The work Limbaugh did to interfere in the 2008 primaries was not a Limbaugh operation, it was probably a Rove/GOP operation. Rove was still in the White House coordinating GOP political operations through the think tanks that feed the talk radio megaphone every day.
Limbaugh is merely the point man and gets first dibs. He can decide to take credit of blame someone else if things go wrong. He may even have pissed Rove off for claiming credit. The whole thing may have gone unnoticed by the Left and the MSM if he hadn't claimed credit.
The actual voting was likely done by what are now commonly called teabaggers, but have always been the talk radio base, or 'dittoheads'. If Rove hadn't lost the White House they may never have been given bus passes by Dick Armey and the Kochs and might still have been working their invisible magic from the Limbaugh closet.
Regardless of what the real effects of interfering in primaries like this are THERE IS NO WAY TO KNOW because there is no written record to study. There is no record of how many national and local right wing talkers were encouraging interference voting and for how long and in how many races.
How long did it take before Limbaugh's efforts were noticed? My memory is lousy on this but it seems Limbaugh was encouraging interference in a number of states. The local and national talkers follow his lead and probably even got talking points from the think tanks to help coordinate. There were probably paid callers to grease the topic and 'get out the vote'.
I think I remember yelling at the talking heads that were ignoring or downplaying the interference while it was happening. It may have helped Hillary in a number of states. Whether or not the effect was positive or negative in the long run for Dems can be debated but Kos is right to suggest playing the same game. It is a problem in elections and a problem for Dems if the GOP can interfere to sabotage them. And they can do it more easily because they have their dittohead/teabagger army ready to obey aural orders.
How many primaries will the GOP interfere in to help progressive candidates lose to blue dogs? And then the Left blames something or somebody else.
Doing it back to them is one way to draw attention to the problem and hopefully find a fix for it.
That the Democratic Party or some mighty Left organization has not provided a searchable database of what the main (and coordinated) national and local right wing radio talkers are repeating over and over and over continues to be a 20 year long crying shame. Analyzing in a talk radio vacuum and playing political catch-up all the time is a monumental political blunder that will continue to waste countless volunteer hours and small donations. Especially with Citizens United and global warming coming on. The right's most important weapon will once again be practically invisible to those who read and watch- until they can read and watch the effects.
This is another perfect example of how ignoring the radio is such a huge mistake.
PS On the same topic..... Just heard, in defending Santorum from Sen Alan Simpson's criticism, Limbaugh points out Simpson didn't pronounce 'bestiality' correctly even though Simpson should know about sex with animals- since he comes from Wyoming).