroying their party. The survival of today's shrinking Republican Party has become so dependent on extremism, that they have no significant political power WITH or WITHOUT the support of America's most dysfunctional lunatic fringe.

The idiom about choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea is certainly appropriate as Republicans are facing the dilemma of choosing between two equally undesirable alternatives that both result in Republican impotence in mainstream American politics. They are reaping the consequences of what they have sown. Deifying George W. Bush cost them their credibility. Sucking up to Rush Limbaugh is costing them their viability.

Here are the numbers that the Republicans are focused on:

20 MILLION LISTENERS = 20 MILLION (potential) VOTERS

That's why the Republican critics have to apologize to him.

( will David Frum apologize? I wonder)

Democrats were somehow unable to support and promote Air America so that their party could claim 20 million listeners. Sad.