FATS AND SLOTS GO WAY BACK

As I was looking for David Brock writing about Ann Coulter, I stumbled across this, courtesy of Lexis-Nexis:

The American Spectator

September, 1992

Rush Limbaugh: Talking Back;
Conservatism's media superweapon.

BYLINE: Terry Eastland;
Terry Eastland, our regular Presswatch columnist, is resident fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and author of the new book Energy in the Executive: The Case for the Strong Presidency (The Free Press).
SECTION: FEATURE
LENGTH: 6694 words

Likewise, last July, when William Bennett made his first appearance as a Heritage Foundation fellow in that institution's Policy Review, he did so not as an interviewee, but as an interviewer . . . of Rush Limbaugh. The questions included: "What accounts for Ross Perot's popularity?" "What are the most important issues for the elections this year?" "How would you cut the $400-billion deficit?" "Are you worried about our third century . . . about the balkanization of American life . . . about radical feminism?" It's rare that a radio personality gets to answer such substantive questions--especially a college dropout like Limbaugh.

Of Limbaugh, never short of superlatives to describe himself, Bennett says, as though he were on the show, "He is possibly our greatest living American."

Bennett went even further in a article that appeared in the National Review in 1993.

August 1, 2003, 10:40 p.m.
The Leader of the Opposition
Meet Rush.

By James Bowman


EDITOR'S NOTE: August 1, 2003, marks the 15th anniversary of The Rush Limbaugh Show. In the September 6, 1993, issue of National Review James Bowman wrote about Limbaugh, his role in broadcast media, and leadership among conservatives. Bowman's article, an NR cover story, is reprinted here.

...William Bennett, who must take the prize as the most convinced Rushophile among Republican leaders. He has gone from being a listener to the show, to being an occasional contributor by phone, to being a close personal friend and something of an intellectual mentor. Rush, says Bennett, "may be the most consequential person in political life at the moment. He is changing the terms of debate. He is doing to the culture what Ronald Reagan did to the political movement. He tells his audience that what you believe inside you can talk about in the marketplace. People were afraid of censure by gay activists, feminists, environmentalists — now they are not because Rush takes them on. And he does it with humor. We have a reputation as somewhat prim and priggish, and Rush is absolute death to liberals: a conservative with humor."

Yes, but . . . Is Limbaugh really an homme serieux, a man with the gravitas to be a — let alone the — republican leader? A lot of very wealthy Republicans consider themselves sophisticated beyond the Limbaugh types," Bennett goes on. "They miss the point. Rush is extremely sophisticated, extremely smart. The great thing is that, never having been through a university, he is not complicated with pedanticism. He's very serious intellectually. He knows how to frame an issue, how to debate an issue, how to argue ad finem and ad absurdum. He does both. But he is larger than a leader of the political opposition. He represents a shift in the culture. Another ten years of the political change he stands for will take us beyond Republicans and Democrats."