Blog: Limbaugh has to 'Eat Crow' and 'Humble Pie' for Dessert

Never thought I’d live to see the day when he’d get his comeuppance and ever admit to having pushed the envelope too far in his broadcasts on Clear Channel’s Premiere Radio Networks, when he lambasted a Georgetown University law student for her having testified to congressional Democrats in support of contraception.

That channel is, so it claims, the largest radio content provider in the country,  operating 850 radio stations in the U.S. and syndicating its programs to more than 5,000 affiliate stations.

And interestingly, its parent company was taken private in 2008 by an investment firm of notoriety in the Republican presidential campaign, Bain Capital. So, it’s not surprising that Romney downplayed Limbaugh’s tirade against her by simply saying, “that were not the words (slut and prostitute) I would have used.” And with nary a rebuke by the other candidates.

And I wonder if my favorite radio shows I listened religiously to as a kid-a la Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy, The Shadow, Tom Mix and the Green Hornet-ever met or surpassed the number of listeners he has.

Or, I should say had, what with the advertisers of his program fleeing in droves to avoid being associated, as one indicated, with his ranting and raving like a maniac for three days in a row, and going so far as to claim he, not her, had become the victim in the episode

And his so-called apology to that student-who told it like it is regarding the importance of contraception to women health came across as being as insincere as a fox apologizing for not knocking before entering the chicken house.

Now, you’d think I’d be shocked proof in seeing, as I have in my lifetime such asinine behavior and name-calling by others in the public limelight. For example, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson placing responsibility for such catastrophic events as the 9/11 attack, Katrina and tsunamis on the gays, feminists, abortionists, and the ACLU. 

And U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey referring to Rep. Barney Frank as “Barney Fag” in a 1965 radio interview.

But the most vivid memory I have of where the line was not only crossed but erased, was the infamous, nonsensical “Daisy” campaign ad run by Democrats in 1964, showing a young girl picking flowers, followed by the image of a nuclear blast intended to depict Republican Barry Goldwater as a warmonger, playing off of our fears of a nuclear war.

The open-ended question is: will there be enough pressure brought to bear on the Clear Channel networks by its investors and the public to suspend or cancel his contract that runs untill 2016?

Wouldn’t that be something if he were to suffer the same fate as his fellow purveyor of fear Glenn Beck, whose angry broadcasts about the nation’s imminent doom and ominous conspiracies ultimately brought about his demise on Fox News?

A Hollywood script writer couldn’t come up with a more apt title for a screenplay made of it than one titled: When the Mighty have Fallen.

To quote Buddha, “holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; and you are the one who gets burned.”