Normally, I'd be all like, "what digby sez"

But, damn!

We'll have to see if the country at large wants to take a trip to Limbaughland in the general, but if I had to guess, I'd say Rush's schtick is way tired except to the hardocre talk radio haters. To the public at large it sounds like political Hootie and the Blowfish --- a bunch of bad songs that were way overplayed and are now hideous reminders of an era that's mercifully passed.

I mean, granted, Hootie and the Blowfish suck, but their bland inoffensiveness only set rock back a couple of years. Rush and his followers' toxicity threatens to take us back to the Gilded Age.

To put it another way: the rare times I do hear "I Only Want to Be with You," I'm whisked back to a not-unpleasant memory of a drunken college makeout session with a cute but not-so-bright young woman. The rare times I listen to a Rush monologue, I'm plunged into the horrible realization that this man created the giant clusterfuck we're facing today. Game, set, and match to Hootie.

digby's point is well-taken, but those Hootie kids seem so nice - even if they were mind-numbingly boring - it just doesn't seem right to compare them to the talk radio hate parade.