Is Rush Too Big to Fail?

In the wake of his "slut" remarks, Rush Limbaugh's advertisers are fleeing like rats from a burning Spanish Galleon. Given the size of this Moby Dick (pun intended), I suspect Limbaugh is "Too Big to Fail."

Maybe not. Time's Joe Klein wonders whether he has "reached an Imus-like tipping point, where his power and audience will be severely curtailed." Goodness -- wouldn't that be a gift to all mankind. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Neither is Klein:

It certainly is a result devoutly to be wished. Rush is a nihilist demagogue who has had a negative impact on American democracy, and particularly on the Republican Party. ... [But] Rush’s audience [unlike Imus'] is an ideological cult. It has a primal coherence. It loves the wack stuff Limbaugh says, and will probably love it even more now that the Liberal Eastern Establishment advertisers have called in their chits. ... I suspect El Rushbo is going nowhere, unfortunately."

Klein is probably right. He added: "But it sure is fun to watch him grovel." That it is.