Rush Limbaugh touts what appears to be the right-wing version of The Daily Show. (Thanks -- I think -- to advisorjim at Daily Kos for pointing this out.) With a title like The Half Hour News Hour and with guests like Rush and that bulimic vampire Ann Coulter, the show will no doubt combine the sophistication and wit of The Beverly Hillbillies with the grace and compassion of Howard Stern. Well, I’m not here to take cheap shots (not too many of them, anyway) at the right wing’s alleged sense of humor. But the transcript of the big fat idiot’s remarks about the cast party expose him as the elitist he is.
The next sentence is not for the squeamish. In the transcript on his web site (now available to 24/7 members only) the Rushter crows about the “hilarious” sketch where he is President and Coulter is Vice-president. He goes on to regale us with tales of the cast party at the Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills. The Havana Room is, he assures us, the “last outpost of civility,” presumably because one can smoke cigars there.
What he doesn’t mention is that this final frontier of gentility has also been called “Hollywood’s newest exclusive getaway.” Nor does he mention that an individual membership requires a $3000 fee and $200 a month in dues. The very nearly Roman decadence of the private humidor ($2000 plus $150 a month) also goes unremarked upon. Since only members and guests may enjoy the rarified air of cigar smoke and Hollywood gossip, and since members include celebs like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson, Robert DeNiro, and Milton Berle, it’s a safe bet that no dittohead will darken the club doors. In short, dittoheads need not apply.
Rush doesn’t mind, though. A man who sits in the comfort of a studio inciting war fever needs a haven from his own rabble. But does he have to rub their noses in it? He treats his legions as children with faces pressed against an F.A.O. Schwarz window at Christmas time. He plays behind the window with his friends in full view, taking time to occasionally inform the masses about what a “blast” he is having, welcoming them to enjoy it vicariously.