Rush Derangement Syndrome

At Michelle Malkin's site.

(No, not Limbaugh Derangement Syndrome -- there's more than one Limbaugh offering conservative punditry, and besides, LDS is in use for something else.)

An interesting point has to do with the contempt the Party Elites have for Rush. 

One aspect of Rush Derangement Syndrome I didn't have more room to cover in the piece was the contempt for Rush and talk radio among Beltway establishment Republicans and elitists on the center/Right. I've blogged extensively about talk radio-bashing hypocrites such as P.J. O'Rourke, Phil Gramm, Lindsay "Go away, Loud Folks" Graham, and Trent Lott. I asked Rush to diagnose their pathology. "I think they all crave acceptance and inclusion in the dominant political and social cultures of Washington, which is run by the Left. They fastest way to do that is to be critical of their own party. This gets them loving treatment in 'important' New York/Washington media circles," he said.

On-target diagnosis. I would add two more etiological factors.

1) Rush is not an Ivy Leaguer with an East Coast, Mayflower pedigree. He's a self-made entrepreneur who pulled no strings and owes no Beltway benefactors for his success. The same, self-styled intellectual protectors of conservatism in the Manhattan-Bethesda corridor who derided outsider Sarah Palin have always derided Rush Limbaugh for the same reasons: They're not one of "us."

I've noted the ugly, anti-capitalist rhetoric used by Rush-bashers like Obama's demagogic smear ad during the presidential campaign. He's using it in responding to the Soros/MoveOn smear ad. And he'll be using it to spread the message of fiscal conservatism to fight the wealth-distributionism agenda of both the White House and the Bend Over Republicans.