Hogging The Spotlight.

      Rush Limbaugh smells. Oops! I mean he smells ratings.

      From RushLimbaugh.com, here's Limbaugh railing against Barack Obama and Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, as well as former Clinton insiders James Carville and Paul Bagala:

     My point here is that these are really odious, empty, nasty people who are feasting on their own arrogance.  They are power hungry.  But, you know what?  They've never had a serious debate over ideas.  Their goal is to destroy opponents, which is what they're trying to do now.  They don't want to engage opponents.  Their idea of victory is the destruction of the opponent.  They're not for a level playing field.  They want to clear the playing field so that their ideas do not have to undergo any scrutiny.  So what do they do?  They leak stories to The Politico intended to create impressions about their own importance and their brilliance, when in fact they aren't even bit players on the nation's stage.  This is Emanuel, and this is Obama.  

     But I have an idea.  If these guys are so impressed with themselves, and if they are so sure of their correctness, why doesn't President Obama come on my show?  We will do a one-on-one debate of ideas and policies.  Now, his people in this Politico story, it's on the record.  They're claiming they wanted me all along.  They wanted me to be the focus of attention. So let's have the debate! I am offering President Obama to come on this program -- without staffers, without a teleprompter, without note cards -- to debate me on the issues.

     From Jonathan Martin of Politico: 

     Top Democrats believe they have struck political gold by depicting Rush Limbaugh as the new face of the Republican Party, a full-scale effort first hatched by some of the most familiar names in politics and now being guided in part from inside the White House. 

     The strategy took shape after Democratic strategists Stanley Greenberg and James Carville included Limbaugh’s name in an October poll and learned their longtime tormentor was deeply unpopular with many Americans, especially younger voters. Then the conservative talk-radio host emerged as an unapologetic critic of Barack Obama shortly before his inauguration, when even many Republicans were showering him with praise. 

     Soon it clicked: Democrats realized they could roll out a new GOP bogeyman for the post-Bush era by turning to an old one in Limbaugh, a polarizing figure since he rose to prominence in the 1990s. 

Limbaugh is embracing the line of attack, suggesting a certain symbiosis between him and his political adversaries. 

     "The administration is enabling me,” he wrote in an e-mail to POLITICO. “They are expanding my profile, expanding my audience and expanding my influence. An ever larger number of people are now being exposed to the antidote to Obamaism: conservatism, as articulated by me. An ever larger number of people are now exposed to substantive warnings, analysis and criticism of Obama's policies and intentions, a ‘story’ I own because the [mainstream media] is largely the Obama Press Office.”  

     From the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: 

     Last week, Rush Limbaugh actually said that he "hopes" President Obama fails to meet America’s challenges:

     Jobs, health care, our place in the world — the stakes for our nation are high and every American needs President Obama to succeed.

     Stand strong against Rush Limbaugh’s Attacks — sign our petition, telling Rush what you think of his attacks on President Obama. We’ll send Limbaugh your comments.

     More from Limbaugh's website:  

     That's the union bunch. Can you just see...? (laughing) "Call the Republican leadership and say no to Limbaugh."  (laughing)  Now, ladies and gentlemen, the Politico story today.  I got an e-mail last night from the writer of the story, Jonathan Martin, who did not tell me the full details of what the story they were working on was.  He did not tell me that they have discovered that there is a team inside the White House targeting me and that they've been doing this since last fall, when they went out and did some polling data and found out I've got very high negatives among certain groups. So they thought, "Well, this is the guy to demonize! Since Bush is leaving, we need somebody," and so this is being led from the White House.  There is an orchestrated attack, daily drumbeat on me from the White House.  The participants here are James Carville, Paul Begala and Rahm Emanuel.   
     But make no mistake about it. Emanuel is the leader of all of this. Carville and Begala are just trying to ride my fame into their fortune and become relevant again.  Begala and Carville, don't confuse them with the power brokers that are managing this.  It all Emanuel.  Begala and Carville are second-rate talking heads on CNN.  CNN has no audience.  Rahm Emanuel is the power behind the throne -- and don't let his effeminate nature and his ballerina past mislead you on this.  He may look effeminate (he was a ballerina at one time) but he has the feral instincts of a female rat defending its young.  Well, take a look.  When Emanuel and Carville and Begala are together (and I've seen pictures) it looks like a reunion of the Village People. (singing)  Y! M! C! A!  They are really the official greeters in Roswell, New Mexico, in Area 51 where Carville was born.  

     As an avid watcher of politics and media, I admit to a guilty pleasure in watching this duel between the brand-new Obama team and the Big & Sweaty Swami of the GOP Confederacy.  Maybe I have a cruel streak, but it's fun to see the Republican Party personified by a doctor-shopping, pill-popping, Parkinson-mocking, cigar-chomping, pinkie ring-rocking buffoon such as Rush Limbaugh. 

     While Limbaugh keeps his party distracted and contracting, President Obama should just keep on keeping on.