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Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot (Franken)Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations (by Al Franken)
I go to each new book as a learning experience*, and what I'd learned by page 20 of this one is that anyone who takes Limbaugh seriously, anyone who thinks that what he's doing is anything other than a gimmick he's discovered to make money, that person is actually the idiot.
Granted, Limbaugh is a fairly disturbed person (who, in a better-organized society, would be getting the professional help he needs) but most of the bile he spews is just "material" for the act he's putting on.
(* I didn't actually expect to learn much from this one. I read it mainly by way of background before tackling Lies. In case you find that odd, let me point out that reading "topical" commentary and opinions on things that happened eight or more years ago is an excellent way to determine how much faith to put in what a writer is writing today. You have just enough "historical context" without having lost so much time that you've forgotten the actual details of what really happened yourself.)
Anyhow. The book.
I also learned (see chapter 30) that Pat Buchanan is a rather less attractive personality that I'd previously believed, and my opinion of him was already scraping the bottom of the barrel.
But I struck paydirt on Alan Keyes, the guy the Right has hauled out and dusted off to compete with Barak Obama.
It's one thing to be anti-abortion (and I can sympathize more than you'd suspect with that position). It's another to be an obsessive nut on the subject. I mean, in his past runs for office, has he run on any issue besides being anti-abortion? It's all about that. The loss of the country's "moral values" and his attempts to institutionalize his religion in our government and all of it. It's all mainly about abortion.
When you read that a fringe candidate has threatened to commit suicide if he's not allowed to participate in pre-polling day debates, you have to ask yourself, seriously, if the world doesn't have enough problems with lunatics being put in charge of anything bigger than a golf ball.
Anyhow. The book's a bit dated but it's certainly worth checking out of your library for a superficial rundown on some major Republican movers and shakers. If you can't remember exactly why you loathe Newt Gingrich, this book will remind you.